The first week on shop software
What to enter on day one, what to leave for later, and how to run a week of real jobs without stopping the shop.
This week, not the archive
The usual mistake is loading ten years of customers before the first order. That load never finishes, and the team stays on paper. Start with the cars inside today and the bookings for the next few days.
Customers, plates, and the reason for the visit. With that, the shop can receive, assign, and estimate. Old history stays where it was until a car comes back and you need that one file.
One location, one path
If there are several sites, week one happens at one of them. Learning the path at one counter is enough. The second location joins when the first can close the day without going back to paper.
The path is short: booking or order, status, estimate, invoice. Do not turn on the portal, a full inventory, and every reminder at once. Add the next piece when the previous one is used on its own.
The people
One person at the counter and one in the bay need to open and read an order. That is not a multi-day course. It is those two people using the sheet on real cars and correcting the status before they leave.
Questions from week one get answered at the close, not in the middle of a handover. If something was written on paper «just in case», it goes onto the order the next morning. Double entry can only last a few days.
What to check on Friday
Are the orders for cars still inside open, with a status you believe? Are next week's bookings on the calendar? Is any paid invoice still sitting as a draft? If those answers are yes, yes, and no, the week worked.
After that, add stock for the parts that stop cars, and inspection or MOT dates for the vehicles you have already touched. Not the other way around. Week one only has to show that the counter can live on the job sheet.