A service contract often asks you to keep up the maintenance the manufacturer schedules. What it rarely spells out is who checks for software updates, who installs them, and who can prove one was done. Many cars change how their systems behave through software, and a repair question can turn on whether an update was applied. Decide the owner before the question comes up.
What counts as an update
Updates arrive in several ways: at a dealer visit, through a service bulletin a shop applies, or over the air to the car itself. Some changes fix a known fault. Others only adjust how systems work. A contract may not distinguish between them, so ask what the form expects you to show.
Who checks
Decide whether you check the owner portal or the manufacturer's notices yourself, or whether a shop checks at each visit. Write the answer in your own file. If the answer is that nobody checks, that is an answer too, and you should know it before a claim arrives.
Who installs and who records
An over-the-air update may install with a button you press or with no action at all. A dealer or independent shop may install it during a visit. In either case, ask for a printed or emailed record that names the update, the car, and the day it was applied. A line in a file that says only 'updated' is weak proof if a claim is disputed.
Questions to put to the seller
Ask whether the contract requires proof of software updates or only proof of the maintenance schedule. Ask whether a dealer or shop must keep the record or whether you must. Ask whether an update the manufacturer calls optional still counts toward the maintenance the form requires. Ask what the form says happens if an update was missed and a claim follows.
Keep the job in one place
Pick one person to own update checks, and put the check on the same calendar you use for oil changes. That owner does not need to be a mechanic. That owner does need to know where the records are kept, which is the part most owners skip.
For what a contract requires about maintenance records in general, read the maintenance and proof sections of every form you compare. Each form is different, and the words on the page are what a claim will be measured against.