One important asset that can help you and your team is our automotive technical data. It helps technicians diagnose and repair vehicles quickly. Not only will this keep your garage running optimally, but it will also keep customers happy and returning. 

We created VGM, our garage management software, to simplify running a busy workshop. Keep reading to learn our top nine reasons why you and your team should consider using VGM’s technical data tools.  

1. Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency  

Garages need to provide efficient service while ensuring the utmost accuracy. This is especially important when working on a wide range of vehicles from an endless list of manufacturers. 

Technical data for cars can give you instant access to precise vehicle specifications, wiring diagrams, and maintenance schedules. This data comes straight from the manufacturer. This means you and your customers can trust that you provide consistent and accurate services. 

This data helps eliminate guesswork and will allow you to service vehicles faster and more accurately.  

2. Commitment-Free Flexibility  

Many garages are wary of long-term service contracts, that’s why all our offerings are on one-month-rolling contracts. With our commitment-free vehicle technical data, your garage remains flexible. 

If your business needs change, you can cancel the package simply and re-add it when the need arises. This flexibility enables you to better manage costs while improving efficiency.  

3. Make Repairs Quicker  

Diagnosing vehicle issues can often be time-consuming. Having detailed automotive technical data at your fingertips simplifies the process. This data helps mechanics find problems quickly. 

It includes fault codes and repair procedures, reducing diagnostic time and boosting productivity. In turn, this enhances your garage’s reputation for reliability.  

4. Accurately Quote Work 

Remove the guesswork in pricing repair jobs. Use a complete list of repair times. This list includes mechanical, electrical, and body repairs.  

With automotive technical data, you can seamlessly add these repair times directly to quotes and jobsheets within VGM. This streamlines your admin processes for faster and more accurate pricing. 

5. Quickly Access Wiring Diagrams  

For electrical issues, having reliable and easily accessible diagrams is crucial. Solve electrical issues faster with precise wiring diagrams that offer a clear view of the vehicle’s electrical system. These diagrams show the layout of wires, parts, and connections.  

6. Step-by-Step Repair Guides 

Access detailed, vehicle-specific guides that walk your mechanics through the repair process. These step-by-step instructions make it easy to replace parts and do complex repairs. They help create smoother workflows, save time, and improve service quality. 

7. Manufacturer Service Schedules 

Maintain your customers’ vehicles to the highest standards by accessing manufacturer-specific service and maintenance schedules. This ensures your garage follows best practices for each vehicle, helping to preserve vehicle longevity and customer satisfaction. 

8. Better Customer Experience  

Expert knowledge can help you provide consistent and reliable service to your customers. Accessing automotive technical data ensures your garage offers transparent services, leading to improved customer confidence and retention. Your mechanics can confidently explain vehicle issues and will be able to offer realistic repair times and costs.  

9. Staying Competitive in the Industry  

As the automotive industry continues to evolve, keeping up with the latest technology is essential. Garages that don’t have access to car technical data risk falling behind competitors. That’s why we have created VGM – to allow you to stay ahead by delivering faster and more efficient service.  

We Come Customer-Recommended 

Customers across the UK use our technical data. Our technical data is essential for many companies, from small family-owned garages to large businesses with many locations.

“It’s great having all the information we need in one place. Everything is easily accessed, right-click a vehicle hit technical data and it’s right there. Every vehicle I’ve needed to find has been there. £30 is really reasonably priced. I’m really happy with the service.”

DCB Autos

Improve Your Garage’s Efficiency 

We created Virtual Garage Manager to give garages to tools they need to create an efficient and profitable garage. Alongside our technical data, we also offer tonnes of other tools including workshop diaries and a technician app. 

We can help you make your garage more efficient and successful. If you want to learn more about our technical data or other services and tools, our team is ready to help. Get in touch today for a free demo of VGM and our technical data.

What’s new?

Linking a part directly from a jobsheet or invoice: When adding a part to a jobsheet or invoice, you’ll find a ‘Purchase Details’ section at the footer, where you can search for and link a purchase order or invoice. Search results will display key information, including ‘Available Qty,’ showing how many parts are unallocated on the purchase document. If needed, pressing the tab key while in the search box allows you to create a new purchase document. If the part doesn’t exist or has no available quantity, a new line will be created.

Viewing linked purchase information: A new ‘Purchases’ tab is now available in both the jobsheet and sales invoice screens. When a part line is linked to purchases, they will appear in this tab, providing you with detailed information about the part, including profit. You can access this information by clicking the arrow to the left of each part in the ‘Purchases’ tab.

