Industries: garages
Garage management software built around your ramps and MOT bay
£54.85
A job card per vehicle on the technician's phone, a board that shows which ramp and which courtesy car is free, and a history per registration. Built for the workshop of an independent garage.
Workshop days start at the roller door
Garage management software has to fit an ordinary Wednesday. At eight there are two cars in for a service, an MOT booked for nine, a customer asking whether the brakes will be done by five, and the motor factor ringing to say the timing belt kit comes tomorrow. The workshop controller shares the work over two ramps and the MOT bay, the service desk rings customers back, and somewhere in between every advisory from the MOT has to turn into a quote.
Most of that day lives in a diary on the front desk, a stack of paper job cards and the owner's head. It works until a technician is off sick, or until a customer asks what was done to the car last year. We build a system that follows the day: a job card per car, a board for ramps and courtesy cars, and a history per registration that remembers every service and every advisory.
This page is about the workshop: servicing, repairs, tyres, air-con and the MOT. If you also sell used cars, the showroom and your stock online are covered on the page about car dealer websites.
Ramps sit idle because of paper, not because of work
A garage rarely loses money on the spanner work itself. It leaks in the minutes around a car: the job card buried under another, the extra work a technician spotted but nobody rang the customer about, the tyres ordered for the wrong day. Each one is small. Over a week of sixty cars it adds up to half a day on the service desk and a few lines that never reach an invoice.
| Moment in the day | Where it goes wrong now | What your own system does |
|---|---|---|
| Booking on the phone | The diary has no ramp time, so Tuesday gets overbooked | The booking gets a duration and a ramp, the board sees when the day is full |
| Car arrives | Mileage and complaints on a scrap of paper | The service desk fills it in on a tablet, the technician sees it at once |
| Extra work found | The technician shouts it through, nobody rings the customer | One tap sends a text with a photo and a price for approval |
| MOT advisories | Written on the certificate, then forgotten | Each advisory becomes a line with a reminder for the next visit |
| Invoice | Job card typed again into the accounts package | The invoice comes from the job card, with parts and labour |
None of this needs a big package. It needs a work order app that matches how your technicians already work, and one place where the front desk and the workshop see the same thing.
Job cards in the technician's pocket
- Reception watches the job card fillParts and labour land on the invoice while the car is still on the ramp. At collection the bill is ready.
- The MOT bay sits on the same dayA failed item on the MOT becomes a repair line on the job card, priced before the customer leaves.
- Extra work arrives with a photoThe customer sees the worn part on their phone and says yes or no before anyone carries on.
An example with made-up registrations and cars. You decide which steps a job card has.
Courtesy cars and ramps on one board that spots clashes
Double booked
On Thursday reception promised the one courtesy car to both Hughes and Ward.
Ward only needs to get to work in town, so the board offers him the lift at 08:30 and keeps the car for Hughes, whose job takes two days.
Suggested: Ward takes the lift
Made-up customers in a made-up week. You decide which ramps, bays and cars go on the board.
Parts delays and the customer who rings back
A board for a garage is not a diary. A brake job takes ninety minutes, a timing belt half a day, an MOT has its own slot in its own bay, and an air-con regas can fit in between. The board works with those times per ramp, so the desk stops taking more bookings than the workshop can carry. A customer who needs a courtesy car gets one with the booking, and the board flags it when two customers want the same car on the same day.
Parts hang off the job card. When the motor factor says a part comes a day late, the booking moves with it and the customer gets a message with the new day. That saves the calls that fill the front desk every morning. The logic is the same as in staff scheduling software: who is where, and what clashes. In a garage it is ramps and cars as well as people.
If you want to try it in a spreadsheet first, the guide on Excel scheduling or planning software helps you decide. For one ramp and one technician a shared calendar is often enough. With two ramps, an MOT bay and courtesy cars, the spreadsheet becomes a second job.
MOT searches in Beeston that become bookings
New booking
MOT and interim service, Skoda Octavia 2019, MOT due 2 November
Natalie, Beeston, Sunday 19:40
- A page per kind of work: MOT, servicing, brakes, air-con
- A Google profile with opening hours, workshop photos and reviews
- Online booking that asks for the registration and the MOT due date
The garages, stars and reviews here are made up.
An independent garage lives on people within ten minutes' drive. They search on their phone for an MOT, a service, tyres or an air-con regas with their town in the query. Whoever sits at the top with reviews and a button to book gets the car. A complete Google Business Profile with the right categories does more than an advert.
Reviews come when you ask at the moment the customer gets the keys back. A Google review link in the message that says the car is ready works better than a card on the desk, and the guide on getting more Google reviews explains how to keep it going. For the pages on your own site, one per service and per town, see local SEO. MOT reminders by text or email, sent from the history of each car, bring back the customers you already have.
Warning light emails turned into a draft job card
An example. The AI works from your own labour times and service history, a person sets the price.
AI does not diagnose a car instead of your technician. It prepares what the service desk types today: the registration pulled from the email, the vehicle history opened, the last service and any MOT advisories shown, and a draft job card with a diagnostic check and the time it takes. The workshop controller checks it, changes what needs changing and decides when the car comes in.
