Questions dealers ask us.
The ones that come up on almost every call, including the answers that are no.
The basics
- What is Towmo?
- Towmo is dealer management software for trailer dealerships. Inventory, sales, rentals, service, parts, customers and your dealer website run on one set of records. The alternative is a spreadsheet, a rental calendar and a revenue report that disagree with each other. I have run that way. We built this to stop.
- Who is Towmo for?
- Independent trailer dealers. The ones selling and renting cargo, utility, dump, equipment, deckover and gooseneck trailers. I run one in Nebraska. Towmo is the first system I have used that was shaped around how a small lot actually runs instead of a franchise auto store.
- Who built it?
- A trailer dealer and an engineer. I own a trailer dealership in Omaha and had been sold the world by dealer software that never fit my lot. Tyler and I worked together at a distributor before any of this. He built it. I run my dealership on it.
- Do we have to rent trailers to use it?
- No. Plenty of dealers only sell. The rental side is there when you want it. If you do both, it is the reason to look at us, because most systems make you pick one. And if you only rent, there is a plan for that at $149 a month.
Pricing and terms
- What does Towmo cost?
- $499 a month for the whole system, plus a one-time $499 setup fee. That covers sales, rentals, service, CRM, inventory, parts and your dealer website. If you only rent trailers, there is a rentals-only plan at $149 a month with a $149 setup fee, website included.
- What does the setup fee cover?
- Getting you configured and moving your customers, units, parts, order history and service history off your current system. Charged once: $499 on the full system, $149 on the rentals-only plan. Nothing else on top of the monthly price.
- Do you charge per user?
- No. Add your whole team at no extra cost. Charging a four-person lot per login for putting a part-timer on the system is backwards.
- Is there a contract?
- No. Month-to-month, cancel any time.
- What are the card fees?
- Card processing runs through eCrypt / Preferred Payments and the rate is set with them, not by us. Ask us on the demo and we will walk you through it against what you pay today. It is the first question most dealers ask, and it should be.
Switching to Towmo
- Can you move our data across?
- Yes, covered by the setup fee. Customers, units, parts, your rental fleet, order history and service history all come across, with the photos and documents attached. You review what landed before anything goes live. I moved my own dealership twice, and the second time we pulled from two systems at once and merged them instead of stacking up duplicates.
- Can we keep our current system running while we switch?
- Yes, and you should. A dealer we demoed to put it best: run the new one in the back door for a month, double-enter, and compare month-end sales tax. When the numbers match, turn the old one off.
- What if our data is messy?
- It is. Everyone's is. Photos, part numbers and old descriptions never come across perfectly. That is why you review the imported data and send it back before go-live, not after. And the import runs dry first, so mapping problems show up before they reach your records.
What it does
- Does it handle service and work orders?
- Yes. Work orders bill labor, parts and shop supplies against the unit's own record. The service history stays on the trailer, not in a binder.
- Does it do parts inventory and barcodes?
- Yes. Parts carry on-hand quantities, reorder points and barcodes.
- Can I search for a specific part or unit from anywhere?
- Yes. There is one search bar, and it works from every screen. Going back and forth between menus to find something is a pain in the butt. We took that out.
- Do we get a website?
- Yes, on your own domain, included in the monthly price. Your inventory and rental availability publish to it from the same records your staff use. The site cannot drift out of date.
- Can customers book a rental online?
- Yes. They pick dates, sign the rental agreement and pay a deposit by card. Nobody at the dealership has to pick up the phone.
- Does it calculate sales tax?
- Yes. Tax and fees resolve by state on the document. Nobody types them in.
- Can we control what each employee sees?
- Yes. Roles decide what each person can see and do, including whether they see unit cost and margin. The owner sees everything. The service guy sees his stuff.
Payments and accounting
- Can we take card payments?
- Yes. In person on a countertop terminal, online at checkout, and over the counter. Cards can be saved to a customer so a repeat renter does not re-enter them.
- Do you integrate with Clover?
- No. Card processing runs through eCrypt / Preferred Payments, which covers in-person terminals, online checkout and saved cards. If you are on Clover today, this is the one part of your setup that changes.
- Does it sync with QuickBooks?
- Yes, QuickBooks Online. Invoices, payments and refunds sync across from sales, rentals and service, and so do your vendor bills. Your accountant works from the books, not from a stack of exports.
- Can customers sign contracts electronically?
- Yes. Rental agreements and sales paperwork can be signed online. The signed copy is stored on the record it belongs to.
Day to day
- Is there a mobile app?
- There is no separate app to install. Towmo runs in your phone's browser. Pull up a unit or a customer from the lot with nothing to download or keep updated.
- Can we run it on more than one screen?
- Yes. It is a browser. Open the unit on one screen and the customer on the other.
- Can we text customers?
- Not from inside Towmo yet. Review requests go out by email today. I send mine by text from my own phone because the response rate is about ten times higher, and that is why texting is next on my list, not somebody else's.
- How do we get help?
- Raise a ticket from inside Towmo and it reaches us directly. You are not in a queue behind a thousand car dealerships. When something breaks we fix it permanently, not for a day. If you cannot get into the system, or it is a billing question, email [email protected] and you will reach the same people.
- What happens to the things we ask for?
- You want something added? Most likely we can get it added. Your ticket says where it stands: found it, fixed it, or still trying to recreate it. And when the answer is no, it is not a never. It is a not now.
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