Launch pricing: $499/mo for the first 25 dealers — locked in for life.
Features

Everything your boat shop needs.

Built for marine. Not adapted from auto. Every feature here exists because a real boat dealer asked for it.

Only in HelmDMS

Live Supplier Search & Ordering

Search every connected distributor at once. Compare price, stock, and lead time side-by-side. Submit purchase orders directly to the supplier — via API where the supplier supports it, emailed PDF otherwise — without leaving HelmDMS.

Multi-supplier search

  • •Type a part number or keyword — every connected supplier queried simultaneously, with results in an instant
  • •Results side-by-side with price, stock, and lead time — real-time price and warehouse stock straight from the supplier
  • •See who has it cheapest, fastest, or in stock
  • •No more calling three distributors for one part

Direct PO submission

  • •Submit purchase orders directly to your supplier's system — via API where supported, emailed PDF otherwise
  • •Track order status, shipping, delivery from inside HelmDMS
  • •Auto-generated PO with your account terms
  • •Dropship queue for parts shipped straight to the customer
  • •Receiving updates inventory and cost automatically, with freight allocated across the shipment's parts
  • •Vendor returns tracked until the credit lands
Bring us your suppliers. We'll connect them.
  • ✓Live API integrations: Seawide Marine, Donovan Marine, CED Marine, Wintron Electronics, Land 'N' Sea / Kellogg Marine — plus the Medart catalog.
  • ✓Built on request: any distributor with a published API, FTP feed, or EDI program — we wire it up as part of your onboarding, free for founding dealers.
  • ✓Pricebook upload: any distributor without an API — drop in CSV or Excel and HelmDMS imports the catalog. Every dealer's supplier list works, one way or another.
Industry First ExoInvoice integration

Stop scanning each box.
Scan the invoice once.

HelmDMS is the exclusive marine DMS partner for ExoInvoice, the AI-powered invoice processor. Drop your supplier PDF into HelmDMS, ExoInvoice extracts every line item, and HelmDMS matches it to your catalog and queues it for one-click confirm. Receiving sessions go from 90 minutes to 60 seconds.

1

Drop the invoice into HelmDMS

Scan it, photograph it, upload the PDF, or forward the supplier email to a dedicated address. Your first 25 parses are free — after that, paste in your own ExoInvoice API key and HelmDMS hands the work off automatically.

2

ExoInvoice extracts every line

AI parses vendor, parts, quantities, per-batch prices, and supplier SKUs — even with mis-hyphenations and abbreviation variants.

3

HelmDMS matches and posts

Auto-match against your catalog, inline-create unmatched parts, review side-by-side with the original PDF, and click to post — with full lot tracking.

What the integration handles

  • •ExoInvoice AI parsing of vendor, parts, quantities, per-batch prices, supplier SKUs
  • •Vendor auto-match with mis-hyphenation and abbreviation correction
  • •Per-batch / per-lot pricing — "qty 9 @ $54.55 on 11/10, qty 50 @ $50.99 on 12/30"
  • •FIFO / highest / lowest / average lot-pricing strategies, configurable per shop
  • •Unmatched lines inline-create new Part + VendorSku records with quick-add dialog
  • •Structured data held in limbo until you confirm — no surprise inventory changes
  • •Original PDF stored alongside the posted invoice for audit

What it replaces

  • •Opening every box and scanning every barcode at receiving
  • •Manually typing line items into the DMS one by one
  • •Cross-referencing the supplier invoice against what got entered
  • •Updating cost prices when the supplier changes them mid-quarter
  • •The 90-minute "I'll do receiving after lunch" session that never happens

HelmDMS is ExoInvoice's exclusive marine DMS partner. No competing marine DMS offers this integration.

First 25 parses are on us — try it on real receiving sessions before you commit. After that, paste your own ExoInvoice API key into Settings → Integrations. ExoInvoice subscription is billed separately by ExoInvoice.

Industry First Manufacturer rebate automation

Stop missing rebates.
Stop rebuilding the claim.

Drop the manufacturer's rebate PDF into HelmDMS. ExoInvoice extracts every eligible model, the discount amount, the valid window, and the customer info the manufacturer requires. From that moment forward, HelmDMS auto-applies the discount at the counter, blocks tendering until the required customer info is captured, and exports a complete claim report when the period ends.

1

Drop in the rebate sheet

Upload the rebate PDF when Mercury, Yamaha, or Suzuki publishes one. ExoInvoice reads eligible items, discount amounts, valid dates, and the customer-info fields the manufacturer wants on the claim form.

