Guide
How to choose workshop management software
Choose workshop software by testing it against your real week, not a feature list. Use five checks: does it fit your workflow from booking to invoice, how much it automates versus only stores, whether your history can come with you, which integrations are actually live, and the total monthly cost including SMS, payments and add-ons. Ask every vendor, including us, to show each claim working.
Early access: BayAutomate is onboarding Australian workshops now. Anything marked Coming soon or Planned isn't available yet. Everything else is included on every plan.
The five checks
- Workflow fit: book a real job and follow it to invoice. Count the clicks and the retyping.
- Automation: what does it prepare for you (quotes, POs, follow-ups), and what still needs a person?
- Migration: which history comes across, and who does it? Get the scope in writing.
- Integrations: ask whether Xero, suppliers and payments are live today, or planned.
- Total cost: subscription + SMS + payments + add-ons + the tools it replaces.
Questions to ask in a demo
- Show me a declined item being followed up.
- Show me the real cost of a finished job.
- What happens when a supplier bill doesn't match the order?
- How do you stop duplicate payments or invoices?
Questions
How long should a trial be?
Long enough to run a full week of real jobs: at least two weeks, ideally using practice mode with your own data.