Engine reconditioning workshop software: why shops run on Autolly
Most workshop software treats an engine as one job with one price. A reconditioning shop does not work that way, and forcing the work into that shape is how money goes missing.
Autolly is engine reconditioning workshop software built around the way the work actually moves. The block, the crank and the heads go onto one job, each with its own work listed, its own price and its own machinist. Here is what that gives you.
One job, every component
When an engine comes in you open one job and add the components to it. Block, crank, heads, rods. Each one carries the operations it needs and what those operations cost. The whole engine sits under one job number issued automatically from your own sequence.
Where a component comes in more than once, like the two heads off a V8, they are tracked separately instead of being lumped into one line. So when the customer phones and asks about his heads, you can tell him one is skimmed and the other is still waiting, without walking through to the machine room to find out.
Assign the work per operation, not per engine
One engine is not one person's job. Autolly lets you assign each operation to a different machinist, and the assignment screen shows you how much of the engine is allocated and how much is not. Work stops falling through the gap where everyone assumed somebody else had picked it up.
As each operation is finished it gets ticked off, and the job records who completed it and when. If you run a screen in the workshop, there is a shop-floor view that lists what each machinist has in front of them and rotates through the team, so the floor can see what has landed without coming to the counter.
You can also switch on a setting that suggests who should take a job based on who has done that work before and how loaded they already are. It is a suggestion you can override, and it stays off until you turn it on.
Requote after the strip-down without losing the job
Your first number is an estimate given before anyone has seen inside. The real price arrives after the strip and assess, and this is where reconditioning shops lose the most money, because extra work gets done and never gets charged.
In Autolly you add the newly found work to the open job and send the customer a link. He opens it on his phone and sees what has changed against the figure he already approved, then signs. The link is single use, it expires, you can revoke it, and you can see whether it was opened.
The result is that the oversize, the sleeve and the guides get paid for, and there is no argument at handover about what was agreed three weeks ago.
Parts, numbering and the invoice
Jobs waiting on parts get a waiting-on-parts state, so a stalled engine is visibly stalled instead of quietly ageing on a stand. Parts are recorded against the component they went onto, and if you switch on stock management they come off your stock as they are used.
The invoice is generated from the job. Every operation and every part is already priced on the record, so nobody sits down at five o'clock and captures the day's work a second time into a separate invoicing system. Invoice numbers run off your own sequence, so two jobs can never share one. The VAT rate is fixed on the job at the moment it is created, which means a rate change later does not quietly rewrite what an old job was quoted at.
When it is ready to go out, one tap opens WhatsApp with the invoice ready to send.
Trade accounts get billed properly
Most recon shops do a large share of their work for other workshops, on account. Autolly stores those customers with their payment terms, keeps the payment history against every job, and produces statements with the balance aged into the usual bands. You can see what is current and what is ninety days out, and chase it before it becomes a problem. There is an Excel export when your accountant asks for the numbers.
Common questions
Can one job carry a whole engine? Yes. Block, crank, heads and rods on a single job with one job number, each with its own work and its own price.
Can two machinists work on the same engine at once? Yes. Assignment happens per operation, and each one is completed individually with a record of who did it.
Can I change the price after assessment? Yes. Extra work is added to the open job and sent to the customer as a link showing what changed against what he already approved, for signature.
Have a look
If you recondition engines and any of this matches how your shop runs, request early access and we will set it up with your own job types on it. There is a companion piece on how Autolly works at the front counter in bringing order to the everyday workshop rush.