2

Auto-discount at the counter

Ring up an eligible item during the valid window and HelmDMS applies the rebate automatically — no spreadsheet to update, no tribal knowledge. Sale can't be tendered until name, address, hull ID, serial numbers, or whatever the manufacturer requires is captured.

3

One-click claim export

End of the rebate period, click Export. HelmDMS produces the manufacturer's claim report — every qualifying sale, every customer field and serial — formatted to upload to the OEM portal, or as a CSV to attach to an email. No Excel reconstruction.

What the integration handles

  • •PDF parsing of eligible models, SKUs, rebate amounts, and valid date windows
  • •Auto-discount applied at POS and on work orders during the valid period
  • •Required customer fields detected per program — name, address, phone, hull ID, motor and unit serials, registration state
  • •Tender gate — sale won't complete until required fields are filled
  • •Claim report export with every qualifying sale formatted for the manufacturer (or as CSV)
  • •Stacking rules — multiple active rebates per item in a configurable order, or apply the best single eligible saving
  • •Original rebate PDF stored for audit alongside every claim

What it replaces

  • •The whiteboard at the counter listing this quarter's active rebates
  • •The "did anyone tell the parts kid about the new Mercury rebate?" conversation
  • •Hand-typing every claim into a spreadsheet at the end of the quarter
  • •Rebates that got missed because nobody updated the price list in time
  • •Claims rejected because the customer info wasn't captured at the sale
  • •"We ate the rebate" — discount given but never claimed back from the manufacturer

Built on the same ExoInvoice integration that handles supplier invoices. No competing marine DMS automates the rebate claim flow end-to-end.

Counter

Point of Sale

A parts counter built for speed. Your team shouldn't fight software while a customer is waiting at the register.

  • Bluetooth or phone-camera barcode scanning
  • Customer search by name, phone, or last 4
  • Smart duplicate detection on customer entry
  • Hold and recall carts across sessions
  • Card-present payments via Stripe Terminal — staff never types totals
  • Quick-add customers inline without leaving the sale
  • Digital receipts (email or SMS) by default, emailed per payment
  • Text-to-pay links for deposits and invoices — with card-fraud checks (authorise, verify ZIP/CVC, then capture)
  • Split and partial tender, saved cards, store credit
  • Cash drawer counts with over/short, unwind and re-ring a sale
More on the marine POS
Stripe Terminal · Card reader
Total to charge
$387.42
✓ Sent to terminal automatically
Service · Status board
WO-1042 · Bayliner 195Awaiting parts
WO-1043 · Yamaha 250In progress
WO-1041 · Tracker ProReady for pickup
WO-1040 · Mercury 9.9Diagnosing
Service

Service & Work Orders

Concern, cause, correction. Tech assignment. Multi-day jobs. Status board. The bay finally makes sense — and the front desk knows what's ready without walking back.

  • Concern / Cause / Correction documentation
  • Customer Pay / Warranty / Internal — split a job and track the warranty claim
  • Multi-day jobs, technician assignment across days
  • Parts and labor lines, inventory decrement at add-time
  • Shop Queue with drag-to-reorder priorities, a TV mode for the shop floor, and a "Ready for pickup" strip for the front desk
  • PDF attachments for diagnostic reports, warranty docs, photos
  • Customer status page — the owner sees their boat's status, tech photos and notes, approves the estimate with a signature, and pays the deposit from their phone
  • Voice notes — techs dictate, HelmDMS transcribes and structures the note
  • "Mark complete" auto-fires SMS / email / voice notification
More on marine service
Scheduling

Smart scheduling, fewer no-shows

A scheduling tool that doesn't make you click 14 times to book one appointment.

"Next available"

One button finds the first open slot for the right tech and books it.

Drag-and-drop on iPad

30-minute snap. Mouse or touch. Reschedule with confirmation modal.

Card-on-file at booking

Configurable deposit and automatic no-show fee per your shop's policy.

Schedule board & per-tech availability

Every tech's day on one board, with each tech's next open hour shown below the header. Vacations and time off block the calendar automatically.

SMS & email reminders

Automatic reminders 3 days, 24 hours, and 2 hours out. Customer can confirm by reply.

Estimated completion

Intake SMS includes how long the job's expected to take.

Inventory

Parts & Inventory

One canonical part. Multiple vendors. Real-world data, finally modeled correctly.

