Industry-leading business management system providers highlight their best tools for shop management.
Charter Software’s Aspen
Charter Software's Aspen and DealerWin business management systems provide a cost-effective way to manage work orders from just one screen.
Track parts, clock time, segments, shop supplies, work order status, priority, responsible tech, customer and unit information, meter, pickup/delivery dates, comments and additional charges in work orders.
Availability of inventory is reflected immediately when parts are added to a work order. Parts can be updated to work orders from pick lists using optional electronic parts catalog interfaces.
Service managers assign technicians to a work order and set priorities. Technician can easily log onto their assigned work orders when performing repairs.
Using a computerized time clock, technicians easily clock onto work orders, tracking 100% of their time. Revenue vs. non-revenue hours are tracked for efficiency and billable service reporting.
With Ideal business management software, all repair order details are tracked in the system and tied to a serial number and the customer. Details include date of last service, meter/hour, symptoms, work requested, work completed and parts used, technician(s), date in, and completion date.
Parts are automatically given an allocated status when put on a repair order. All users in the business can see what order the parts are allocated to and for which customer. Technicians print pick tickets to give to the parts department.
Jobs can be assigned a technician and a level of priority. The new scheduler feature will schedule a technician’s entire day, so they can quickly move from one job to the next.
In Ideal, technicians can clock in and out for jobs or the job’s time and cost can be pre-set in the system. For example, spring tune-ups can automatically be billed out at 1.5 hours or be given a set cost.
c-Systems Infinity
One of Infinity by c-Systems’ best features is its flexibility, allowing the user to fit the system to his needs. The shop feature interfaces with electronic parts catalogs, so a user can look up parts, add parts to repair orders, produce picking tickets, track open back orders by many criteria and more.
To assign a repair, a mechanic can enter a tag number or the system can assign a tracking number. Repairs can be prioritized based on user-defined conditions. Determining how billable hours are figured is also user-defined, such as assigning a flat rate or basing the amount on time or materials.
The system tracks numerous details of shop repair, including detailed customer information and history; transaction type; detailed repair item information; repair order priority, date promised and status; all sales and repair orders (past and current); automatic time card distribution; warranty details and more.
