Save Time With a Modern Auto Repair Receipt System

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May 22, 2023

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Read time: 3 min

Abruptly shifting from task-to-task a handful of times throughout the day can disrupt your workflow and distract you from spending time with customers. And let’s face it: we’re all prone to tunnel vision when we’re focused on mundane tasks that can probably be automated for us.

For the shop owners and service advisors who have been in the game for a while now, it’s likely you already have your shop’s tedious functions down, but you may still have a major opportunity to save time. And for those of you who are new to the game—whether you just started your shop or are in the process of getting things up and running—you might have clicked on this blog to find your solution to your shop’s auto repair receipts. There are many auto repair receipt options out there. You could get a template or use a basic PDF. But the modern customer experience can be met with a shop management system that has a receipt process built into it.

Changing even a small procedure in your shop can have a big impact. Streamlining your auto repair receipts, for example, can save your shop time, enhance your shop’s customer experience, and even boost transparency within your shop. Let’s say your shop takes about five minutes to fill out one receipt manually. So if you have about 25 repairs in a day, that five minutes adds up to around two hours a day—simply filling out receipts. You shouldn’t have to spend time rewriting the same information over and over. The same information that you’ve already plugged in during the estimate process should automatically go into the receipt for you.

But when it comes to receipts, you can’t just cut corners to save on time. You need to make sure you include all requirements on an auto repair receipt—at minimum. Let’s take a look.

What’s On An Auto Repair Receipt and Why?

Each item included on an auto repair receipt is not just crucial, but required. Auto repair shops are legally required to provide customers with an auto repair receipt, but what are you required, by law, to include on it? An auto repair receipt should have an itemized, legible statement including all diagnostic and repair work completed, including:

  • A general description of the problem reported by your customer
  • A diagnosis or identification of the defect or condition
  • An itemization of parts replaced
  • A description and accounting of labor
  • Date of repair
  • Odometer reading at time of repair
  • Date vehicle was returned to your customer

Educating yourself on the laws behind auto repair receipts will help keep your shop protected. To easily understand what needs to be included on your shop’s auto repair receipt, we’ve split the elements up into three sections: the header, the customer’s information, and completed work.

1. The Receipt’s Header

Each auto repair receipt will need to include the date the receipt was generated and the identifying receipt number. Service advisors should always include a receipt number on auto repair receipts to help easily sift through any receipt databases established in your shop. Additionally, your company’s information will need to be in the receipt’s header, including your company’s address, phone number, email, and website.

2. The Customer’s Information

Each auto repair receipt will need to include the customer’s information: their name, address, phone number, and their vehicle’s information. Including information such as the license plate number and the year, make, and model of the vehicle will help your service advisors know which receipt corresponds with each customer. If the repair work was assigned through an insurance company, you’ll need to include their insurance provider’s name as well as the claim number.

3. The Completed Work

Along with the above two elements, the repair order portion of the auto repair receipt is essential. The service advisor will include the authorized services completed, including the price of the job, the parts needed for said job, and the total. Once each RO is clearly defined, you can go into the subtotals, tax rate, and the overall total. It’s important to include all costs on your receipt so your customers know what they’re being charged for.

Adding in each of these three sections manually takes time. Like we discussed above, taking about two hours to fill out auto repair receipts will take away time you could be spending with customers. If you want to build better relationships with your customers, modernizing day-to-day processes by switching to a shop management system with a built-in auto repair receipt system is an easy way to get started.

Streamline Your Shop’s Auto Repair Receipt System

Tekmetric makes it easy for service advisors to create, send, and save auto repair receipts. Each job your technician’s finish up—from the estimates to the work-in-progress to the payment collection—will be tracked and stored within Tekmetric.

From there, your service advisors are able to easily see any work that is complete so they can send over the auto repair receipt to the corresponding customer.

All service advisors need to do is open up Tekmetric, navigate to a job that is waiting on payment, open it up, and click “view and share invoice.” In total, your service advisors can generate customers’ receipts in less than 5 clicks.

So your previous manual process that took five minutes to fill out? Cut that down to 10 seconds. Instead of two hours a day spent filling out auto repair receipts, you’re looking at a mere two minutes and fifty seconds.  