Linking GSF Car Parts Purchases: When you order a part through the GSF integration, the linked purchase document now appears under the Purchases tab on the jobsheet. This shows the ordered parts along with sales and purchase details. Expand the part entry to view the linked purchase documents.

Documentation

We’ve put together some new documentation to go through the new functionality:

• https://intercom.help/motasoft-vgm-classic/en/articles/9882468-linking-parts-to-jobsheets-sales-invoice

Join Our Beta Testing Program 

You can become a beta tester and use our newest features before anyone else. Your opinions and feedback will help shape the platform to be better for you and other garages. If you’re interested, drop us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started. 

We have also added more customisation to the scheduler, including context menus and more ability to control which headings and pieces of information are visible. 

What’s new with our scheduler? 

Additional Colour Customisation: 

• Personalize the scheduler with custom colours for easier identification of tasks, bookings, and appointments. 
• Highlight key jobs or statuses with distinct colours for quick visual reference. 
• Improve team collaboration with color-coded assignments and statuses. 
• Recreate the colour schemes and layouts of our existing planner and technician planner in VGM classic.

Live Updates: 

• Real-time updates ensure that changes in the schedule are instantly reflected for all users. 
• Immediate visibility of task reassignment, booking adjustments, and job completions. 
• Reduces communication gaps by providing up-to-date information across teams. 

Jobsheet Search and Features: 

• Lock the jobsheet search to only show results in the visible date range of the scheduler.
• Enhanced search functionality allows for precise filtering by status, technician, or custom criteria. 
• Group jobsheets by key data like registration or technician for clearer organization. 

Enhanced Context Menus: 

• Right-click options provide quick access to relevant actions for tasks, bookings, and jobsheets. 
• Streamlined task management by offering contextual functionality based on the selected item. 
• Reduces navigation time by keeping essential tools within easy reach. 

More Options to Control What is Visible in the Scheduler: 

• Customise the visible data to focus on tasks, jobsheets, or specific time frames. 
• Filter views to show only relevant information, such as unassigned tasks or completed jobs. 
• Tailor the scheduler layout for a clearer and more focused overview of current operations. 

Documentation

We’ve created a number of documents, including a helpful video to go through some of the core functionality available in the scheduler.

• Using the scheduler
• Creating and managing a scheduler

Become a Beta Tester 

Our beta testers play a crucial role in shaping the future of VGM. By providing valuable feedback, they help refine and improve upcoming features, while also gaining early access to new developments. If you’re interested in joining our beta testing team, simply message us in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk. Together, we can enhance your business’s efficiency and productivity.

With our latest update, creating receipts in VGM is simpler and quicker. We have massively simplified how you and your team can create receipts, allocate payments, and process payments via terminals.  

Sales Receipt Improvements 

The sales receipt form has been completely redesigned from the ground up to quickly be able to take payments and allocate them correctly to sales invoices, all with as few clicks as possible. Enabling the user to quickly create new sales receipts and allocate the amount of the outstanding invoices. The user will have full visibility of a customer’s available balances from existing sales receipts, making it much easier to allocate existing amounts to new sales invoices. 

Dojo Integration 

On top of these changes, we have also added our Dojo integration to our newer version of VGM. With this, you can receive an invoice payment, send it to a Dojo terminal, and allocate the payment to a receipt, creating accurate account reconciliation in under 5 clicks. 

Join us as a Beta Tester 

If you want to see and use our new features before anyone else, you can become a beta tester. You will be able to use the latest features and offer valuable feedback to shape the platform. If you’re interested, drop us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started. 

Booking appointments is arguably one of the most important features for garages. A clunky booking process can set a customer’s experience off on a bad foot,  while a positive experience can make every other step smoother.  

We have updated this process in our VGM successor with serval new features and improvements to help you and your team make booking appointments and managing existing bookings simpler, quicker, and more efficient.  

What’s new with bookings in VGM? 

We have listened to our users’ feedback and refactored our booking form to make it significantly quicker and easier to find available bays and technicians.

The latest update will make managing bookings easier with a dedicated tab for reminders and extras. A ‘New Booking’ button has also been added to the booking grid, reducing the number of clicks it takes to create a booking. You can also now delete all of the reminders at once, speeding up the process substantially. 

How it works

We’ve put together some documentation in our knowledgebase to show you how this works:

• Creating or inserting a booking
• Booking reminders tab
• Booking extras tab

Join our beta testers

Our beta testers are incredibly important to us. They offer feedback, shape VGM’s updates, and get advanced access to developing features. If you would like to join our beta testers, drop us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started. Let’s work together to make your business more efficient and productive. 

