One tool from “what’s wrong with it” to “here’s the invoice”

Most shop software starts after you already know the fault. AutoDX Pro starts at the fault: VIN, codes and symptoms in — root cause and the parts to fix it out — then carries that same job through the repair order, the estimate, the customer’s approval and the invoice. Built by a working Audi/Porsche technician, because the diagnosis is the part everyone else leaves to you.

The part nobody else doesRoot-cause diagnosis

Type the VIN, the fault codes and what the car actually does. You get a ranked root cause with the tests to confirm it, and only then the parts — never a parts list for a guess.

Where the day is runRepair orders & job board

Every car in the shop on one screen, in the columns your shop actually uses — you name and colour them. Drag a card to move the job.

The difference: the cards work out their own state instead of waiting to be tagged. Without anybody touching them, a card tells you:

• parts still to order, or already on order;
• the estimate was sent three days ago and never opened;
• it was opened six hours ago and the customer hasn’t answered;
• something was declined — the follow-up worth having;
• the promise time has passed;
• how long the job has sat in this column: amber at a day, red at three.

One-tap filters answer “whose move is it?” — Mine · Needs parts · Waiting on customer · Past promise · Unpaid — each with its count. For the rest, one shop-defined label per order (“waiting on insurance”). One, not nineteen: a card carrying a stack of hand-set tags is a card nobody reads.

Getting to yesEstimates & customer approval

• Typed lines — labor, parts, sublet, fees — grouped into jobs the customer understands.
• A parts markup matrix: set your cost brackets once and parts price themselves.
• Per-order labor rate when a job is quoted differently, tax, shop fees, and a discount in dollars or percent. Totals are computed on the server, so tax follows the discount instead of being wrong on the paper.
• Send it as a link. The customer approves or declines line by line, signs electronically, and you get the who/when as evidence.
• Payments recorded against the order, with the balance visible on the board.

Show, don’t tellDigital vehicle inspections

Build your own checklists by system. Every line is pass / attention / fail with a note, a measurement and photos. The customer gets a link with the photos and a plain-language verdict, and anything red or amber can become estimate lines in one step. Reusable findings mean the tech writes “2.4 mm, under minimum” once, not every time.

Two specialised modes ship with it: pre-purchase inspection as a sellable service, and high-voltage / EV battery health screening with a mandatory safety layer — the parts of the job you can’t improvise.

Stop huntingParts, inventory & ordering

• A parts room: every line across every live repair order that still needs ordering, in one list.
• Supplier links pre-filled with the vehicle and the part number — RockAuto, FCP Euro, ECS, Pelican, eBay, Google Shopping — or “search everywhere” in one click.
• Shelf inventory with cost, low-stock alerts and an append-only ledger of every movement.
• Purchase orders per vendor; receiving puts stock on the shelf.
• Billing a part writes it off the shelf automatically — and a part both taken from stock and billed is never counted twice.

The bookCustomers & vehicle history

Customers with their cars, every visit, every estimate and inspection, and a communication log. Enter a VIN in the diagnostic screen and you can attach the owner right there — search the existing book first so a returning car lands on the record it already has instead of a duplicate. Phone numbers on the board are tap-to-call.

Where the hours goTime clock & effective labor rate

Technicians punch in and out; hours land on the jobs they worked. The reports give you the number most shops can only guess at: your effective labor rate — approved labor dollars divided by the hours actually billed — plus per-technician billed-versus-clocked efficiency.

Answers, not exportsReports

• Sales, car count, average repair order, gross margin and parts cost of goods.
• Revenue by source — where the work actually came from.
• Deferred work: everything a customer declined, with prices, ready to call back.
• Cycle time in each stage, so you can see where cars sit.
• End-of-day and the estimate funnel: sent → viewed → signed.

Who can do whatTeam, roles & access

Invite by email with the job title you actually call them — “Service advisor”, “Lead technician” — and tick the access that job needs before they ever sign in: estimates, job status, inspection templates, reports, inventory, chat groups. Presets fill the boxes for a mechanic, an advisor, a parts manager or a manager. Nothing is granted by default.

Diagnostic access is the one seat that’s counted; everyone else — advisors, front desk, apprentices — is unlimited. There’s an in-app chat for the crew: the whole-shop room, groups and direct messages, so “the coil is here” doesn’t need a walk across the bay.

More than one bay doorMulti-location

Run several shops from one login. File a repair order into another location without switching, see who is working where, and compare locations side by side on the same metrics — sales, car count, average RO, margin, effective labor rate — instead of running the same report once per shop.

Your setup travels: inspection templates, canned jobs, workflow statuses and message templates can be copied from one location to the others, so a checklist written once doesn’t get retyped four times.

What the customer takes homePrinted documents

The invoice carries your logo and details, the vehicle with VIN, plate and odometer in/out, the jobs with the customer’s own words above them, the parts with numbers, and the totals split into labor and parts. Plus three things most invoices leave out:

• Declined work, itemised with prices — the page that brings them back.
• The signature as evidence: who approved it and exactly when.
• A QR code to their copy online — with the photos — and to pay if there’s a balance, plus when the next service is due.

No surprisesWhat it costs

$20 — one VIN, no subscription, keep that car forever. · $249/month — Shop Management: everything on this page except the diagnosis engine. · $499/month — All-Access: everything, diagnostics included. · Annual plans save two months. 7-day free trial, no card gymnastics.

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