What PISTON does for your workshop
Bookings, estimates, the job card, the clock, invoices and reminders, for everyone in the workshop at one price.
Found on CarJam
- Vehicle
- 2018 Toyota Hilux SR5
- VIN
- MR0KB3CD701234567
- Colour, fuel
- Silver, diesel
- Body, engine
- Utility, 2755 cc
- Odometer
- 142,310 km
- WoF expires
- 14 Mar
Every job hangs off a vehicle
Type the rego and PISTON fills in the rest from CarJam: make, model, year, VIN, colour, fuel, body and engine size, the last odometer reading, and the WoF, CoF and rego expiry dates.
- Due dates on the vehicle. WoF, CoF, rego and the next service, ready for reminders.
- An enquiry form for your website. Share it as a link, put it in a frame on your site, or add it with a script so it takes on your site's own look. It asks for the rego and the car, and each enquiry lands in PISTON for you to quote or book in.
- The car's history in one place. Past jobs, invoices, photos and the work the customer said no to last time.
Estimates the customer approves on their phone
Price the job from your own labour times and parts and send it by link. The customer opens it on their phone, ticks the recommended work they want and accepts.
- Front pads and rotors1.8 h labour, parts
- $708.90
- Brake fluid flush0.7 h labour, fluid
- $101.50
- Wiper bladesRecommended
- $48.00
- Rear tyresRecommended, not now
- $420.00
- Standard jobs
- Canned jobs, by a plainer name: a full service or a WoF, with its labour and parts, added in one go and priced at your rates.
- Parts with your margin
- Import a supplier's price list and PISTON adds your margin. Trade and fleet customers can have their own price levels.
- Shop supplies and loadings
- Consumables added to every job, and loadings like "seized or rusted, 25% more" where the job calls for them.
- Declined work kept
- What the customer says no to stays on the vehicle, ready to offer next time it comes in.
- Extra work, mid-job
- Found a split brake hose on the hoist? Send the extra work by link and carry on when the customer says yes.
The whole workshop on one board
What is in today, who is on it, and how long it is taking against what you quoted.
Your own job statuses
Booked, in the bay, waiting on parts, ready. Name them the way your workshop talks.
Clock on against the job
A technician clocks on against a labour line, and the hours sit next to what was quoted.
By day, week or technician
The same jobs by status, by technician, or across a day, a week or a month. Drag a job to move it.
Check sheets with photos
Your own inspection lists, filled in on a tablet, with photos kept on the job.
Parts orders
Order from the job, then upload the supplier's bill and PISTON reads the lines off it.
Workshop gear
Hoist inspections and test and tag dates, with a reminder before each falls due.
Invoices, card payments and Xero
Invoice from the job
Labour as clocked or as quoted, parts as used, deposits taken off.
A pay button on it
Connect your own Stripe account and the customer pays by card from the invoice. The money goes to you.
Into Xero
Invoices go to Xero as they are sent.
Closed when paid
Payments come back from Xero, so the invoice closes itself.
Overdue reminders stop as soon as the invoice is paid. Fleet and account customers get order numbers on the invoice, and a company with its own contacts and billing address.
Reminders that bring the car back
The work that comes back is the cheapest work you get. Turn each one on once and PISTON sends it when it is due.
When a customer replies to an email PISTON sent, the reply comes back to PISTON, against the estimate, job or invoice it was about.
- WoF, CoF and regoBefore the date on the vehicle
- Service dueBefore the next service
- Estimate follow-upsStop when they reply
- Review requestsOne email after the job
- Overdue invoicesStop when it is paid
Your numbers, your team and your data
Which jobs run over
Clocked hours against quoted hours, so you can see which jobs take longer in your workshop than you charge for.
- Front pads and rotors
- 2.4 h on 1.8 quoted
- WoF and service
- 0.9 h on 1.0 quoted
- Timing belt
- 4.6 h on 3.5 quoted
A login for everyone
Technicians, the front counter and the office, each seeing only what you choose.
What is owed
Overdue invoices, oldest first, and who to call.
- Kowhai Couriers
- 41 days
- Sam Tuhoe
- 18 days
Your data is yours
Export all of it whenever you like, as spreadsheets in one zip.
All of it, for everyone in the workshop, at $129 a month
Plus GST. Every feature on this page, every technician, month to month.