Body shop and paint shop software for clear, documented repairs

Why body and paint shops need more than a calendar

Body and paint shops need software because a booking date alone cannot explain a repair that changes after strip-down or pauses while parts are being sourced. You may have a car occupying space, a customer expecting progress and a technician waiting for a decision. When those details live in separate notebooks, messages and spreadsheets, you have to reconstruct the job whenever someone asks a question. A shared work order gives your team a clearer place to follow the agreed work and understand what is holding it up.

Your records also need to distinguish damage present at arrival from damage the customer later questions. That matters particularly when you receive an imported used car in Georgia and neither you nor its owner has a complete account of earlier repairs. Software cannot establish an unknown past or guarantee that a dispute disappears. It can help you document what you actually saw, what the customer asked you to repair and what they subsequently approved, rather than relying on memory when the car is ready for collection.

• Record arrival condition before repair work starts.
• Keep labour and parts on the work order.
• Get a decision on additional work before proceeding.
• Make approval and parts delays visible to your team.

Document arrival condition before the job changes

A careful check-in gives you a recorded starting point for discussing damage and the scope of the repair. Junto check-in records mileage (never lower than the last reading), photos from each side, damage marks on a car diagram, the complaint in the customer's words and the customer's signature. Use that process while the customer is present, rather than trying to reconstruct arrival condition after panels have been removed. Make the complaint specific enough to distinguish the requested repair from unrelated marks elsewhere on the car.

Check-in damage marks also appear in the anonymised Junto VIN history report sold to car buyers. That makes accurate marking important beyond your immediate conversation at reception: record what is visible without presenting a guess about its cause as an established fact. Explain the arrival record to the customer and give them an opportunity to clarify their complaint before signing. Photos, diagram marks and a signature provide supporting documentation if a disagreement arises, but they should not be presented as a guarantee against complaints or as a legal conclusion.

Handle strip-down discoveries without losing the agreement

Strip-down discoveries need a separate customer decision when they add work beyond the original agreement. Extra work found during a job goes to the customer as an SMS link with the price (and often the mechanic's photo); the customer approves or declines each line, and the answer is saved in the order's history. For your team, that is more useful than a vague recollection that someone agreed over the phone. You can refer to the recorded decision when discussing which additional labour and parts belong on the job.

An order can sit in "waiting for parts" or "waiting for approval" so everyone sees why a car is not moving. These are different delays and need different conversations: one concerns availability, while the other needs a customer decision. Keep that distinction visible instead of treating every unfinished car as active work. When you review the floor, use the order's status and approval history to decide what needs attention next. Do not turn an unanswered request into an assumption that the customer has authorised the additional repair.

Run a typical day around bookings and work orders

A typical day in Junto starts with the calendar and continues through check-in, work orders and the cars already waiting in your shop. In the morning, review arriving bookings alongside unfinished jobs, rather than assuming every car on site can move forward today. For a new arrival, document condition and open the work order with its labour and part lines. A booking gives you a starting point for the visit; the order then holds the repair detail as the job develops over several days.

During the day, your mechanic can use the phone view while you manage the same shop workflow from a computer. If strip-down reveals additional work, send it for approval and record the appropriate waiting status instead of leaving reception to guess. Later, review customer decisions and parts delays before discussing progress with owners. At handover, use invoices and payments to complete the commercial side of the job. Junto supports cash, card, bank transfer and online payments, so your payment record need not remain separate from the rest of the repair workflow.

Give customers a clearer view of a long repair

Customers notice clearer communication when they can see proposed costs and follow the repair's status without depending entirely on phone calls. In a long body repair, an unexplained pause can look like neglect even when your team is waiting for a part or permission to proceed. Explain what the current status means and avoid promising a completion date you cannot support. Customers can review each suggested work line with its price before work starts, which makes the conversation more concrete than a general request to approve a larger repair.

Junto works in Georgian and English, in the browser on a computer or phone; customers get SMS in their language. That helps you keep the explanation accessible while your team works across reception and the workshop. Customers can also use a free car owner account to keep each car's service history, bookings and reminders, and share it with family. For you, the practical aim is consistent communication: the person approving extra work should understand what is proposed, while the person collecting the car should not have to piece together the entire repair from scattered messages.

Start with a practical move from paper or spreadsheets

You can start by putting new arrivals through one consistent digital workflow rather than trying to recreate every old paper file at once. Use the 14-day free trial with 100 free SMS to test check-in, a multi-day work order, an extra-work approval and a waiting status against your actual shop routine. Keep earlier records available for reference while your staff learn where new information belongs. Treat this as a change in working habits, not an assumption that existing spreadsheets or historical paperwork will be imported automatically.

Choose your plan around the shop you operate, and include SMS use in your planning. Start costs 79 ₾ per month for 1 branch, 3 bays and 5 staff; Pro costs 149 ₾ per month. Network costs 299 ₾ per month for 2 branches, with each extra branch costing +99 ₾. Paying yearly costs 10 months. SMS costs 0.04 ₾ per segment from a prepaid balance. Before committing, use the trial to check whether reception and technicians can consistently maintain the records that matter most to your repairs.

• Agree who completes arrival photos and the signed check-in.
• Use labour and part lines for new work orders.
• Send additional work for a recorded customer decision.
• Review waiting cars together during the daily handover.
• Check staff roles before making the app part of daily work.

Questions and answers