Boat dealer service software that keeps every repair order, warranty claim and recall notice on one hull
Boat dealer service is the rigging, repair and warranty work a dealership performs on the hulls it sells and the ones it takes in. Every job attaches to a hull identification number, an engine serial number and, when the manufacturer pays, a warranty claim with its own labor schedule. Under 46 USC 4310 a manufacturer must notify its dealers of a safety defect discovered within 10 years of the date of certification. Neurobird holds the hull, the job and the claim on one record.
Neurobird Boat Dealer Service in short
- Open every repair order against a hull identification number and an engine serial rather than a customer name
- Split one job into the warranty claims it actually contains, with the right labor rate on each
- Match incoming recall notices to hulls you sold or hold, and show which ones are still open
- 10 years Period from the date of certification, or from the date of manufacture where no certification date is affixed, within which a discovered safety defect triggers the manufacturer's duty to notify. Notice goes to first purchasers, known subsequent purchasers and to dealers and distributors. 46 USC 4310
- $5,000 Civil penalty for a violation of the recreational vessel safety provisions, with a maximum of $250,000 for a related series of violations. Willfully operating a vessel in violation carries a fine of up to $5,000, up to one year of imprisonment, or both. 46 USC 4311
- Pricing runs 169 to 1300 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.
What boat dealerships and marine service departments actually deal with
Why it stays broken
A boat is three products bolted together and each one has a different warranty administrator. The hull belongs to the boat builder, the engine belongs to the engine maker and the electronics belong to someone else, so a single repair order can carry three claims on three portals at three labor rates. Automotive dealer software assumes one vehicle identification number and one manufacturer, which is precisely what a boat is not, and the gap gets filled with a paper jacket in a filing tray.
Under 40 CFR 1068.101 a manufacturer or dealer that removes or renders inoperative an emission control device faces a civil penalty of up to $44,539 for each engine or piece of equipment in violation.
The emission-related warranty for an engine may not be shorter than any published warranty you offer without charge for that engine .
What the rules say about servicing boats
Defect notification duties, civil penalties, emission warranty periods and the identification number every one of those attaches to.
Period from the date of certification, or from the date of manufacture where no certification date is affixed, within which a discovered safety defect triggers the manufacturer's duty to notify. Notice goes to first purchasers, known subsequent purchasers and to dealers and distributors.
46 USC 4310Civil penalty for a violation of the recreational vessel safety provisions, with a maximum of $250,000 for a related series of violations. Willfully operating a vessel in violation carries a fine of up to $5,000, up to one year of imprisonment, or both.
46 USC 4311Maximum civil penalty per engine or piece of equipment where a manufacturer or dealer removes or renders inoperative an emission control device. For anyone who is not a manufacturer or dealer the figure is $4,454 per engine.
40 CFR 1068.101Minimum emission related warranty for an outboard engine, or 5 years, whichever comes first. Personal watercraft engines carry 175 hours or 30 months, and conventional sterndrive and inboard engines carry 3 years or 480 hours.
40 CFR 1045.120Ohio watercraft dealer licence fee, with the licence expiring on the last day of December each year and covering a permanently assigned dealer number and a wall certificate for the place of business.
Ohio Department of Natural ResourcesNeurobird Boat Dealer Service Document Automation Platform
One record per hull: what it is, what is bolted to it, every job it has been through, which claims were filed against which administrator, and which recall notices apply to the boat sitting in the yard right now.
- 1Open every repair order against a hull identification number and an engine serial rather than a customer name
- 2Split one job into the warranty claims it actually contains, with the right labor rate on each
- 3Match incoming recall notices to hulls you sold or hold, and show which ones are still open
- 4Hold technician hours against the job so a claim is filed from the record instead of from memory
What changes with Neurobird Boat Dealer Service?
The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.
| Today | With Neurobird Boat Dealer Service |
|---|---|
| The repair order says blue cruiser with a bad trim pump and the warranty portal wants a hull identification number nobody wrote down | Open every repair order against a hull identification number and an engine serial rather than a customer name |
| A recall notice arrives in the post and is read by whoever opened the envelope that morning | Split one job into the warranty claims it actually contains, with the right labor rate on each |
| Warranty claims are denied for missing hours and the technician who did the work left in March | Match incoming recall notices to hulls you sold or hold, and show which ones are still open |
Who is this for?