Everything you’ve already plugged into Tekmetric is already there. The information is pulled from the repair order that the service advisors began building when they greeted the customer and created an estimate.

What Tekmetric Auto Populates On Auto Repair Receipts

Tekmetric not only includes the information above but also generates that information for you into the auto repair receipt.

We’re always looking for ways we can save your shop time. With the Tekmetric’s Shop Management system, you can go beyond auto-generated receipts and speed up how you process payments and use metrics to grow your business.

1. Take Payments Faster

Straight from the invoice, service advisors can select “make payment” and enter the customer’s payment details right then and there, whether the customer is in the shop or talking to you over the phone.

Service advisors also have the option to select “pay the balance in full” or type in a custom amount due if your shop creates a payment plan for a customer.

Tek-Tip: Tekmetric’s Account Receivable Report allows you to easily track partial payments. Straight from the report, you can print and send the new invoice, and payments are automatically updated in the report.

2. Make Paying Even Easier With Tekmerchant Text-to-Pay

If your shop has both a seamless auto repair receipt process and a seamless payment processing solution, your team and customers will thank you. By giving customers more payment options, your shop will become their go-to shop.

All your customers have to do is open the auto repair receipt your shop texted their way and pay the balance due straight from their smartphone. By implementing a text-to-pay system in your shop, you will receive payments faster and reduce the wait time for people to pay.

Give your customers the ability to pay anywhere, anytime and make life easier for everyone.

3. Store and Track All Auto Repair Receipt Information

With Tekmetric, you can store and track all of your shop’s information. Gone are the endless-stacks-of-paper and clunky-filing-cabinet days. Let’s say a customer phones the shop to get clarification on a $13.20 fee.

Your service advisor can pull up the corresponding auto repair receipt by typing the customer’s name to the global search, pulling up the RO number, or typing in the vehicle information. From there, the service advisor can see that the $13.20 fee was for rubber gloves and hazard disposal.

With Tekmetric, any service advisor can quickly find and recall specific details to customers so they know exactly what they’ve paid for and why.  

“When I can measure how valuable my business is, I have more opportunities to pass that value on to our customers.” - Andrew Minkler, Bavarian Motor Repairs


Tekmetric not only stores information but also tracks your shop’s key performance metrics. Tekmetric’s real-time reports make it easy for you to track your shop’s profitability, employee performance, inventory, and customer retention.

Here are just a few of the financial reports you can use to grow your business:

  • End-of-Day: With Tekmetric’s End-of-Day Report, you can see what your metrics look like over a week, a month, year-to-date, or any other time range to find trends and adjust your strategy.
  • Accounts Receivable: With Tekmetric’s Accounts Receivable Report, you can see all outstanding invoices, manage fleet accounts, and easily track partial payments. If you’re collecting partial payment, you can print and send the new invoice, and payments are automatically updated in the report.
  • Accounts Payable: With Tekmetric’s Accounts Payable Report, you can see what you owe parts vendors and sublet vendors, and how many days your debt has been outstanding.

Create a Seamless Auto Repair Receipt Process

Simplifying processes saves time. Make the auto repair receipt process easy for your service advisors, customers, and for yourself.

Your service advisors can seamlessly pull up, edit, and monitor customers’ receipts without having to worry about reentering the same information over and over.

Your customers can have peace of mind knowing what their money was spent on, while paying where and how they want to. And you can save time as you build your shop.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Tekmetric handles those minute details for you so you can swiftly get customers’ back on the road.

👉 Ready to grow your automotive business? [Book a personalized Tekmetric Demo Here]

FAQ

similar articles

Scaling your auto repair business requires moving beyond simple spreadsheets and paper repair orders. You need a robust shop management software that has enterprise-level features, centralized real-time reporting, and helps you provide a consistent customer experience across locations.

This guide breaks down the top enterprise software solutions for auto repair shops with 2+ locations.

Top 5 Enterprise Solutions for Shops With Multiple Locations

Finding the right software partner for your expanding shop is critical to your success. Below you will find our top overall picks for multi-shop operators (MSOs).

