Custom software for auto repair groups and dealerships: integration into the system you run, and the numbers by branch

Buy, if you run one location and the system covers your write-up, inspection, invoice and reporting. We say that on audit calls regularly and we mean it. Building makes sense when you run several branches on different systems, when the integration you need is priced out of reach or was never built, or when the report you need spans your shop system, your phones and your accounting package.

To the depth your account exposes, and we confirm that during the audit rather than promising it on a call. Some of these publish an API that your account has to be approved for, and approval is not automatic. Mitchell 1, AutoLeap and the collision systems each have their own routes again. Where the API stops, we build a reviewed queue your staff accept with one click instead of re-typing.

Those run certified integration programmes, and the sanctioned route is through them. It carries fees and a review process, so the honest sequence is to find out what your store's agreement allows before anybody designs around it. Where the certified route is closed or priced beyond what the job is worth, we work from scheduled extracts and a reviewed queue, and your controller signs anything that touches a deal or a ledger.

No, and that's deliberate. Reporting stays read-only, so a bad query can never change a repair order or a ledger entry. Car count, average RO, hours per RO, approval rate, parts margin and gross profit by branch are read on a schedule and shown on one screen. Where a write is genuinely needed, it happens through the integration layer with a named person approving it.

It's the reason most groups call us. Each branch keeps the system its team knows, and the layer normalises what comes out so the group numbers mean the same thing everywhere. ZhoopZhoop, a multi-branch auto repair group in Toronto, is built this way: one receptionist line across branches, shared outbound parts agents, WhatsApp booking and a dashboard over the top.

Almost never, and we would argue against it. Your team knows the system, your history sits in it, and a migration costs you weeks of shop floor time before it returns anything. We build the layer around it and leave it as the record. One exception: a system so old that nothing can read it, and even then we would show you the evidence before recommending a move.

You do, on both counts. The build is yours, the repository is handed over, and your customer and vehicle data stays in your systems and your accounts. We work under NDA from the first conversation, the first two months of maintenance after launch are included, and after that you either keep us on support or take it in-house with your engineers trained on it.