Storage Yard Manager › Storage on farm land
For farms storing caravans, motorhomes and boatsThe caravans are the easy bit.
Everyone tells you what spare ground is worth with vans on it. Nobody tells you about year two: sixty renewal dates, sixty insurance certificates, and sixty people who all pay at different points in the year.
Storage Yard Manager is the software for that part — built for a working caravan storage yard that used to run on a spreadsheet.
What year two actually looks like
- Sixty renewal dates. They didn't all start in January. Every van has its own anniversary, and each one is money you have to remember to ask for — or income you quietly lose.
- Sixty insurance certificates. Every van should be insured by its owner. If one isn't when something happens on your land, you find out in the worst possible way. A spreadsheet of expiry dates works right up until you stop looking at it.
- Sixty people paying differently. Cash, bank transfer, a cheque from the one who always pays by cheque. Working out who is actually late means an evening with a bank statement.
- And it isn't your main job. The storage is the side line. It gets done in the evening, in the gaps, and it's always the thing that slips — which is exactly why it needs to nag you rather than the other way round.
What it does about it
- The paddock, as a map. Green means paid, red means overdue, white means empty. On the computer in the farm office — or on your phone, standing in the field.
- Insurance dates warn you — on the dashboard 30 days out, with a reminder to the van's owner.
- The late list sorts itself, worst first, and every chase is noted on the customer's record so you never ask the same person twice.
- Reminders can go by themselves before rent is due and after it's late, if you switch them on.
- A dated diary for what the council said, when the gate code changed, and who promised to move their boat by Friday.
- Exports to a spreadsheet, or in the shape Xero and QuickBooks import, for whoever does your books.
Questions farms ask
We've only got 30 vans. Is it worth it?
It's the same price per yard, and it's quicker to set up. Whether it's worth it at 30 vans is a fair question — try it free for 30 days and decide with your own data in front of you.
Does it handle boats and trailers too?
Yes. Vehicles are recorded as caravans, motorhomes, boats, trailers or something else — a horsebox is fine — and plots, customers, money and dates work the same way for all of them.
There's no signal in the bottom field.
It's built light on purpose — small pages, big buttons, quick on a patchy 4G signal — and it adds to your phone's home screen like an app. It does need a connection to save something, so a genuine notspot is a genuine notspot; most of the yard usually isn't.
Can the person who does our books get in?
Up to five logins are included. Staff logins get the day-to-day screens, including payments; a supervisor login can also message the whole yard; settings, billing, backups and exports are kept to owners and admins. Or give your bookkeeper the Xero or QuickBooks export and let them stay where they are.
What about planning permission and business rates?
Genuinely outside what software can advise on, and it varies by council — talk to a rural surveyor or your local planning department before you put a single van on the ground.
Have a look round a real one.
A fully loaded demo yard with 102 plots and overdue accounts. No signup, no email address, nothing to install.