  • One canonical part — multiple vendor SKUs at multiple prices
  • Sort by usage — what's moving floats up, dead stock sinks
  • Scan supplier invoices to add inventory — system parses line items
  • Per-batch lot pricing — "qty 9 @ $54.55, qty 50 @ $50.99"
  • Phone-camera or Bluetooth barcode scanning
  • House barcodes and DYMO labels for incoming parts
  • OEM price books (Mercury, Yamaha, Lowrance/Navico) loaded alongside your catalog
  • Parts interchange — see on-hand or orderable alternatives for any part number
  • Cycle counts and full parts audits — find shrink before year-end
  • Negative-inventory flags instead of "Miscellaneous Marine" workarounds
  • One-click reorder with checkboxes per vendor
Part · Trim ram pump (canonical)
Seawide · SW-89744$214.99 · 4 in stock
Donovan · D-9244B$229.50 · 2-day
Wintron · WIN-7740$241.00 · backorder
Boat Sales

Boat sales & deal management

From first inquiry to final signature. Every step of a boat deal, tracked and managed in one place.

Visual deal pipeline

Lead, quote, deposit, financing, delivery — every deal at a glance.

Trade-in management

Capture details, photos, valuations. Track residuals through the deal.

Documents & in-store e-sign

Bill of sale, purchase agreement, retail installment contract — generated as PDFs. Customer signs on the screen at your desk — no printing, no scanning.

Deposit collection

Text a pay-by-link deposit request. Card-fraud checks verify ZIP and CVC before the money is captured.

Boat inventory

Track every unit on your lot. Hull ID, photos, asking price, status.

Package builder & window stickers

Build boat-motor-trailer packages, then print window stickers and spec flyers straight from the unit.

Website inventory sync

Sold units come off your website automatically. No webmaster needed.

Included Dealer website

Your dealer site is included.

Branded with your logo and photos. Mobile, fast, hosted by us. Inventory pulls live from HelmDMS — list a boat in the DMS and it's on your site seconds later. No syncing, because there's nothing to sync. It's the same data.

1

We brand it for you

Your logo, your photos, your colors. Custom domain (your-dealership.com). SSL, hosting, mobile, all included — no separate web bill.

2

Inventory is the DMS

Boats, parts, prices, photos — what's in HelmDMS is on the site. Mark a boat sold, it comes off the site automatically. No webmaster, no double-entry.

3

Leads land in HelmDMS

Contact form submissions, finance applications, service requests — all create customer records and tasks in the DMS automatically. The lead and the customer are the same record.

What's included

  • •Branded dealer site on your custom domain
  • •Live boat inventory with photos, specs, asking price, status
  • •Hours, location, contact form, finance application — all DMS-backed
  • •Service appointment booking that lands in HelmDMS scheduling
  • •SSL, hosting, security patches, uptime — we handle it
  • •SEO-ready: clean URLs, schema markup, sitemap, mobile-first
  • •One bill — no separate hosting, builder, or maintenance fees

What it replaces

  • •The $200/mo agency retainer that updates inventory once a week
  • •The "did you tell the website kid we sold the Yamaha?" conversation
  • •Hosting bills, SSL renewals, builder subscriptions, plugin licensing
  • •Web inventory that's three weeks behind your real inventory
  • •Lead forms that email someone who emails someone who maybe replies
Already have a site you love? Drop our embed snippet into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or any HTML site to render live HelmDMS inventory. Keep your design — get the live data. Want a fully custom build? Hughes Technology, our parent shop, builds bespoke dealer sites on the HelmDMS backend as a separate project.
Included Boat Push · Listing syndication

List once. Push everywhere.

Boat Push syndicates your inventory to the Boats Group network — Boat Trader, YachtWorld, Boats.com — through one feed, and automates organic posts to your dealership's Facebook page. Update the price in HelmDMS once; every channel updates within minutes. Mark a boat sold; it's pulled from every channel automatically and a "Just Sold" post can fire to your Facebook page.

1

List the boat once in HelmDMS

Photos, specs, asking price, description — entered once on the boat record. HelmDMS validates the data against each channel's required fields.

2

Push to every channel

Boat Trader, YachtWorld, Boats.com — the Boats Group network, through one feed — plus your own dealer site, all populated within minutes. Photo galleries, descriptions, specs, all syndicated.

3

Leads land back in HelmDMS

An inquiry from Boat Trader creates a customer record and lead task in HelmDMS, tagged with the source channel. You see which channel is converting and which is just chewing budget.

