Custom Workshop Planning Software for Garages
Appfront builds planning boards that let a car dealership fill its workshop without double-booking: which mechanic, which bridge, which job and how much time is set aside for each. With the MOT agenda built in and visibility of the cars waiting for parts.
What is workshop planning software?
Workshop planning is the allocation of available hours across incoming work. The available hours are those of your mechanics, limited by the number of bridges and by specialisms not everyone has. The work consists of appointments, MOTs, repairs arising from a MOT, and work that drops in between.
Without a planning board this happens on a whiteboard or in a diary, and two kinds of loss follow. Double-booking leaves cars standing and customers being phoned, and under-booking leaves a mechanic waiting. Both only become visible afterwards, when the clocked hours sit alongside the invoiced hours.
We build custom because the layout of a workshop is hard to standardise. The number of lifts, which mechanic is allowed to do what, whether you work with courtesy cars and how you handle the jobs that come in unexpectedly: these are characteristics of your business, not of the software.
Planning board
A weekly or daily view with mechanics and bridges side by side, where work can be moved without losing sight of capacity.
Work order with time
For each order, the planned time alongside the actual clocked time, so you can see where your standard times are off.
MOT and parts
The MOT agenda draws on vehicle data, and cars waiting for parts are shown separately so they don't clutter the schedule.
How we build your workshop planning software
We start with the workshop itself: how many bridges, which mechanics, which work. Only then do we decide what the planning board looks like.
Mechanics, their hours, their specialisms and the number of bridges. Also the question of which work must go on which bridge, because a lift for commercial vehicles is not interchangeable with a standard one.
Which work comes in and how much time you allow for it. We take your own experience figures as the starting point and adjust them once clocked time shows something different.
Dragging, moving, splitting work across two mechanics and fitting in work that drops in between. This needs to work at the front desk screen, with a mouse and with touch.
Appointment confirmation to the customer, a status update if the work overruns and visibility of the parts still to arrive. After that we take over maintenance.
What workshop planning software actually does
What you need depends on the size of your workshop and on how much unplanned work comes in.
Planning board per mechanic and bridge
Plan work with the right mechanic and the right bay, with a view of capacity per day and per week.
Work orders
What needs doing, with which parts, the planned time and any agreements with the customer. The mechanic works from the same order.
Clocked time
What was actually worked alongside what was planned, so that standard times rest on experience.
MOT calendar
Vehicles whose MOT is due to expire come into view in good time, so you can contact the customer rather than wait.
Parts and waiting status
A car waiting on a part ties up a bay. That status is visible so the planning can be adjusted accordingly.
Customer communication
Appointment confirmations and a message if the job overruns, sent from the same order so nobody needs to make follow-up calls.
Who we build workshop planning software for
Planning becomes a problem once there are more than a few mechanics and the work no longer fits in one person's head.
Independent garages
A handful of mechanics and a lot of work that drives in between jobs. You mainly need an overview, not a complicated system.
Dealer workshops
More mechanics, more specialisms and warranty work with its own rules. Then what matters is whether the planning board can handle those differences.
Bodywork repair businesses
Your turnaround depends on parts and on the expertise of the insurer. Making waiting time visible matters more than tight scheduling.
Commercial vehicle and truck workshops
Your bridges and pits are scarce and not interchangeable. The link between work and workplace is central to your planning.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The planning board works in the browser and on a tablet at the workshop. If you are looking for software for the entire operations of a garage, including invoicing and customer management, see garage business software. If it concerns maintenance of machines and installations rather than vehicles, then maintenance software is the appropriate page. Our approach is described on custom software development.
For the mechanic working on the car, with work orders and additional work with photos, there is our app for garage workshop planning.
If you want to appraise and track part-exchange vehicles on the workshop floor, see our app for used stock and trade-ins.
If you combine storage with a service for motorcycles, see our app for motorcycle storage administration.
For the workshop of a bicycle shop, with e-bikes, warranty and lease bikes, there is our workshop planning software for bicycle repair.
If your planning waits on parts per damage claim, with backorders and a date to give the customer, see our parts lead-time software for bodywork repair.
Why choose Appfront for your workshop planning software?
A planning board that is inaccurate will be abandoned for the whiteboard within two weeks. That is what we build against.
Fast enough for the front desk
Moving a job has to happen in seconds while a customer is waiting. Slowness here is a functional failure.
Standard times from your own work
Clocked time corrects planned time. After a few months you plan on your own figures rather than a standard from a book.
Exceptions are part of the job
Work that drives in between jobs is not a disruption to the process but part of it. The planning board has to cope with that.
Security and privacy in workshop planning software
The planning holds customer details and registration numbers, and a work order sometimes includes information about how a customer uses their car. We build with data minimisation and define per role who may see what: a mechanic sees their work and the vehicle, not the full customer history or invoicing.
Time registration says something about individual employees and therefore falls under the GDPR. We discuss in advance which data you record, how long you keep it and who may view it, and build that into permissions rather than leaving it to agreements. Every change to a work order is logged.
Frequently asked questions about workshop scheduling software
Questions that car dealerships and garages ask about workshop scheduling.
It allocates the available hours of your mechanics and lifts across the incoming work. On a planning board you can see, by day and by week, who is working on what, how much time is booked and where there is still capacity. This prevents double-booking and lets you see in advance whether tomorrow's work realistically fits.
Yes, and that is usually why a generic planning board is not enough. Not every mechanic may carry out every type of job, and not every job can be done on every lift. We record those restrictions, so the planning board warns you when work is placed where it cannot be done.
Yes. The MOT expiry date belongs to the vehicle and can be retrieved from the RDW's open data. Cars whose MOT is about to expire come into view in good time, so you can contact the owner and schedule the work at a convenient moment rather than at the last minute.
By leaving room for it and making it visible when that room runs out. We usually build in a daily buffer that you set yourself, plus the option to shift work while keeping the appointment with the customer. Unplanned work is the rule in a workshop, not the exception.
Yes, and that is one of the most useful figures it produces. If a particular job consistently takes longer than you allow for, you will see it in the comparison and can adjust your standard time. That works better than a general norm, because it measures your own workshop.
It can, and it saves a lot of phone calls. A confirmation when the appointment is made, and a message if the work runs over or the car is ready, sent from the same work order. You decide what to send and when; we do not build messages you do not want.
Yes, that's a common situation. The existing package handles invoicing and customer administration, and we build the planning alongside it with an integration so work orders and customer details don't have to be entered twice. What can be integrated depends on the capabilities your package offers.
Fill your workshop without double-booking?
Tell us how many mechanics and lifts you have and how you currently plan. We will look over your workshop with you and show what a planning board would deliver in your situation.