How to choose tailoring software: the questions to ask

Start with your own shop, before any vendor's website. Write down what you make, who buys it and what went wrong last month. A bespoke tailor who lost a fitting date needs something different from a boutique that ran out of the size that sells fastest in its busiest week.

The quotes below are from public reviews and forum posts, and each one links to where we read it. Public reviews of tailoring software are few, so treat them as things to test. One unhappy reviewer is no verdict on a product.

Does it handle stock as well as orders?

Many tailoring apps are order books with a nicer face. They hold a customer, a measurement and a due date, and that may be all you need. If you also cut for your own rack, you need to know more:

• Can it plan a batch of 40 abayas by size, as well as a single order?
• Do finished pieces enter stock when they leave the workshop?
• Can it show stock by size and by length, shop by shop?
• Does a sale at the counter reduce that stock?

Software that stops at orders leaves real gaps. One reviewer of a tailoring system says the missing till is now urgent for them. If you sell from a rack, ask to see a sale taken from stock, on screen.

What happens when the connection drops?

This comes up in reviews. A tailor reviewing one product on Capterra wrote that "if your internet connection is unstable or goes down, it can disrupt access to the system". Another shop's review of a different product says it "Needs good internet connection".

Ask exactly what stops. Can the workshop see today's jobs? Can the counter take a deposit? Does anything typed during the outage get saved? Then test it: turn off the Wi-Fi during your trial and try to work.

A straight answer is a good sign, even when the answer is no. One vendor's own page asks "Does it work offline?" and replies "Plainly: no." Another states that it "requires an internet connection to sync data". You can plan around that. You cannot plan around a vague reply. If your connection is poor, have a paper fallback whichever system you choose.

Does it know materials by size?

An XXL abaya takes more cloth than an S. If the software uses one material figure for every size, the batch plan is wrong before anyone cuts. Ask the vendor:

• Can it show the materials a batch needs, by size, before cutting?
• Who enters those figures, and who can change them?
• Can each material have its own unit? Beads and sequins go by the gram, fabric by the metre, crystals by the piece.
• When material is issued to a person, is it recorded, and can leftovers come back?

Ask to see this on your own garment, with a demo account filled in by you. A vendor's sample data always looks tidy.

Can it tell you who has the job?

A user of one tailor app asked to be able to give tasks to the master, the cutter and the stitcher. That is the plain workshop question. Ask whether each stage can have one named person. Ask whether the stages can be renamed to match how you work: a bridal gown with three fittings and a hand-embroidery stage looks little like a shirt. Then ask who has to type all of this in. If the answer is the owner, every evening, it will stop within a month.

Can you take your data out?

Ask this before you pay. Ask it in writing if you can.

• What can I export, and in what format?
• Does that cover measurements with their old sets, or just customer names?
• Does it cover orders, payments, materials and stock?
• What happens to my data if I stop paying?

Then try it. Export during the trial, open the file and read it. Measurements are the part of a tailoring business that cannot be rebuilt without calling every customer back in.

Free apps and data loss

A free app can be the right start for one tailor with a phone. Go in knowing what you are trusting it with.

One review of a measurement app says "there's no option for forgot password", and the same reviewer says "I have just lost all previous measurements to this app." Another reviewer of that app complains that the need to pay only appeared after opening it. A review of a different app says "it now just won't open", and there the developer replied with a suggested fix. These are single reviews and we cannot confirm what happened in each case. The questions they raise are fair ones:

• If I lose my phone or my password, how do I get back in?
• Where is my data kept, and is there a copy?
• What is free, and when does payment start?
• Is there a person I can write to?

Whatever you use, keep your own export or a paper copy of the measurements you cannot afford to lose.

Will it work in your language and your tax setting?

If your customers or staff read Arabic, or any other language, look at the real screens. Ask whether right-to-left layout covers the whole system or the menus alone. Ask whether a worker's screen can use a different language from the owner's.

Check that your currency and tax rate are there, and how prices are shown. If you are in the UAE and sell to companies, ask how invoice data would reach your provider. Our guide to UAE e-invoicing explains why that matters.

What will it cost once it is running?

A monthly price is one number among several. Ask about setup fees, per-user or per-branch charges, and what a change costs. A reviewer of a large garment system says each small change meant a consultant, a large bill and a wait of months. A small shop owner gave up another product and wrote that "The cost is the big thing for my shop."

Setup is a cost too. One reviewer found setup "a bit daunting", and another said a system "requires some time for the initial setup of inventory mapping". Ask who does that work, how long it took for a shop your size, and what you get for help if you are stuck.

Run one real job through it

A sales demo shows the path the vendor chose. Bring your own instead. Take one awkward order from last month, for example a three-piece suit with customer-supplied cloth, a part deposit, and a trouser that came back for a second fitting. Then go through it:

1. Take the order and the measurements.
2. Give each stage to a named person.
3. Issue the materials.
4. Record a problem, such as a rejected piece.
5. Take the balance and hand it over.
6. Find out what the job cost you.
7. Export the record.

Note where you had to work around the software. Ask a cutter or stitcher to try the workshop screen as well, because they will use it more than you will. Do this with two or three products, on the same job.

We make Tailoq, so we are not a neutral party, and you should put these questions to us too. Some of the answers are "not yet": Tailoq does not yet work without a connection, and it has no returns, refunds or discounts. If you want to see what it does cover, Tailoq is tailoring software for businesses that make and sell.