Channels supported

  • •Boats Group network — Boat Trader, YachtWorld, Boats.com — one XML feed serves all three properties with photos, specs, dealer branding
  • •Facebook page (organic) — auto-create posts to your dealership's FB page when boats are listed, marked sold, or price-dropped. Templated copy + photos, smart scheduling, multi-page support, comment routing back to HelmDMS as leads
  • •Facebook Marketplace assistant — pre-fills the listing form with photos, specs, price, and copy; one click to publish from your Facebook account. Compliant with Meta's TOS (no automation that risks your account).
  • •Your own dealer site — included, always live, no separate sync
  • •More on request — any channel that publishes a dealer feed spec

What it replaces

  • •Re-listing the same boat eight times across eight portals
  • •Boats listed for $32,500 here and $34,000 there because nobody updated
  • •Sold boats still showing on three different listing sites three weeks later
  • •The third-party syndication tool charging $99–$300/mo extra
  • •Leads landing in five different inboxes that nobody checks
  • •"Which channel is actually working?" being unanswerable
Inside Boat Push Facebook page automation

Auto-post to your dealership's Facebook page.

Beyond Marketplace listings: HelmDMS creates organic posts on your Facebook page automatically. New boat listed? Post fires with photos, price, and a CTA. Boat sold? "Just sold — congrats to the new owner" post celebrates the win and reinforces social proof. Price drop? Post fires. The page stays active without anyone remembering to post.

  • •Templated post copy with merge fields — your tone, your voice
  • •Photo gallery support — full carousel of boat photos in one post
  • •Smart scheduling — posts fire when your audience is most active
  • •Refresh cadence — older inventory re-surfaced on a schedule you set
  • •Multiple FB pages supported — multi-location dealers covered
  • •Hashtag and location tagging per post
  • •Comments and DMs route to HelmDMS as leads, tagged by post
  • •Approval queue option — review before posts go live (on by default)

Boat Push is included with every HelmDMS subscription. No per-listing fee, no extra feed bill — channel placement fees (paid directly to Boat Trader, YachtWorld, etc.) are still your existing channel subscriptions.

Industry First HelmDMS AI Agent · voice + chat

An AI agent that knows your DMS.

Drift can capture a lead. Your answering service can take a message. Neither one can tell a customer "Mr. Smith, your boat is ready Tuesday at 10am" — because they don't have your DMS data. HelmDMS AI Agent does. One agent, two surfaces: natural-voice phone calls (ElevenLabs-backed) on your business line, and an AI chat on your dealer site. Both read the same DMS and book into the same scheduling system.

AI Concierge on your phone line

Natural-voice (ElevenLabs) — not robotic. Answers when nobody can pick up: lunch, after hours, parts counter slammed, Saturday. Caller hears your shop's name, not "press 1 for sales." Captures the reason for the call, looks up the customer in the DMS, handles status checks and FAQ, transcribes to a HelmDMS task, and pages a human for anything it can't handle.

  • •"Is WO-1042 ready?" → DMS lookup → "Yes, ready for pickup since 2pm"
  • •"Do you have any used Bayliners?" → inventory lookup → live answer
  • •"What time do you close?" → DMS hours, holiday-aware
  • •Lead capture: caller's name/phone/interest → customer record + task
  • •Full call transcript stored on the customer record
  • •Confidence-thresholded — escalates to a human (live transfer or callback task) when uncertain

AI Concierge on your dealer site

Same agent, same DMS data — embedded in your dealer site (or any site, via the embed snippet). 24/7 lead capture and service-status answers. Site visitor asks about a boat, the AI knows what's actually in stock and what the price is. Asks if their boat is ready, the AI checks the DMS and replies. No more "fill out this form, we'll call you back tomorrow."

  • •Embedded on your HelmDMS dealer site — included
  • •Drop-in widget for WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, custom HTML
  • •Inventory-aware: "Got any pontoons in stock?" → live answer with photos
  • •Service-status aware: "Is my boat ready?" with phone number lookup
  • •Captures qualified leads → customer records + tasks in HelmDMS
  • •Hands off to a human via SMS/email when conversation gets complex

What it replaces

Missed calls

The 30% of inbound calls that go to voicemail at lunch, after hours, or when the counter's slammed. Each one a potential lost sale or service ticket.

"Is my boat ready?" calls

The 8–15 status calls per week your service writer fields, each interrupting whatever they're doing. AI handles them; humans handle the actual work.

Generic chatbots

Drift / Intercom / HubSpot can capture an email. They can't tell a customer their boat's ready, look up a hull ID, or quote a part. Yours can.

Pricing: AI Agent capability is included with HelmDMS. Per-call and per-message usage is at cost — ElevenLabs voice, telephony minutes, and LLM API pass through transparently on your bill, same model as built-in SMS. Or paste your own ElevenLabs / Anthropic / OpenAI keys into Settings → Integrations to use your own accounts.