1. Tekmetric

Multi-shop owners love Tekmetric because they can run their entire business, across all locations, from one platform. Featuring an all-in-one shop management solution with centralized real-time reporting, marketing, payments, and 70+ integrations, Tekmetric makes it easier for you to manage multiple locations.
Why we picked Tekmetric:

  • Unified inventory & part management: See your entire inventory availability, order parts, and transfer parts across locations as needed.
  • All-in-one solution: Instead of switching between platforms, Tekmetric offers shop management, POS, and CRM in one place.
  • Company history: Built by a former shop owner, Tekmetric is often praised for ease of use, simple onboarding, reliable support, and listening to customer feedback.
  • Pricing: Starts at $179/mo (billed annually).

2. Shop-Ware

Shop-Ware is designed to help you maintain consistency across multiple locations with unified customer history, reporting, and employee management features.

Why we picked Shop-Ware:

  • Reporting: Find the metrics that matter the most to your business.
  • Customer experience: Standardize your customer experience across locations.
  • Employee management: Easily compare employee productivity and manage permission levels.
  • Pricing: Starts at $224/mo (billed annually).

3. Protractor

Protractor is a popular shop management system for shops with multiple locations or franchises. Protractor offers advanced reporting features and shop management features so you can run your shop confidently.

Why we picked Protractor:

  • Reporting: Performance tracking, insights, and employee productivity monitoring.
  • Accounting: Built-in accounting tools.
  • Integrations: Multiple integration partners.
  • Pricing: Starts at $359/mo (billed annually).

4. Fullbay

Fullbay specializes in heavy-duty truck and trailer repair shops. Most standard shop software struggles with the complexity of fleet maintenance, but Fullbay was built for it.

Why we picked Fullbay:

  • Centralized inventory: Track parts and inventory across all locations.
  • Integrations: Fullbay has plenty of industry interrogations to keep your shop running.
  • Cloud-based: Manage your shop from anywhere.
  • Pricing: Starting at $188/mo.

5. Garage360

If you are looking for a lighter software solution, Garage360 might be a good option for your shop. Supporting quick-lube, body/collision, and fleet, Garage360 can be used in a variety of shops.

Why we picked Garage360:

  • Versatile: Can be used in multiple shop types.
  • Permission control: Manage your employee permissions across locations.
  • Reporting: Pull the data you need to make informed decisions.
  • Pricing: Starting at $79/mo (billed annually).

Which software features should I look for when I manage multiple shops?

If you are comparing software options for your chain operations, these are the modern features to look for:

Centralized real-time reporting: Tired of trying to guess how each shop location is performing? Pick a software that can pull the data you need from any location or aggregate it across shop locations within a user-friendly dashboard.

Inventory/parts management: Tracking parts can be difficult as you expand. Find a solution that can track inventory levels and transfer parts as needed across locations.

Standardized workflows: Having standard workflows streamlines your shop operations. Select a software that can standardize your operations, prices, and procedures.

Employee permissions: Managing employee permissions is critical to ensuring the safety of your company data and holding employees accountable. Pick a software that keeps your business secure.

Customer communication: Modern customers expect a higher level of communication than they did 10 years ago. Find a shop management solution that provides online scheduling, DVIs, two-way texting, and other modern customer experience tools.

Single vs. Multi-Location Management: What are the differences?

Why can’t you just use a single-shop system? The difference lies in automation and control.

  • Standardization: In a multi-location setup, you need to ensure that technicians at every shop are following the same workflow and procedures so your customer experience is consistent.
  • Visibility: Single shop software may have reporting, but you need to be able to compare metrics between shops to make informed business decisions.
  • Security: Multi-shop software provides employee permission settings and typically comes with advanced data protection.
  • Pricing: Most single-shop software options will charge you per user or limit repair orders. Enterprise software will grow with you and charge based on the number of locations.

Final Thoughts

Choosing an enterprise-level auto repair shop software isn't just about features; it's about finding a partner that helps you maintain a consistent customer experience as you grow. Whether you prioritize inventory management, deep metrics, or standard procedures, ensure you find a solution that can grow with you.

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