FAQ
Questions we get asked.
Plain answers. If yours isn't here, email us and a real person will answer it.
Using it
What does it mean that Grain Manager is in beta?
The product is live and running, but it's still being improved all the time. There will be bugs that need ironing out, and we need your help finding them. That's why we're offering beta pricing and a year's free trial, although if you like Grain Manager, choosing to subscribe sooner would help us make improvements faster. The beta isn't going anywhere for a while, but the more people who use it, the better it will get. So sign up, get using it, and report anything that doesn't seem right. If you like what we're doing and want to support it, activate your subscription.
When the beta ends, prices may have to change, but you will hear about it in the app first. You can cancel a subscription at any time, and your data is yours throughout. Export it any time.
Is the passport accepted by merchants and mills?
It follows the AIC Combinable Crops Passport layout the trade uses. It prints the Red Tractor scheme reference, and it includes the previous-three-loads declaration, the mycotoxin section, the GM statement for oilseeds and the Renewable Energy Directive declaration.
Always check your buyer's own requirements. Some have extra fields of their own.
What if there's no signal in the grain store?
Install it on your phone. Passports created offline queue up and sync when you are back in range. Ticket numbers are tagged with your initials, so two people in two sheds can both print and nothing clashes.
I'm halfway through the season. Is it too late to start?
No. The setup has a path for joining mid-season: enter what is in store and the contracts that are live, then carry on. Loads that moved before you started can be settled as catch-up tonnage without back-filling passports.
The wheat has overflowed into a second shed. Can I sell it as one lot?
Yes. On Crop lots, pick the two stores and link them. They show as one group with the group's total, and when you sell you pick the linked parcel, so the contract sits against the whole crop. Each shed still keeps its own tonnes, readings and traceability, and passports still name the exact store each load left from. A contract across two sheds is shown once on the group, so it is never counted twice.
What about pools and pledges?
They are built in as folders with a drawdown bar. Purchase contracts are drawn from the pool as the merchant calls tonnes, so you can see what is pledged, what has gone, and what is still to go.
I manage more than one farm, or farm for someone else. Do I need two logins?
No. One login can belong to as many businesses as you like. A manager of the other farm invites you, by email or by your User UID, or you ask to join with the farm's Business UID and a manager there approves it and chooses what you can see. Once you are in, a farm menu in the header switches between farms, and the dashboard shows loads and tonnes across all of them, with each farm listed under the number. Each farm keeps its own records, roles and subscription, so what you can see on one says nothing about another.
Which crops does it cover?
Wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape, beans, peas and the other combinable crops. Varieties come from the AHDB Recommended List and the PGRO lists, and you can add your own.
Records and assurance
Does it replace my Red Tractor records?
It becomes them. Store inspections, readings, calibrations, vermin rounds and documents are recorded once and show up against the right standard point. You can still keep anything you like on paper and just tick it off in the checklist, even write a note that reminds you where it is.
It is built around the Red Tractor Combinable Crops standard. It does not track other schemes.
Can my staff use it without seeing prices?
Yes. Permissions are per person. Someone can create and print passports without seeing the ledger values or the contracts. There are Manager, Operator and Loader presets, or you can set each permission yourself.
Data and security
How do I get my data out?
Settings, then Export data, gives you a CSV bundle of the ledger and the assurance records at any time, including after a subscription ends. Your records are yours.
Pricing
Do I need a card to start?
No. The 12-month trial needs an email address and a farm name. It is the whole product, with 25 passports included. After the year or if you want to print more passports, plans start from £10 a month, per farm business, excluding VAT. The full table is on the pricing page.
About
Who built this?
It started with one farmer. I'm James, I farm in Essex, and I began Grain Manager in 2017 because the paperwork would not stop. These days there's a small team of us building it, through every harvest, on a working farm. The longer story is on the About page.
Not answered? support@grainmanager.uk
Have a simpler season.
Grain Manager is new, and we want it to be one of the most useful tools on your farm. We're a small team, no sales department, no chatbot, and the people who build it are the people who reply. If you'd like a hand bringing your records across, email us and we'll do all we can to help.
James and the team, Essex