Shop management built for independent repair — not dealership chains.
Digital inspections, customer-facing estimate approvals, work orders, and invoicing — without the enterprise price tag or the decade-old interface.
Production-tested. 5,251 customers and 7,634 vehicles migrated from a legacy Access database — zero records lost.
How it works
From drop-off to pickup, in four steps.
The same flow your shop already runs — just written down, trackable, and shareable with your customer.
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1
Intake
Writer captures the customer's concerns verbatim, creates the vehicle, and starts a work order. Brand-new customer? Add them without leaving the screen.
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2
Inspect
Mechanic works through the tablet checklist, snapping photos and rating conditions. Every customer concern is pinned at the top — one tap to address it.
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3
Approve
Customer gets a secure text or email, opens the link on their phone, and approves line-by-line. Safety, recommended, and optional are sorted for them.
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4
Invoice
One click finalizes the work order, assigns an invoice number, locks the line items, and prints a CA BAR-compliant invoice with the customer's original concerns.
Features
The shop, end-to-end.
Everything you need to run service work, without the bolt-ons.
Digital Inspections
Multi-point tablet inspections with photos, condition ratings, and one-tap linking back to customer concerns.
See digital inspections →Estimate Approvals
Customers approve and decline from a secure per-estimate link on their phone. No app to download.
See estimate approvals →3 C's Workflow
Complaint, Cause, Correction — every customer concern tracked from intake to invoice so nothing falls through the cracks.
See the 3 C's workflow →Work Orders
A real state machine: estimate, work order, suspended, invoice, void. Every transition logged with user, timestamp, and diff.
See work orders →CA BAR Invoicing
Invoices include customer concerns, BAR number, toxic-waste number, and a frozen customer + vehicle snapshot.
See CA BAR invoicing →Secure by Default
TOTP & SMS multi-factor auth, rate limiting, per-tenant data isolation, and daily off-site backups.
See security features →Customer notifications. Automatic text and email for inspection ready, estimate ready, and vehicle ready.
Data migration. Bring your customers, vehicles, and service history from your legacy software.
End-of-day close-out. Cash reconciliation by tender type with a per-day audit record.
Built for independents
Not a watered-down enterprise tool.
Every feature was built around the way an independent shop actually works — the service writer handing off to the mechanic, the mechanic finding something the customer didn't know about, the customer asking for a quick answer by text.
- No per-seat licensing. Every writer, every tech, every cashier — included.
- 5,251 customers and 7,634 vehicles migrated. Off a 20-year-old Access database. Zero lost records. Every legacy reference number preserved.
- Talk to the people building it. No call center, no ticketing queue, no sales engineer.
- Runs in a browser. Tablet, phone, shop PC — anywhere with a modern browser.
- CA BAR compliant out of the box. Customer concerns, VIN or plate, BAR number — all printed where they belong.
FAQ
Common questions
When will ShopFlow Auto be generally available?
We're running a closed beta now with a small group of founding-partner shops. General availability will open once the beta cohort has validated every workflow end to end. Join the beta waitlist to be first in.
Will you migrate my data from my current software?
Yes. We've done Microsoft Access exports out of the box and can build adapters for most legacy shop-management systems. Customer records, vehicles, service history, canned jobs, and suppliers all come across.
Do my customers need to download an app?
No. Customers get a secure link by text or email, open it on their phone, and approve or decline line by line. No login, no app, no password.
Is the platform CA BAR compliant?
Yes. Customer concerns are printed on every invoice. Vehicle identification requires a license plate or VIN. Shop BAR number and toxic-waste number render on the letterhead. SMS consent is tracked per customer and documented in our SMS policy.
Do you charge per user or per work order?
No per-seat fees, no per-work-order fees. Beta partners get full platform access. Pricing for general availability will be announced with input from the beta cohort.
Where is my data stored?
On a dedicated VPS with daily off-site backups and 30-day retention. Every shop's data is isolated at the row level — there is no cross-tenant query path in the application. See our privacy policy for details.
Running an independent shop? Let's talk.
A 30-minute demo on your own vehicle list. No sales theater. We read every request.
Request beta access