Made to measure software: what MTM businesses need

A general shop system treats a sale as one line and one stock item. A made-to-measure order is an agreement to make something that does not exist yet, for one body, by a date. Most of the trouble in choosing software comes from that gap.

In made to measure, the garment starts from a block pattern altered to the customer's measurements, and the customer chooses from a menu of options such as lining, buttons, lapels and vents. There is usually one fitting before the suit is made up. So the record you take at the order has to carry the whole job. That sets the priorities below.

1. Order capture

Start with how the order goes in, because any mistake here gets cut into cloth. Check that the software can hold:

• Several garments on one order, each with its own due date and stage. A suit, two shirts and a waistcoat are rarely ready on the same day.
• The options chosen for each garment, in a form the cutter can read without asking.
• Cloth from your stock or brought in by the customer, marked clearly.
• A deposit, later payments and the balance due.
• A quote that can become an order, so nothing is typed twice.

Test it with your messiest real order, including the one with the customer who added a waistcoat three days later.

2. Measurements by garment

A trouser needs different fields from a jacket, and a kandura needs different fields from either. Fixed forms force staff to scribble in the margins. Look for:

• Fields per garment, which you can add to or remove from.
• Your unit: inches or centimetres.
• A dated history, with the old set kept whenever a new one is saved. Being able to compare two sets tells you what changed between visits.
• Who took the measurement, because that is the first question when a fit goes wrong.

Also ask how you get records out. A shop's measurement history is hard to rebuild, so ask for a plain file such as CSV. Our comparison of measurement apps and paper books goes further into this.

3. Production stages

Made to measure usually runs in a straight line, something like order placed, pattern, cutting, stitching, quality check, ready. Your line will differ, so the stages should be yours to rename and reorder.

The people matter as much as the stages. Reviewers of tailoring apps ask for exactly this. One on Google Play wanted each worker to be able to see what they had been given to do. Check that each stage of each job can have a named person, and that you can see what is due today without opening every order.

Include a quality check stage. With few fittings, this may be the last chance to catch a wrong sleeve length. When a garment fails, the software should let you send it back to a chosen stage and record the reason.

4. Outside workshops

Many made-to-measure shops send work out, either the whole garment or part of it such as embroidery. Once a job leaves the building, it stops being visible to anyone walking the floor. So the system needs to hold the vendor, the expected date, the cost and any shortfall when the work comes back. It should also flag anything overdue without you having to go looking. Many order books go quiet at exactly this point, and the customer is usually the one who finds out.

5. Fittings and customer updates

Even a single fitting has to be booked, and it can clash with the fitter's other appointments or with a day the shop is closed. Booking is a gap people notice: a review of one tailoring system lists scheduling among the things it lacked. Look for a calendar tied to the customer and the open order, plus a clear view of the promised date. Ask whether the customer can see where their order stands, and exactly how that works.

6. Combining made to measure with ready-made stock

Many shops also sell off the rack: shirts in sizes, trousers, abayas, uniforms. This is where two separate systems start costing you. A customer buys a ready-made shirt and orders a suit in the same visit. Fabric bought for one job gets used on a batch. Ask a supplier these questions:

• Can the same material stock serve both made-to-order jobs and batches for stock?
• Can you make a batch by size and have finished pieces enter stock?
• Does the point of sale show stock by size, and take a deposit on a custom order as well?
• Can you see cost per piece on both kinds of work?

On the same review page, another shop says it needs a till badly and the product has none. Find out before you commit, because an add-on bought later often sits apart from your orders.

Questions to ask before you choose

• Show me an order with three garments at three different stages.
• Show me a job that failed quality control and went back.
• Show me a job at an outside workshop that is two days late.
• What does this software not do yet?

That last question tells you a lot about a supplier. Our guide to choosing tailoring software has a wider checklist, and made to measure vs bespoke covers how the two workflows differ.

Where Tailoq fits

Tailoq has a made-to-measure preset among its eight business types. It covers orders with several garments, each with its own due date and stage, outside workshops with their own lane, and batches that enter stock when finished. You can start with measurements by garment, with dated history. To answer our own last question: returns and refunds, discounts, e-invoicing, accounting links and payment gateways are not there yet.