Phased rollout for HelmDMS dealers: lead capture and service-status answers come first; appointment booking and deeper lead qualification follow once prompts are battle-tested.

Live demo · 24/7

Hear what your shop's phone could sound like.

This is the same agent we'd put on your phone — trained on HelmDMS instead of your dealership. Ask it about features, pricing, or how the AI handles inbound calls. It's our agent, answering for itself.

Call (866) 615-HELM

Toll-free · Talks back like a human · No human gatekeeper

Customer & Communication

Know every customer. Reach them however they prefer.

Customer database

  • • Complete purchase, service, and call history per customer
  • • Multiple boats per customer with serial / hull ID
  • • Smart duplicate detection on entry — name and phone match
  • • Notes per customer ("prefers morning pickups")
  • • Communication preferences (text, email, call) per customer

Caller ID & live calls

  • • Phone rings — customer record opens automatically
  • • Live calls dashboard showing every active call
  • • Click-through to customer record on any active call
  • • PBX integrated (FusionPBX) on the same private network
  • • Persisted call history per customer

SMS, email, voice — built in

  • • Two-way SMS via Telnyx from your shop's main business number
  • • Templated messages: appointment confirmation, reminders, "ready for pickup"
  • • Natural-voice automated calls (ElevenLabs TTS) for high-priority notifications
  • • Self-hosted email relay with DKIM/SPF/DMARC
  • • Per-customer preference (text, email, call) honored automatically
  • • Replies routed to a shared shop inbox

Customer payment portal

  • • Pay invoices online from a phone
  • • Text-to-pay links for deposits and invoices
  • • Stored card-on-file for regulars
  • • Pre-auth and capture for service deposits — ZIP/CVC verified before capture
  • • Customer status page with estimate approval and signature
  • • Receipt history and self-service download — plus a receipt emailed for every payment

Integrations & intelligence

QuickBooks Online

  • • Automatic two-way customer sync
  • • Sales receipts and invoices pushed on completion
  • • Items, vendors, payments mapped
  • • Idempotent webhooks with replay protection
  • • Reconciliation views for failed syncs
  • • Manual retry on demand

Payments (Stripe)

  • • Stripe Terminal (card-present)
  • • Online payments (Stripe Elements)
  • • Card-on-file with one-click charging
  • • Deposits and pre-auth/capture flow
  • • Refunds and partial refunds
  • • Surcharging support, configurable per state — credit-only or all cards

Reporting & analytics

  • • Sales by period, payment method and staff; top parts
  • • Margin by category
  • • Parts movement / turn rates
  • • Service revenue by technician (assigned, closed, labor and parts revenue)
  • • Outstanding work order aging, work orders by status
  • • Inventory value, low stock against per-part reorder points
  • • Timecards, cash drawer over/short, voids
  • • Deal pipeline metrics, delivered deals with gross profit, aging and floorplan exposure, salesperson performance
  • • Customer sources and top customers — CSV export on every table
  • • Scheduled emailed Excel reports: daily close, weekly payroll/timecards, monthly sales tax
Time & users

Time clock & job clocking

Two clocking systems, one purpose: pay people right and know what jobs took.

  • IP-based clock-in for shop workstations — no MFA friction
  • Time-clock kiosk on a shared shop screen — each employee punches with their own PIN
  • Any staff member clocks in from any workstation
  • Manager edits clock entries when someone forgets
  • Job picker — tie tech time to specific work orders at punch-in
  • CSV export to your payroll system
Roles

User management

Unlimited users at the same flat price. Each role sees the right view, no clutter.

  • Admin, service writer, service manager, technician, counter staff
  • Granular role-based permissions — techs can't void sales, deliver boats or post vendor invoices
  • Hashed PINs, rate-limited sign-in, and a full activity log of who changed what
  • Cmd+K global search — jump to any customer, boat, part or work order
  • Default landing page per role
  • Customizable nav per role
  • Touch-optimized for shop touchscreens and iPad

Built on a modern platform

Any device

Runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone. No installs.

Cloud-hosted

US-hosted. Encrypted offsite backups nightly.

PWA installable

Add to home screen on iPad — feels like a native app. A native iOS app is on the way too.

Multi-tenant

Tenant-isolated from day one. Add locations without rebuilding.

See enough? Lock it in.

Reserve a founding-dealer slot — $200 refundable deposit locks in $499/mo for life. Or book a demo first.

Reserve your slot — $200 →