The same goes for prices. AI can draft a quote from your own labour rates and parts prices, and a person checks it before it leaves. For the questions that come in every day, such as opening hours or whether the car is ready, we build AI customer service that answers from the vehicle file and passes anything uncertain to the desk. Supplier invoices from motor factors can be processed automatically and matched to the right job card.
Technicians found through your own site
Made-up applicants. You choose the three questions an applicant answers.
Garage size decides how much system you need
A sole trader with one ramp does not need an ERP, and a business with two sites needs more than a job card on a phone. This is what we would build at each size, and what we would leave alone.
| Garage | What to build | What can wait |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader, one ramp | Job cards on the phone, a history per registration, the invoice from the job card | A planning board, supplier links |
| Team of 5, two ramps and an MOT bay | A board for ramps, the bay and courtesy cars, approval for extra work by text, MOT reminders | A stock module for every nut and bolt |
| Garage business of 20 to 50 staff | Several workshops on one board, inventory management for tyres and oil, a report per technician | A full ERP for everything at once |
| Larger business or group | Integrations with the manufacturer's dealer system, a dashboard per site | A second system beside the franchise one |
A vacancy is short: name, mobile, which makes and which qualifications, and when to call. Diagnostics, an F-gas air-con qualification or high-voltage training for hybrids are the questions that show straight away whether someone fits. Applications land in the same system as your job cards, not in a separate inbox. If you are weighing a package against a build, read Odoo or custom software.
Testing, refrigerant and VAT rules in the vehicle file
A garage works with rules that come back with every car and every member of staff. These are the ones that belong in your job cards and your files.
| Rule | What it asks | What the software does |
|---|---|---|
| MOT testing station | An Authorised Examiner runs the station with an AEDM who holds a Level 3 qualification. Changes go to DVSA within 7 working days | The AE details and the AEDM sit in one file with a reminder when something changes |
| MOT testers | Each tester does at least 3 hours of training a year and passes the annual assessment before 31 March, with a pass mark of 80% | The tester's record shows training hours and the assessment date, and warns in February |
| MOT fee | The most a test centre may charge for a class 4 vehicle is £54.85 | Your MOT price is a setting, never above the maximum |
| Vehicle air-con | Whoever handles refrigerant needs an F-gas vehicle air-con qualification, from City & Guilds or IMI | Air-con jobs only go to qualified technicians |
| Waste oil and batteries | They are hazardous waste and leave with a consignment note | Each collection is logged with its note |
| Consumer Rights Act 2015 | A service is done with reasonable care and skill (s.49). Goods carry a 30-day right to reject (s.22) | Approvals, photos and the work done stay on the job card |
| VAT and e-invoicing | Making Tax Digital for VAT applies to every VAT-registered business. B2B e-invoicing via Peppol is due from 1 April 2029 | Digital records today, invoices that can leave as a UBL invoice when Peppol comes |
| Staff | The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026, and employers' liability insurance of at least £5m is compulsory | Hours and rates sit in the staff file |
The guide to e-invoicing in the UK sets out what changes and when.
Workshop hours and pounds across two ramps
| Item | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Typing up job cards | 4 hours | 184 hours |
| Calls about ready cars | 2.5 hours | 115 hours |
| Time together | 6.5 hours | 299 hours, or £11,960 |
| Missed items | £40 | £1,840 |
This is an example with assumptions, not a promise. You may have more or fewer jobs, or more forgotten wiper blades and screenwash. It shows where the gain is: not in faster spanner work, but in what happens around the car. For what a build costs, read custom software development cost.
Garage visit first, then a fixed price
- A conversation about your workshopHow does a car come in, who plans the ramps, what does the technician write down, when does the invoice go? We look at an ordinary week, not a wish list.
- One fixed price for the workshop buildYou see what we build, in which order and for which fixed amount. The only price we name before we talk is for a website: from 1,500 euros.
- The job card on the phone firstWe start with what costs time every day, usually the job card and the history per registration. A technician tries it on real cars.
- Then the board and the messagesOnce the job card runs smoothly, the board for ramps and courtesy cars follows, with approval by text and the link to your accounts.
We have no garage as a client yet, but we built vehicle files with insurance details and a fleet report for the platform of DA Logistics, in daily use there since July 2026. How we approach a build is on the page about custom software.
Garage owners ask before they switch
Can it work beside the MOT testing service?
The MOT result is still recorded on the government service. Your system holds the booking, the job card, the advisories and the reminder for next year, so you stop copying them by hand.
Do my technicians need a new phone?
No. The app runs on the phones they already carry, and on a tablet at the ramp if you prefer. It is built to work with greasy hands: big buttons, few fields.
What happens to the history in our current package?
We bring over what you can export, such as customers, vehicles and past invoices. What cannot be exported, we look at together before we start.
Can customers approve extra work without ringing?
Yes. The technician adds the line with a photo and a price, the customer gets a text with a link and approves or declines. The answer lands on the job card.
Does it handle tyre storage for customers?
If you store wheels, each set gets a rack location linked to the registration, with a reminder when it is time to swap them.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
Ramps, job cards and customers on one screen?
Tell us how a week in your workshop runs. We tell you which piece we would build first and how many hours it would save.
Rather get in touch right away?