01The record that matters is the car, not only the customer
A car service remembers cars more than people. One customer brings two cars, a car changes owner, a company sends five. A CRM that stores only the person pushes the plate and the model into a notes field, and nobody can search a notes field when a customer phones and says 'the grey Logan, the brakes again'. The useful record has the customer, each car under them, and a history of visits: what was done, what was quoted, what was refused, and the mileage at the time. Refused work is a line that is easy to forget, and it is the best reason to get in touch again.
- Customer: name, contact details, private person or company
- Car: plate, make, model, year, and the VIN if you take it
- History: work done, quote given, work refused, mileage at the visit
- Dates: ITP expiry, RCA expiry and next service, each in a date field
02Reminders: ITP, RCA and the next service
Three dates bring customers back: ITP, RCA and the next service. You do not issue the first two, so a date reaches your system only if someone writes it down while the car is in. ITP is done by RAR or by stations RAR authorises, and the interval depends on the age of the car. RCA comes from an insurer. Ask for both expiry dates at the visit and enter them in date fields, not free text, so the CRM can list every car whose ITP ends next month. A next service by mileage is only a guess, so store the mileage and a realistic date. Who sends the reminder is a separate question. Text message, WhatsApp and phone fall outside PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, so those need another tool or a person at the desk.
- Ask for the ITP and RCA expiry dates at every visit
- Store them as dates, so the list 'expiring next month' builds itself
- Keep the mileage at the visit plus a realistic next-service date
- Decide who sends the reminder, and by which channel, before you buy anything
03Quotes and follow-ups: the two places a job gets lost
A quote nobody answers and extra work found on the lift are the two places a service loses money. Write every quote into the car's history with its date, its amount and a next action date, such as calling on Thursday. When you find something extra, note how the customer approved it, by phone or by message, before the work starts, because that note settles the argument at pickup. After the job, one short follow-up asking how the car feels takes a minute and catches a problem before it becomes a bad review. Automating the trigger is easy once these dates exist. Without them there is nothing to automate.
- Every quote: date, amount, and the day you will follow it up
- Extra work: note who approved it, and how, before you start
- A follow-up after the job, written about that car and that work
- Refused work comes back as a reminder at a sensible date
04Generic CRM or a tool built for workshops
A generic CRM models people and deals. A workshop tool models customers, cars and work orders with labour and parts lines. You can bend a generic CRM: a custom object for the car, one deal per job, date fields for ITP and RCA. For a small shop with simple jobs that can be enough. It breaks when you need parts and stock, a schedule of lifts and bays, a work order the customer signs, or an invoice generated from the job instead of retyped. We have not compared vendors here and name none, because features and prices change. Ask each one the same four questions and judge the answers.
- Can one customer have several cars, and one car change owner?
- Can I list every car whose ITP or RCA expires next month?
- Does the work order produce the invoice, or do I type it twice?
- Can I export all my data, and where is it hosted?
05Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice for a car service
We have not built for a car service, and none of our eight published builds is one. AUTOMATE lists booking automation with a CRM, an AI website chatbot and DM and email auto-responders, at 2,997 EUR a month. We do not claim it carries a car record, work orders or parts, and it does not cover WhatsApp or phone. We do not claim it sends reminders from a date field either: that would be scoped as a custom automation, and we have not shipped one for a workshop. For a one-bay shop it is the wrong purchase: a spreadsheet costs nothing. A workshop app built around your cars and work orders is a web app, from 5,000 EUR, and larger or custom projects can need a deposit, as our terms say. With no website yet, that comes first: 500 to 2,500 EUR, built in 48 hours, paid for after the preview.
- No car service among our eight published builds
- AUTOMATE: booking automation with a CRM and email auto-responders, no date-triggered reminders, no WhatsApp or phone
- A one-bay shop: a spreadsheet costs nothing
- A workshop app around your cars and work orders: a web app, from 5,000 EUR
Not a workshop: one job record from quote to invoice
None of our eight builds is a car service. The closest in shape is ATP Spedition, which runs courier, moving and freight. We built one job model for all three, each with its own rules, and it carries a job through quoting, VAT calculation, gapless invoicing and payment. That is the same spine as a work order: a quote, a job, an invoice. We have no workshop figures to quote, and no volume figures for ATP either.
See the build: ATP SpeditionQuestions, answered
Does a small car service need a CRM?
Not at first. With one or two bays, a spreadsheet with a tab for customers, a tab for cars and a tab for visits does the job, as long as ITP and RCA are stored as dates. A tool earns its cost when several people share the same customers.
Can a CRM remind customers when ITP or RCA expires?
Only if the expiry date is stored in a date field and something sends the message from it. The shop has to record the date at the visit, because it does not issue ITP or RCA. AUTOMATE lists booking automation with a CRM and email auto-responders. We do not claim it sends reminders from a date field: that would be scoped as a custom automation. It does not cover WhatsApp or phone.
Is a generic CRM enough for a workshop?
For simple jobs it can be, if it allows a custom record for the car and date-based lists. It falls short on parts, stock, bay scheduling and invoices built from the work order, which is what workshop tools are made around.
Does PROOF48's AUTOMATE hold vehicle history?
We do not claim it does. AUTOMATE lists booking automation with a CRM. A record built around cars and work orders is a custom web app, from 5,000 EUR, and we would settle the scope with you before building. We have not built one for a car service.
Where PROOF48 fits
A CRM for a car service earns its place when it holds the car, the quote and the dates that bring customers back, and when something actually sends the reminder. For one bay a spreadsheet does it. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, at 2,997 EUR a month, bundles booking automation with a CRM and email auto-responders. We do not claim it sends reminders from a date field, which would be a custom automation, or that it covers WhatsApp or phone, and we have not built it for a workshop.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.