Know how many cans each customer is holding.
Lanemi tracks every deposit, swap and return, runs both standing refills and one-off “send a can today” orders, and takes payment from a prepaid wallet or at the doorstep. In your currency, wherever you deliver.
You send full cans out, and you never quite know what comes back.
A water round is a simple business made hard by the cans. The water is the easy part. It is everything around it: the empties, the extra drops, the cash at some doors and a plan at others, and the towers where a stop gets missed.
Cans that never come back.
You sent three, two came back, and by month-end nobody can say who is holding the third or the deposit on it.
Refill or one-off.
Half your stops are standing weekly refills. The rest are “can you drop one more today”, and the extra ones get forgotten.
Cash and prepaid on the same street.
One flat pays per can in cash, the next is on a plan you charge ahead. The doorstep total never matches the tin.
Dense buildings, wrong order.
Twelve flats in one tower, scattered houses between, done in whatever order the driver remembers. Then a stop is missed.
The round stays. The chaos goes.
Every can accounted for.
Take a deposit when a can first goes out, swap full for empty on each delivery, and refund the deposit when a customer returns for good. Lanemi keeps a running can-custody count per customer, so you always know how many cans are in the field. Lost or cracked ones are written off against the deposit in one step.
Standing refills and one-off cans, together.
Set a customer’s weekly or twice-weekly refill and let them add a single extra can for a party or a hot week. Both land on the same runsheet with no second system to check. When they travel, they pause from their own phone.
Prepaid or pay at the door, cleanly split.
Plan customers top up a wallet and you deliver against a balance you can see. Pay-per-can customers are charged as the can is handed over. Doorstep cash goes into a custody chain and is reconciled, so a shortage shows up the same day.
A route ordered for towers and lanes.
Runsheets sequence your stops by building, floor and flat for office towers, or in your own lane order for scattered homes. Print the sheet the night before. A network drop at 5am can’t stop the round.
Books that balance every hour.
Every deposit, swap, refill, top-up and refund is written down twice and never edited. An automatic check confirms it all balances to zero, so a mistake surfaces the same day, not at the year’s end. Not even an admin can quietly change a past entry.
Built for the way a water round actually works.
| What you get | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Returnable containers | Can deposits, full-for-empty swaps, refunds and per-customer custody counts |
| Lost or damaged write-offs | Retire a missing or cracked can against its deposit, straight to the ledger |
| Flexible subscriptions | Weekly, twice-weekly or office daily refills, set per customer |
| One-time orders | An extra can added to an existing round in a tap |
| Self-service pause and skip | Customers handle their own travel and days off |
| Prepaid wallet | Plan customers pay ahead, so you never chase money |
| Charge on delivery | Pay-per-can customers charged as the can is handed over |
| Cash custody | Doorstep cash tracked to your books, shortages flagged |
| Ordered runsheets | Building-and-floor order for towers, lane order for homes, printable |
| Disputes and credits | “The seal was broken” handled fairly, revenue kept whole |
| Any currency and method | Your currency, and the payment methods your area uses |
A water round is a water round, anywhere.
A 20 litre can in one market is a five-gallon bottle or a jar in another, and deposits work differently in every town. The money doesn’t have to be complicated. Choose your currency, set up how your customers pay, set your own deposit amounts, and keep whatever water-quality and plant licences your region asks for, with a reminder before they lapse.
Built by people who deliver.
Lanemi began on our own round, taking fresh goods to homes nearby with the same deposits, swaps and doorstep cash a water business handles every day. We built this because nothing on offer fit a real round. The returnable-container tracking was one of the first things we got right.
The things water rounds ask us first.
Can I track deposits on refillable cans?
Yes. Set your deposit amount, take it when a can first goes out, and hold it against that customer. It posts to the ledger and is refunded when they return the can for good.
How do I know how many cans a customer is holding?
Each customer has a live can-custody count. Every delivery swaps full for empty and updates the number, so you always see how many cans and how much deposit are in the field.
What happens when a can is lost or damaged?
Write it off against the deposit in one step. The can leaves the custody count and the write-off is recorded on the append-only ledger, so your stock and your books stay honest.
Can a customer order one extra can outside their plan?
Yes. A one-time order sits alongside their standing refill and drops onto the same runsheet, charged to their wallet or collected at the door.
Some customers prepay and some pay per can. Can I mix both?
Yes. Plan customers run on a prepaid wallet, and pay-per-can customers are charged on delivery, with doorstep cash reconciled to your books.
What if the network is down when the driver reaches a tower?
Confirm and print the runsheet the night before. Your driver finishes the whole building on paper and the deliveries and swaps sync once you are back online.
One good idea for your round, once a week.
Short, practical, and no filler. Leave any time.
Ready to run your water round on rails?
Book a demo and we’ll set it up with your deposits, can counts, plans and currency.