Custom auto repair shop software for independent shops, repair chains, and tyre service centres who need repair orders, parts tracking, and customer communication built around how their workshop actually operates.
Digital job cards and repair orders linked to vehicle history by VIN
Parts ordering consolidated across suppliers with real-time inventory tracking
Automated customer SMS and email updates at each stage of the repair
Bay scheduling, technician assignment, and workshop capacity management
What you can count on
Retention
3+ years
Average client relationship across active accounts
First milestone
Week 1
A straight read on what to keep and what to rebuild
Pricing
Fixed price
Scope and cost agreed before work starts
Team
No handoffs
The senior engineers who scope the build also ship it
The problem
Service advisors writing job cards on paper and chasing technicians across the shop floor for status updates?
Customers calling every hour because there's no automated way to tell them their car is ready?
Short answer
RaftLabs builds custom auto repair shop software for independent shops, multi-location chains, and tyre centres. It covers digital repair orders linked to VIN service history, digital vehicle inspections with SMS approval, parts ordering across suppliers, automated customer updates, and bay scheduling. Most shops launch a validated v1 in 12 to 14 weeks, then iterate. Cost typically runs $25,000 to $120,000, fixed and agreed up front.
Auto repair shop software has to follow the vehicle through the bay, not sit on a generic service desk. A vehicle moves through intake, inspection, estimate approval, parts ordering, repair, quality check, and customer handover. Information needs to follow it accurately at every step. When that information lives on paper or across disconnected tools, service advisors spend their day chasing updates rather than managing customers.
Independent shops are winning the work that makes this matter. Dealership service lanes fell to 30% of US service visits in 2023, down from 35% in 2021, as owners moved to general repair shops (Cox Automotive, 2023 Service Industry Study). The shops taking that volume need software built for how a workshop actually runs.
The parts problem compounds it. Most shops order from three to six suppliers. Without a consolidated view of what's ordered, what has arrived, and what's on backorder, technicians sit idle waiting on parts with no sight of when the job can progress.
01 Diagnosis
Your service advisors spend two hours a day chasing technicians for job status instead of managing customers
When the service desk has no live view of what stage each vehicle is at, advisors walk the workshop floor or call across the bay before they can answer a customer. That time compounds across every open job on the floor. A job card system with real-time status updates, pushed by the technician from a mobile device at each stage transition, gives the service desk a live dashboard without the chase.
Customers call five times a day asking for updates you don't have time to give
Inbound status calls are the highest-volume distraction in most repair shops. Each call takes two to three minutes, interrupts a service advisor mid-task, and produces no revenue. For a ten-bay shop with 20 active jobs, that volume is unmanageable. Automated SMS and email updates at each job stage, sent when the technician moves the status rather than when a staff member remembers, cut the majority of inbound calls without changing the service advisor's workload.
Estimate approvals require a phone call that goes to voicemail 40 percent of the time, delaying the job by half a day
When a service advisor calls a customer to discuss inspection findings and the customer doesn't pick up, the job sits. The bay is blocked. The technician moves to another job and loses momentum on the first. Digital inspections change that math. AutoVitals, analysing repair orders across its shop network, found the average repair order value for inspections with 20 or more photos runs 30.4% higher than inspections with five or fewer (AutoVitals). A digital inspection report with an approval link sent by SMS or email lets the customer review findings, approve or decline individual items, and respond in their own time. That converts a blocking phone call into a non-blocking event, and it gives the customer the evidence to say yes to more of the work.
Your multi-location operation has no consolidated view: each shop is an island with its own job records and parts stock
When each location manages its own job cards, parts inventory, and customer records independently, a customer who visits a second shop is treated as a new customer with no history. Parts overstocked at one location and out of stock at another sit in the wrong place. A multi-location system with shared VIN-based vehicle history, cross-location parts visibility, and a consolidated operations dashboard gives the owner a real picture of the business without calling each shop for an update.
02 What we build
Digital job cards created at vehicle intake and linked to the customer record and vehicle VIN. Technician assignment with job status tracking through each stage: received, in inspection, estimate sent, approved, parts ordered, in repair, quality check, ready for collection. Service advisor dashboard shows all open jobs with current status and time in current stage. Mobile-friendly technician view so the workshop floor doesn't require a desktop. Job notes and technician comments captured against each repair order. Billing happens directly from the completed job card via your invoicing workflow.
Digital vehicle inspection with photo and video capture against each inspection point. Condition ratings for tyres, brakes, lights, fluids, and visual checks, with photos attached to each flagged item. The inspection report generates automatically and goes to the customer for estimate approval. Customer approval or rejection is tracked with a timestamped record. Additional items found during inspection are presented as a clear list of recommended work with costs, not a phone conversation the customer can't review later. Inspection history stores against the vehicle VIN for reference on future visits.
