Vehicle history is scattered
The last brake job is on an old invoice, the mileage is on a sticker, and the customer remembers it differently.
Nothing to wire up. You describe the business in plain language, Ifa designs and builds it, and you check the plan before any of it exists.
Auto repair shop software
Auto repair shop software for the small shop: vehicles, repair orders, customers and the follow-up in one workspace.
Ifa is shop management software you set up by describing how your shop runs. Each vehicle, customer and repair order is a record with your own fields. Bays and technicians have working hours, and availability is checked before a job is booked.
Illustrative workflow · Guided pre-launch setup
Starting workflow
- 1Enquiry
- 2Estimate
- 3Booking
- 4In the bay
- 5Ready & pickup
- 6Follow-up
Mechanic shop software is priced for the dealership. The two-bay shop is still on paper and a phone.
The estimate is on a pad, the customer's history is in someone's head, and the car that needs a call back is the one nobody wrote down.
Estimates are not tied to the car
Added work gets approved by phone and never reaches the order, so the invoice starts an argument.
Bays are booked by memory
Two cars arrive for the same lift because the diary lives in one person's head.
Callbacks are missed
The part arrived, the car is ready, the service is due, and nobody owns the call.
From the phone call to the car back on the road.
Six stages a shop already names, each showing who holds the job and what happens next.
- Step 01
Enquiry
Capture the customer, the vehicle and what they heard or felt.
- Step 02
Estimate
Write the estimate against the vehicle record and send it for approval.
- Step 03
Booking
Reserve a bay and a technician after the availability check.
- Step 04
In the bay
Track parts, findings and added work on the repair order.
- Step 05
Ready & pickup
Mark the car ready, attach the invoice file and record the pickup.
- Step 06
Follow-up
Log the callback and the next service due, with an owner for each.
Illustrative workspace
See every repair order and where it is stuck.
An illustrative workspace built from example records. It shows the views a shop would review during guided setup.
Guided setup
Guided setup starts with one car that came in this week.
We follow one real job from the first call to pickup, agree the stages, then go through the workspace with your team before any pilot.
Questions we map together
- How does a job reach you: a phone call, a walk-in, a text or a booking?
- Who writes the estimate, and who approves added work?
- Which vehicle and customer details need to follow every order?
- What should happen after pickup, and who owns it?
You see the proposed stages, fields and responsibilities, and correct them, before the pilot starts.
Who this starting workflow is (and is not) for
A practical fit for
- Independent repair shops with one to six bays
- Mobile mechanics and specialty shops for brakes, tires, exhaust or transmissions
- Owner-led shops moving off paper and a spreadsheet
Not designed for
- Dealership service departments on manufacturer systems
- Shops that need built-in parts ordering, labor guides or diagnostics
- Shops that want invoicing and payments inside the tool from day one
Compared
How Ifa compares with auto repair shop software
Shopmonkey, Tekmetric, AutoLeap and Mitchell 1 bundle estimates, labor guides, parts and payments. Ifa covers the customer, vehicle and repair-order side and leaves the catalogs to the tools built for them.
| What matters | Ifa | Typical shop management systems |
|---|---|---|
| Where the day starts | The vehicle and the repair order, from enquiry to follow-up. | The estimate and the parts catalog. |
| Custom records and fields | Customers, vehicles, repair orders, parts and inspections as your own record types with your own fields and saved views. | Fixed customer, vehicle and order objects. |
| Labor guides and parts catalogs | Not offered. Keep the tool you use for them. | Included or sold as add-ons. |
| Invoicing and payments | Planned. Today invoices attach as files. | Included. |
| Customer online booking and reminders | Bookable records with working hours, policies and conflict checks; customers book through a booking page Ifa creates or in chat on a connected channel, and your team can always book for them. Reminders are a workflow you define that sends through a connected channel. | Usually included. |
| Bringing your data in | CSV, Excel and JSON exports imported with preview, checks and your approval. | Varies. Some offer a migration service for a fee. |
| Pricing | Preview the workspace, then pay. No free tier. | Monthly plans per shop or per user, often in tiers. Check each vendor. |
Written by Ifa from the vendors' public pages on September 1, 2026. Features and prices change, so confirm them with each vendor before deciding.
Switching
Switching from your shop system or a spreadsheet
Export customers and vehicles, import them, and approve the match before anything is written.
Google Sheets or Excel
Download the sheet as CSV or keep it as XLSX. Column names become the field names you approve.
Shopmonkey
Export customers and vehicles as CSV from the Customers list.
Tekmetric
Export customers as CSV from Reports.
AutoLeap
Export the customer list as CSV.
QuickBooks
Export customers as CSV or Excel.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Ifa auto repair shop management software or a CRM?
- It is a workspace that does the shop management part: customers, vehicles, repair orders, bookings and the follow-up. It does not include labor guides, parts catalogs or diagnostics.
- How does booking a bay work?
- Bays and technicians are bookable records with working hours; a policy per job type decides who can be booked, and every booking is checked for conflicts before it is written. Customers can book through a booking page Ifa creates or in chat on a connected channel, and the front desk can always book for them. Reminders are a workflow you define.
- How do we import customers and vehicles from Shopmonkey, Tekmetric or a spreadsheet?
- Export them as CSV or Excel and import. Ifa previews the columns, checks the values and asks you to approve the match before anything is written.
- Does it handle invoicing and card payments?
- Not yet; invoicing and card payments are planned. Today the invoice from your accounting tool attaches to the repair order as a file.
Continue exploring
Whichever one answers your next question.
Map the way a job moves through your shop.
Join the waitlist and tell us where an estimate, a part or a callback goes missing.
We check every waitlist request against what we can actually support during pre-launch.