Guides for running a workshop · Getting started
Move your workshop off Excel in one week
Changing systems feels like something you do in the quiet month that never comes. It doesn't have to stop the workshop. Here is a plan that takes a working week, a few hours a day, with the bays running as usual.
· 6 min read
Before you start: decide the date
Pick a Monday as day one and tell the team. From the following Monday, new jobs go into the new system and the old sheet is read-only. Without a date, the old way never ends.
Day 1: the workshop itself
- Your company name, logo, address and tax registration number.
- Branches, if you have more than one, with their opening hours.
- Your invoice numbering, so the new invoices carry on from the old ones rather than starting again at 1.
- Your document design: the logo, the colours, the bank details and the terms on the invoice.
Day 2: people
Add your staff with the role that matches what they do: service advisor, technician, accountant, manager. Give each one their own login. Shared passwords are how you lose track of who changed what.
Day 3: your price list
Enter your labour items with your own prices (an oil change, a brake service, a diagnosis) and your service packages. Twenty common jobs cover most of a normal week, so you don't need all of them on day three.
Day 4: customers and parts
Export your customer sheet and your parts sheet as CSV or Excel, tidy the columns (one phone number per column, prices as numbers), and import them. Look at the preview before you confirm. Don't import ten years of history: current customers and parts on the shelf are enough. The old sheet stays as your archive.
Day 5: a dry run
Take three real jobs from today and run them through end to end: open the job, add the work and parts, send the estimate, close it, invoice it, take the payment. Do it with the advisor at the counter, not alone in the office. Whatever is awkward shows up here, while there's still time to fix it.
Next Monday: go
Every new job goes into the new system. Jobs already in the bay can finish the old way. Expect the first two days to be slower; by Friday most advisors are faster than they were on paper.
What to leave for later
- Staff payroll and attendance: start them on the first of next month, not in the middle of one.
- WhatsApp automation: get the team using the system first, then link the number.
- Old invoices: keep them in the old files rather than re-typing them.
How WrenchDesk helps
Sign up and you can start with demo data to practise on. Workspace settings take care of day one, including your own numbering and document design. Customers and parts import from CSV or Excel, with a preview before anything is saved. Every list exports back to Excel whenever you want it. If you'd like someone to walk through the week with you, book a demo.