Parts ordering consolidated across your suppliers in one interface, not separate logins or phone calls. Parts requests raise from the job card so the link between part and repair is never lost. Stock level management for fast-moving parts with reorder point alerts. Parts arrival tracking links back to the job card so the service advisor knows when all parts for a job are in. Supplier comparison for pricing and availability where multiple suppliers carry the same part. Backorder tracking with expected arrival dates updated against the job record.
Automated SMS and email updates sent at each key stage: vehicle received, inspection complete, estimate ready for approval, parts ordered, repair complete, ready for collection. Estimate approval happens via a link in the message. The customer reviews the inspection report and approves or declines without calling the shop. Two-way SMS for customers who want to respond. Customer communication history stores against the job record. Configurable notification triggers let you control which events send automatic messages. No customer needs to call the shop to find out what's happening with their vehicle.
Bay-level scheduling with a visual workshop calendar showing each bay, assigned technician, and job duration. Capacity management lets the service desk know before booking a job whether a bay and technician are available on the requested date. Job time estimates by repair type block the right amount of time per bay. Technician skill and certification tracking covers jobs that require a specialist. Workshop throughput reporting: jobs completed per day, average job duration, bay utilisation, and technician productivity. End-of-day status report shows all open jobs with expected completion dates.
Full service history stored against each vehicle by VIN: every job card, inspection report, parts fitted, and technician note from every visit. Service due reminders trigger automatically based on mileage intervals or time since last service. Fleet account management for businesses sending multiple vehicles: single account with billing consolidated across all vehicles, fleet reporting, and service schedule tracking per vehicle. Fleet managers get a customer portal to view job status and service history across their fleet.
03 How we work
Trusted by
04 Track record
05 Client voices
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
USAAll of the milestones were delivered on schedule and on budget. We highly recommend RaftLabs!
06 Why us
07 Questions
Off-the-shelf workshop management platforms work well for straightforward repair shop operations. Custom software makes sense when your workflow has specific steps those platforms don't support. For example: a multi-brand repair group that needs consolidated reporting across locations with different service types; a tyre centre with a high-volume inspection and fitment workflow that doesn't map to a general repair order; or a business building a software product for other repair operators. The wrong answer is building custom when a platform configuration would handle the requirement. Platform subscriptions carry lower ongoing cost than custom software maintenance.
Yes. Automated customer notifications triggered by job status changes are one of the highest-value features we build for repair shops. The system monitors each job card and sends the configured message (SMS, email, or both) when the status changes to a trigger point. Estimate approval links sent with the inspection report let the customer approve or decline via the message without calling the shop. The service advisor sees the approval in the system in real time. No manual message sending, no tracking who has been called, no customers falling through the gap because a staff member forgot.
Yes. Integrating with parts supplier APIs or ordering portals to present consolidated parts availability and pricing in one interface is a common requirement. The technical complexity depends on what each supplier exposes. Some have well-documented APIs; others require screen scraping or EDI integration. We scope supplier integrations during discovery, because the available integration method for each supplier determines how much time that part of the project takes.
A focused repair order and customer communication system typically runs $25,000 to $50,000. A full platform with digital repair orders, a vehicle inspection app, parts ordering integration, customer notifications, bay scheduling, VIN-based service history, and fleet account management typically runs $65,000 to $120,000. Cost depends on the number of supplier integrations, the complexity of your multi-location setup, and how much of an existing system needs replacing rather than extending. Most shops launch a validated v1 first, then keep iterating. We scope every project before pricing. Fixed cost, agreed before work starts.
The VIN is the primary identifier for the vehicle record. Every job card, inspection report, parts fitted, and technician note from every visit across every location in your group stores against that VIN. When a customer brings their vehicle to a different location, the service advisor pulls up the full history immediately. Fleet customers with multiple vehicles get a consolidated account view with per-vehicle history accessible at any site. This shared record is what prevents a customer being treated as a new visitor at a second location.
Auto repair customer support automation
Repair status notifications, digital inspection approvals, and service reminders, sent without staff lifting a finger.
Business process automation
Automate repair order creation, parts reordering, customer status notifications, warranty claims, and fleet maintenance reminders.
Custom software development
Custom shop management platforms, customer portals, and fleet maintenance tools built for your workshop type.
Tell us the workflow problem, job cards, parts ordering, customer updates, or fleet management, and we'll tell you what we'd build and how.
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