Software for independent garages: repair orders, parts, follow-ups

DGCCRF requires displayed prices, a bill above €25, and an offer of circular-economy parts. The same factsheet also says quotes and repair orders remain optional. What nobody standardises, your tool can manage your way.

ProGarage, the only garage management publisher encountered displaying public pricing, starts at €99 excluding tax per month for one user and rises to €499 for unlimited users (page consulted September 2, 2026). Solware, GarageScore, and Autossimo show nothing. ANFA counts 9,293 branded vehicle repair businesses and around 11,000 unbranded ones with employees (Autofocus no. 105, October 2023).

What the law requires, and what it does not

DGCCRF's repair-order factsheet, published June 30, 2022, corrects a persistent misconception: 'Quotes and repair orders are not mandatory.' They are recommended and their content described, but no law requires them. What is required: displaying hourly rates including tax and fixed-service prices at the entrance and reception areas, billing either actual time spent or the manufacturer's schedule, and providing a post-repair bill for any amount above €25, showing mileage, an itemised breakdown, and whether installed parts are new, used, or remanufactured exchange units. That is welcome for anyone wanting their own tool: since nobody standardises the repair order, its form is yours, and its first purpose is evidence of the condition of the entrusted vehicle.

What comes back from the field

No garage management publisher has a Trustpilot listing: the six publisher addresses tested September 2, 2026 return page-not-found errors. Public traces come elsewhere. Mobilians, the independent repairers' federation, launched a nationwide data-access survey on June 20, 2026: 'difficulties accessing technical data, SERMI-related constraints, inability to access certain control units, or limitations on repair data'. This is a federation statement, not a user review, describing a blockage preceding software. Dated French App Store reviews reveal professional application usage: 'No way to edit the quote, far behind the web version' on IdGarages Pro (Kocoburg, April 12, 2025), 'Does not work properly for 1 file in 4' on Atelio Mobile (July 28, 2024). These products are workshop software's satellites, where mechanics spend their day.

What the duplicate-book handles poorly

Vehicle intake with evidence: registration, recorded mileage, customer-described symptoms, timestamped walkaround photos, estimated cost, downtime, and an on-screen signature. A vehicle log rather than a pile of invoices: one car's full history over years, fitted parts with their type, recorded and dated circular-economy parts choices, available in three seconds when it returns. A servicing and roadworthiness-test schedule calculated from first-registration date and observed average mileage, treating the two-month retest window as urgent. Workshop planning: assignment per mechanic and lift, planned versus actual time, alerts when a vehicle exceeds the announced deadline. And margin per job, parts purchased versus billed, alongside the outgoing-waste register kept for three years.

Five components nobody rewrites

First, the till: tax guidance closes the door to self-development; software written by a taxable person for their own needs can be justified only by an accredited body's certificate, with a €7,500 fine per system. A tool you have built must never record a private individual's payment. Then the parts catalogue: Autossimo claims more than three million licensed part-to-vehicle assignments, with orders through the distributor portal. Repair data and control-unit access remain with manufacturers, the subject of Mobilians' survey. Vehicle registration requires prefectural authorisation for the registration system. Hazardous-waste consignment notes go through the state Trackdéchets platform. One legal point when reselling: the presumption under the statutory conformity guarantee runs for twelve months on used goods, versus twenty-four on new goods (factsheet F11094, verified August 17, 2026). Since September 1, 2026, suppliers already send you electronic invoices; mandatory issuance arrives for very small businesses on September 1, 2027. Check your case with your accountant.

Start from what exists, not a blank page

A garage building its tool never starts from nothing. There is the duplicate-book on the counter, the service reminder spreadsheet an apprentice has kept for two years, the wall calendar listing retests, and often old software whose full password nobody remembers. An agent team starts there: Margaux inventories these materials and what each contains, Maurice decides which are retained as-is, cleaned before migration, or retired, applying equally to an Excel file and an old workshop database. You decide every tradeoff before construction starts. In the first month, the tool often does one thing: puts service reminders in the right place and sends them. The rest follows step by step, each verified before the next. The AI budget depends on the assistant, its plan and the work requested. Our measured AI spending covers specific tests and does not set this tool's price. Also budget for your approval time, any hosting, external services and maintenance.

Where to start

Count vehicles seen last month that should have returned for a retest or service but did not. Count job sheets written twice, once at the counter and once on the computer. Count jobs whose margin you cannot state. Three numbers, one evening: they describe your tool better than a publisher's specification. Keep the till and parts portal where they are.