How it works
The whole product is one journey. Each step keeps its own state, so a quote being accepted never means a job is done or an invoice is paid.
1. Set up in two minutes
Business name, login, hourly labour rate. VAT status and your trading details are needed before the first customer document goes out; a logo, minimum charge, call-out fee, diagnostic rate and parts markup can be added as you go.
2. Customer and vehicle
Name and contact details, then the vehicle by registration. Where a lookup provider is connected, returned fields are shown for you to confirm. Where it is not, or the plate is not found, you enter the details yourself. A plate is never a permanent key: keepers change, and a previous keeper's details are never shown to the next one.
3. The estimate
Start from a common job or a blank sheet. Each line is labour (in minutes, at your rate), a part (from cost with your markup, or a price you type in), a consumable, a charge, a subcontracted service or a discount. Lines that belong together share a group so they are accepted together. Recommended work is optional for the customer.
You choose what kind of document it is: a budget estimate (TBC lines allowed), a diagnostic allowance (time to find a fault, at your diagnostic rate), or a quotation (every line priced).
4. Review, then send
Before sending you see warnings the customer never sees: margin below your minimum, stale prices, possibly overlapping labour, unpriced lines. Sending freezes the document as a numbered version and emails the customer a link and PDF. A retried click cannot send twice.
5. Approval
The customer opens the link, sees the same document, and accepts, declines, defers or asks a question. Their name, contact, selection, total and time are recorded. If you take a yes by phone or in person you record it as such, with your name on it — it is never confused with a click.
6. Job card, extra work, invoice
Acceptance creates a job card with exactly the approved lines. Anything found on the ramp is added as proposed and stays unpriced on the invoice until the customer authorises it. The invoice is numbered once and frozen; payments are recorded against it until it is paid.
What we deliberately do not do
We do not diagnose faults from a symptom, invent a manufacturer time, decide what fits a car without evidence, call a part OEM without data, or treat an unanswered email as a yes. The mechanic confirms the work; the software keeps the record straight.