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Quickbooks Online


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Hi everyone


I was doing some research on shop management systems and noticed some great threads but given my budget I want to see if I can use Quickbooks Online since it's great for invoicing and easy to set up plus cheap. Some questions I had for anyone who uses or has used Quickbooks Online:


1. How do I assign a vehicle to a customer?

2. How do you track any recommendations to the customer's vehicle - just in notes?

3. How do you manage estimates and inspections?

4. Do you use anything else to manage daily schedule?

5. Ultimately can you use Quickbooks Online to run your shop?


Thanks for the help

SHW

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Incfile.com


Incfile.com


Incfile.com

Quickbooks solves a lot of your book keeping needs and if you are savvy you can track a lot of useful data and metrics through it HOWEVER even though a lot of shop management software is generally archaic in design to most everything out there it still is very industry specific. I have experience with 2 shop management softwares in particular. Mitchell and RO Writer. The Reporting that both programs have can be duplicated to a certain degree in quickbooks however it would really take you a lot of hours of thought into creating a system of logging all the correct information you need.

 

I would agree with alfredauto that a dedicated shop management software is probably your best bet. It makes life a lot easier.

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I used quick books for years. Looking back I don't know how we did it. Not well, that's for sure. It can be done but it can't be done correctly without extensive manual entry work. They could add some modules and it would work fairly well but the way the standard version works it doesn't fit automotive businesses in regards to billing and customer management. In the end it'd be cheaper just to go ahead with a management system. The matrix alone pays for the software!

 

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

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  • 4 weeks later...

I will second the recommendation for SMOTGO as a shop management tool. It is excellent - web-based and totally free as bstewart mentioned. I also use quick books online but only to run my finances. I accept credit cards with the GoPayment option and it connects directly to my bank account to automatically pull in transactions. So SMOTGO to run the shop, QBO to handle the finances. Been working well for me so far.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello everyone! I'm newbie here, but I've some exp in auto repair shop software. A month ago I decided to move from Excel for shop run and find lite software instead <_< Well, I have to say there are plenty of them, I've read lots of reviews and watched tonnes of videos... Finally, I've settled on AutoRepair cloud (www.autorepaircloud.com) as the price was good for me. It is completely web based, so you don't need to install smth on your computer and it has integration with Quickbooks to run accounting. The next thing I like is mobile application for customers via I am chatting with my customers, sending them photos, updating repair progress, etc.

Edited by Phil_CA
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  • 4 weeks later...

I see a lot of people here are using mitchell, I have been using alldata. I am paying about 250-260 per month for my repair info and the elite version of the management program which has the parts matrix ability. What are you folks paying for mitchell?

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We use QuickBooks Pro currently. Does any of the other SMS allow for retail? We have a retail store for our performance side which is about 25-30% of our business. I have been slowing looking at a SMS, and want one that would integrate with QuickBooks. Computers....ugh!

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Check out Digital Wrench software it does everything you mentioned and the price is very reasonable compared to other RO programs. You would still Need finance software like quickbooks to track bills payroll etc.

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         0 comments
      Auto shop owners are always looking for ways to improve production levels. They focus their attention on their technicians and require certain expectations of performance in billable labor hours. While technicians must know what is expected of them, they have a limited amount of control over production levels. When all factors are considered, the only thing a well-trained technician has control over is his or her actual efficiency.
      As a review, technician efficiency is the amount of labor time it takes a technician to complete a job compared to the labor time being billed to the customer. Productivity is the time the technician is billing labor hours compared to the time the technician is physically at the shop. The reality is that a technician can be very efficient, but not productive if the technician has a lot of downtime waiting for parts, waiting too long between jobs, or poor workflow systems.
      But let’s go deeper into what affects production in the typical auto repair shop. As a business coach, one of the biggest reasons for low shop production is not charging the correct labor time. Labor for extensive jobs is often not being billed accurately. Rust, seized bolts, and wrong published labor times are just a few reasons for lost labor dollars.
      Another common problem is not understanding how to bill for jobs that require extensive diagnostic testing, and complicated procedures to arrive at the root cause for an onboard computer problem, electrical issue, or drivability issue. These jobs usually take time to analyze, using sophisticated tools, and by the shop’s top technician. Typically, these jobs are billed at a standard menu labor charge, instead of at a higher labor rate. This results in less billed labor hours than the actual labor time spent. The amount of lost labor hours here can cripple a shop’s overall profit.
      Many shop owners do a great job at calculating their labor rate but may not understand what their true effective labor is, which is their labor sales divided by the total labor hours sold. In many cases, I have seen a shop that has a shop labor rate of over $150.00 per hour, but the actual effective labor rate is around $100. Not good.
      Lastly, technician production can suffer when the service advisors are too busy or not motivated to build relationships with customers, which results in a low sales closing ratio. And let’s not forget that to be productive, a shop needs to have the right systems, the right tools and equipment, an extensive information system, and of course, great leadership.
      The bottom line is this; many factors need to be considered when looking to increase production levels. While it does start with the technician, it doesn’t end there. Consider all the factors above when looking for ways to improve your shop’s labor production.
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