After-sales repairs, plans and call-outs in the ledger

How the Manufacturing pack invoices installation, maintenance plans, out-of-warranty repairs and call-outs so they post apart from product sales.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Manufacturing businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

Many manufacturers start selling service almost by accident. A customer asks for help installing a machine, then for a service visit, then for a maintenance contract. A few years later the after-sales team has its own technicians and vehicles, but in the accounts its income is still mixed in with product sales. Nobody can say whether service makes money, or whether it is quietly subsidised by the factory.

The fix is not complicated: give after-sales income its own accounts, and make every invoice line say what it is selling. When a manufacturer switches on the Manufacturing & distribution pack in Achekam's Industry CRM, that structure is set up from the start. This article explains what is added, how invoices post, and what you still decide yourself.

The after-sales items in the starter catalogue

Switching on an industry pack adds that industry's revenue accounts to your chart of accounts and its starter items to your catalogue. For manufacturing, the after-sales items are:

• installation;
• commissioning;
• service visits;
• maintenance plans;
• out-of-warranty repairs; and
• call-outs.

They post to two revenue accounts the pack adds, 4350 and 4360, rather than to the account your product sales use.

If one of those account codes is already used in your chart for a different type of account, activation is refused and the clashing account is named. Nothing is renumbered behind your back; your accountant decides how to resolve it and activates again.

Why service income belongs apart from product sales

Product sales and service work behave differently, and mixing them hides both:

Pair the service accounts with labour cost from payroll, reported by department as described in labour cost by department from payroll, and the after-sales department has its own small income statement.

One caution about maintenance plans. A plan paid for up front usually covers visits spread over many months, so the business has not earned the whole amount on the day it invoices. Investopedia's explanation of deferred revenue sets out why payment received in advance for services is a liability until they are delivered, and how it is recognised over time. Ask your accountant how plan income should be recognised over the life of the plan, and how that will be reflected in your books, before you sell the first one.

From an accepted quote to a draft invoice

Larger service jobs, such as an installation or a maintenance plan, usually start with a quotation. In the Industry CRM, the customer accepts a quotation on a link by typing their name and ticking a box, and the acceptance drafts the invoice in receivables.

A few details protect both sides:

• once a quotation is sent it is frozen, and it changes only by a revision, so the customer always accepts the version they saw;
• the customer's IP address and browser are kept with the acceptance;
• the invoice is drafted, not issued, so someone in accounts reviews it first; issuing it at once on acceptance needs an administrator's recorded authority.

Invoice lines that name the account and the product

With the pack, each invoice line names the revenue account and the product it sells. When the invoice posts, the revenue goes to the account each line names, and the cost of sales goes into the same journal.

That last part is what keeps repairs honest. A worked example in words: a technician repairs an out-of-warranty pump and fits a replacement impeller. The invoice has three lines: a call-out, the repair labour and the impeller. The call-out and the labour post to after-sales revenue. The impeller line names the product sold, so its revenue posts according to that line and its cost of sales is recorded in the same journal. Service labour has no product cost to post; the part does. The result is a gross margin for the job that reflects the part actually used.

If the repair had been under warranty, there would be no invoice at all, and the decision would follow the warranty process in warranty claims with serial numbers and photos.

Pricing the items yourself

The starter items arrive without prices. Before the first service invoice, decide:

1. How call-outs are charged: a flat fee, a fee by distance or zone, or a minimum charge that includes some labour.
2. The labour rate for service visits and repairs, and whether overtime or weekend rates apply.
3. What a maintenance plan includes: the number of visits, response commitments, and which parts, if any, are covered.
4. Installation and commissioning: fixed prices per product type, or quoted job by job.
5. The VAT treatment of each item, which you should confirm with your adviser for your country.

Write the answers down in one short price guide and use the same wording in your quotations, so technicians, sales staff and customers are all working from the same page.

Getting the structure right first

Activate the pack only after your accountant has checked that the two account codes are free, price the items, and agree who reviews draft invoices before they are issued. Once that is in place, every repair, plan and call-out lands in its own place in the ledger, and the question "does after-sales pay its way?" can finally be answered from the books.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.