The same repair order, three very different service departments.
You sell and service under one roof
Sales hands over a rigged boat and service inherits it. You need the hull record to carry across without being retyped.
You carry several boat and engine brands
Every brand has its own portal, labor rate and claim window. You need one job that produces the right claim for each of them.
You service what other people sold
No dealer agreement, but the emission and safety rules still apply to the work. You need the record that shows what was done and why.
How does Neurobird Boat Dealer Service work?
Take the boat in
Hull identification number, engine serials, hours and options captured once, so the same boat is recognised the next time it comes back on a trailer.
Work the order
Labor and parts recorded against the job, split by who pays: the customer, the boat builder, the engine maker or the dealership's own goodwill.
File and follow
Claims leave with the hours and photographs attached, and open recalls stay visible against the hull until the remedy is recorded.
The service board, as your writers would work it
Open a job and watch the hull record, the claim split and the open recalls come with it.
Watch the fields extract from the document.
Boat dealer service software questions, answered
Key terms
- What is boat dealer service?
- Boat dealer service is the rigging, repair, commissioning and warranty work a marine dealership performs. Unlike a car, one boat carries several manufacturers at once, so a single repair order can produce a hull claim, an engine claim and a customer pay line, each with a different labor rate and a different administrator.
- What are a dealer's obligations when a recall is issued?
- Under 46 USC 4310 the manufacturer must notify first purchasers, known subsequent purchasers and its dealers and distributors of a defect that creates a substantial risk of personal injury, for defects discovered within 10 years of the date of certification or manufacture. The dealer is the point where that notice becomes a repair on a specific hull.
How long is the emission warranty on a marine engine?
40 CFR 1045.120 sets the minimum: 175 hours or 5 years for an outboard, 175 hours or 30 months for personal watercraft, and 3 years or 480 hours for a conventional sterndrive or inboard. High performance sterndrives carry shorter mechanical component periods, down to 1 year or 50 hours above 485 kW.
Does this replace our dealer management system?
No. It sits beside it. The dealer management system holds the deal, the inventory and the ledger. This holds the service record: the hull, what was done to it, who paid, which claim went where and which recalls are still open against it.
Can it track technician hours for warranty claims?
Yes. Hours are recorded against the job and the pay type as the work happens, so the claim is assembled from the record rather than reconstructed at the end of the month when the labor time has already been forgotten.
Why we are building this
We looked at boat service because it is one of the few repair businesses where a single job has three different people paying for it. The hull maker, the engine maker and the customer, each with their own claim form and their own idea of what an hour is worth. Nobody had built the record that holds all three against the same hull. The statutes and regulations we read while scoping this are linked above. If we have a warranty period wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
Where the requirement comes from
Primary sources, straight from the regulators.
- 46 USC 4310, repair and replacement of defects The 10 year notification window and exactly who a manufacturer must write to, dealers included.
- 46 USC 4311, penalties and injunctions The per violation and per series civil penalty ceilings behind the recreational boat safety rules.
- 40 CFR 1068.101, prohibited actions Tampering, uncertified engines and the penalty split between a dealer and everybody else.
- 40 CFR 1045.120, emission related warranty Warranty hours and years by engine type, including the high performance sterndrive table.
- 33 CFR 181.23, hull identification numbers required Primary and secondary hull identification numbers, and the issuing authority route for a one off build.
- Ohio DNR, watercraft dealer registration A worked example of what a state actually asks a boat dealer to hold and renew each year.
How much does Neurobird Boat Dealer Service cost?
Priced per store because the warranty agreements and the recall duty sit with the dealership rather than with the person typing. Hulls, repair orders and claims are unlimited on every tier.
- Up to 3 technicians
- Hull and engine records
- Repair orders
- Recall matching
- Unlimited technicians
- Multi brand warranty claims
- Labor rate by administrator
- Claim status tracking
- Multiple stores
- Shared hull history
- Warranty recovery reporting
- Priority support
Get free early access
Early access means we load your hull history, your brands and your labor rates before you type anything, and the account stays free while we do it.
Straight answer on where this is: The software is in development. Nothing is purchasable today. Early access means you shape it and pay nothing while we build.
Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.