How to choose garage management software: eight things to check

1. Arabic that is really Arabic

Many products translate the menus and stop there. Open an invoice and a job card in Arabic and print them: does the page run right to left, do the numbers and the plate sit where they should, and can one customer get their invoice in Arabic while another gets English from the same screen?

2. Tax invoices that pass an inspection

• UAE: the words "Tax Invoice", your TRN and, above the threshold, the customer's TRN.
• Saudi Arabia: simplified and standard tax invoices with ZATCA's QR code (phase one). Ask plainly whether the product reports invoices to ZATCA's platform (phase two), and when.
• Egypt: ask whether it submits to the e-invoice and e-receipt systems, or only prints.
• Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan: prices in fils or baisa need three decimals everywhere, not rounded to two.

3. The job card at the counter

Check-in should take a minute: mileage, fuel, photos, the complaint in the customer's words and their signature. Then the estimate: can the customer approve it from their phone, line by line, and do the approved lines land on the job without anyone retyping them?

4. WhatsApp, where your customers already are

Ask whether the product sends from your workshop's own number and whether replies come back into the same place your team works. A separate WhatsApp tool means copying names and plates between two screens all day.

5. Parts and stock you can trust

Parts should come off the shelf onto the job, at cost, so profit per job is real. Look for low-stock warnings, purchase orders and, with more than one branch, stock kept per branch with transfers between them.

6. Your data, if you leave

Ask two questions before you start: can I export everything, any day, without asking? And what happens to my records if I stop paying? A good answer is a date, not a sales call.

7. The price, all of it

Compare the full monthly cost for your size: branches, users, jobs a month, WhatsApp messages, set-up fees and anything charged per invoice. A free trial without a card tells you the vendor expects the product to sell itself.

8. A test day with your own cars

1. Open three real jobs from this week: one simple, one waiting for parts, one for a company account.
2. Send one estimate to your own phone and approve half of it.
3. Take a part off the shelf and see the stock and the job's profit change.
4. Print a tax invoice in Arabic and give it to your accountant.
5. Ask a technician to use it on his phone for an hour, without training.

If the test day needs the vendor on the phone, the busy Saturday will too.

How WrenchDesk answers these

Every screen, message and printout works in Arabic and English. Invoices carry the TRN, Saudi invoices carry the phase-one QR, and three-decimal currencies are kept to the fils. ZATCA phase two and Egypt's e-invoice submission are not offered yet. The job card takes mileage, fuel, photos and a signature, the customer approves estimates from their phone, and the assistant on your own WhatsApp number answers customers at any hour. Stock is kept per branch, everything exports any day, and the trial needs no card. Open the live demo and run the test day on it.