Digitising your service
Digitising the auto service: from the paper log to the digital work order
Many services keep cars in a notebook, estimates on paper and history in their heads. Moving to a digital system only pays off if you don't keep two records in parallel. Below is a simple plan: what each step moves and what stays outside the app.
What a digital log gives you
- One file per vehicle, found by registration number or VIN.
- One work order per intervention, with labour and parts on separate lines and the total calculated from the lines.
- A catalogue of operations with default prices, so common jobs don't start from zero.
- A history that stays with the car, even if the client changes.
The plan for the first five days
- Register the vehicles due over the next two weeks, with registration number, VIN and mileage.
- Fill the catalogue with the 20–30 operations you do most often, with their default price.
- Open a work order for every car that comes in, not only for the digital ones.
- Check the daily summary in the morning, to see what is scheduled and what is ready.
- Only after a week decide which old data to move: active cars first, then the history.
What stays outside the app
- Client communication: messages, calls and confirmations are done by you, through your own channel.
- Physical parts stock: 4mygarage does not keep stock quantities.
- Invoicing and accounting, which stay in your invoicing program.
The mistake that breaks the switch
Keeping the notebook and the app in parallel. Pick one: after two weeks, a job written only on paper no longer appears in the car's history.