A workshop leaks money in ways a showroom never sees: bays idle while jobs queue, estimates approved verbally and disputed at billing, technicians allocated by who's standing nearest. Workshop management software for car dealers exists to stop those leaks, and xMatix runs the workshop as a scheduled, measured operation — estimate to job card to bay to invoice, visible end to end. (Running an independent or multi-brand workshop rather than a dealership? The same engines, framed for your trade, are on car service management.)
Estimates the customer approved — provably
The health check turns findings into recommended jobs; the estimate carries them with parts, labour and tax, and the customer's approval or decline stamps the quote and every line before work starts. Declined red items don't vanish — they return as follow-up opportunities on the vehicle's record.
Job cards with everything on them
The service order is the job card: typed lines for parts and labour, timesheets per technician, usage readings, photos and checklists from the floor — with each line already classified by payer. Parts consumption hits inventory as it happens; a part that strands the vehicle raises its urgency straight from the job.
Technicians by skill, bays by the hour
Technician allocation follows skill and availability — the engine matches the job's required skills against certified technicians and their existing load before assigning. Service bays are bookable resources: bay types matched to job needs, capacity checked, the day's bay plan visible as a schedule instead of a shouted negotiation. (Why this is the same discipline as appointments: bay planning is capacity planning.)
The workshop on one screen
The dispatch console runs the floor — Board for who-does-what, Gantt for when, Map for the pickup fleet — with work-in-progress, waiting-for-parts and SLA risk visible per job. Completed work flows to invoice or claim without re-entry, and technician hours land in timesheets where efficiency and incentives can see them.
Common questions
How are technicians allocated to jobs?
By skill and availability: the scheduling engine narrows candidates to technicians holding the required skills, then checks capacity and overlapping bookings before assignment — so the EV- certified tech gets the EV, and nobody gets three simultaneous jobs.
How does bay planning work?
Bays are bookable facility resources with types — mechanical, denting, washing — and jobs book them like appointments: type matched, capacity checked, the day's plan visible on a schedule. A job waiting on parts visibly holds or releases its bay instead of silently blocking it.
What does workshop monitoring show?
The console's board, Gantt and map views show every job's status — in progress, paused, waiting on parts or approval — per technician and per bay, with the day re-plannable by drag when reality edits it. WIP stops being a walk around the floor.
What makes workshop management software for car dealers different from a job-card app?
The scheduling and the seams: bays as bookable capacity, technicians allocated by skill and load, payer classification per line feeding warranty claims, parts hitting inventory as consumed, and completed work flowing to invoice and ledger — a job-card app records the work; workshop management runs the floor.
Do estimates require customer approval before work?
Yes — the estimate generated from the health check is approved or declined by the customer, and the decision stamps the document and all its lines. Work starts on approved scope; declined items are retained for honest follow-up later.