The most expensive mistake an agency makes when changing software happens not at the contract stage but during the demo: watching the presentation and reading the feature list. Every system's feature list looks similar, and the differences live where the list does not reach. The questions below have real consequences in the field, and each one costs money when it is asked too late.
Data and exit
The first group covers what comes to mind last and costs the most: what happens if you leave.
Exportable data is your right under data protection law, but when the format is never discussed you can be handed a file nobody can read. Ask for specifics: which tables, in what format, within what timeframe.
- If the agreement ends, in what format is the data handed over and how quickly?
- All passenger, file, ledger and collection records, or only some?
- Is migration from legacy software offered, and is what cannot be moved put in writing?
Security and permissions
The second group covers the real risk in a system holding passport and identity data. "Your data is safe" carries no information; what matters is how that is achieved.
The most revealing question is this: where does the separation between agencies happen — inside the program, or where the data is stored? If it lives inside the program, a single forgotten condition can show another agency's passengers — and because the screen works fine, nobody notices.
- Is tenant separation enforced in application code or at the database level?
- Do permissions restrict the data itself, or only hide the screen?
- Is there an audit trail of who changed what and when?
- Where are the servers? Transfer abroad requires separate consent in some jurisdictions.
Regulatory flexibility
The third group targets the most volatile part of the sector. The mahram rule has changed several times in recent years, and passport validity thresholds differ from agency to agency.
If those rules are fixed inside the software, every change means waiting for a release — and if that release lands mid-season, it means weeks of manual tracking.
- Are the mahram age threshold and companion condition configurable?
- Is age calculated from the departure date or the registration date?
- Is passport validity measured from the return date?
The money side
The fourth group targets the quietest failure in a multi-currency agency: past balances shifting because the exchange rate moved.
In a correct setup every movement carries its own rate and the past is never recalculated. The practical way to check this during a demo is to ask: "Does a collection entered in January still show the same amount today?"
- Does each movement carry its own rate, or is the balance recalculated at today's rate?
- Are balances kept separately per currency?
- Are retroactive changes to a closed accounting period blocked?
Not the answers — how they are answered
If a vendor says yes to all of these, the information is not in the answers but in whether they can go deeper. Someone who says the boundary reaches the data itself, and can back it with an example, is telling the truth.
Another signal: whether they tell you what the software does NOT do. No system fits every agency, and a vendor who says so is eliminating the surprises that would otherwise arrive later.