You and your team can manage jobs more efficiently with a clear, organized view of everything in one place. It’s now much easier to spot the details you need at a glance and keep everything on track. 

Giving you the tools you’ve been asking for 

Build your own reports 

Our customers have been banging down our door to build their own dashboards – so we’re thrilled that we can give you that ability with this update. Now your reports can include all the information you specifically need, without any of the bloat. 

Exporting 

You will now be able to export reports to CSV and other formats. This gives you endless flexibility in how you use your data and what you can export it into. 

Create your own charts 

Visualising your data is an important part of understanding the performance of your business. That’s why we have made it easier than ever in this latest update. Now you can easily create custom charts in just a few clicks, showing the information that is important to you and your team.

Documentation

To get to grips with all of the functionality available, you can check out the documentation here.

Join Our Beta Testers 

If you’re wanting to see our new features before anyone else you can become a beta tester. Your feedback is really important to us as we work to make our tools even better for you. Just send us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started. Let’s work together to make your business more efficient and productive. 

One of the standout features of this update is the new technical data overview, designed to streamline access and provide a clearer, more organized view of essential data. Now, you can effortlessly search for and access technical information directly from the main menu or within a specific vehicle, putting the details you need right at your fingertips. 

What’s new with Technical Data? 

We’re delighted to release a significant update to our VGM successor which includes access to Technical Data. Check out the video below for a tour of the new interface.

Improved UI: Our new UI is sleeker, easier to use, and more user-friendly. This covers lots of different information screens including: Adjustments, Maintenance, Lubricants, Drawings, EOBD Locations, Fuse Locations, Engine Locations, Stories, Wiring Diagrams, Cases and Recalls. 

Improved search: Access and search for technical data from the main menu or from within a vehicle. This has been added to VGM Classic and will be added to our VGM successor soon. 

Technical Data Roadmap

This release introduces the new UI for our Technical Data feature. In the next update, we’ll be adding searchable repair times, service schedules, and the ability to include repair times in jobsheets, quotes, and invoices. Stay tuned for more enhancements!

Learn more about our Technical Data tools

If you do not have Technical Data within your VGM package, there’s never been a better time to add it! From a simple registration lookup, you can access a vast array of vehicle-specific technical information directly through VGM. You’ll be able to take the guesswork out of pricing jobs, providing an incredibly efficient service for your customers. If you want to learn more, please message us directly in VGM or contact us.

Join our beta testers

If you’re already using our Technical Data and want to use this update before anyone else, you can join our beta testers. Drop us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started.  

Additionally, we’ve made it easier to transition from quotes to jobs, making you able to turn a quote into a job or booking in just a few clicks. These enhancements will make your workflow smoother, more efficient, and easier to use. 

Exploring the new Sales Quotations features 

Customisable Grid

By choosing which columns are shown, you can quickly assess key details, make informed decisions, and streamline your workflow, all within a single screen. Moreover, customised grids are saved against the user, so they can be quickly accessed across any device. 

Customizable Sales Quotation Details

Tailor your sales quotations to meet your specific business needs. You can now modify the details of your sales quotes, ensuring they align perfectly with your operational requirements.  

By selecting from a library of cards, you can customise the detail view of your sales quotations so you have easy access to the information that matters most. This feature provides greater flexibility, allowing you to present information in the way that best suits your customers. 

Create a Booking or Jobsheet from a Quote

Transition seamlessly from sales quotes to actionable tasks with the ability to create a booking or jobsheet directly from a quote within VGM. This new feature eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing errors and saving time. It simplifies the process of turning a potential sale into a scheduled job, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. 

Join Us on the Journey Forward 

Excited to try out these new features or want to help improve our platform as a beta tester? We want to hear from you! Your feedback is really important to us as we work to make our tools even better for you.

Just send us a message in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk to get started. Let’s work together to make your business more efficient and productive. 

Sales Quotations Enhancements

This update introduces a customisable sales quotation grid, enhancing visibility and giving you a more organised way to manage your data. Moreover, customised grids are saved against the user, so they can be quickly accessed across any device.

You’ll also be able to fully customise the details of your sales quotations, tailoring them to your business and customer needs. Additionally, we’ve made it easier to transition from quotes to jobs, making you able to turn a quote into a job or booking in just a few clicks. These enhancements will make your workflow smoother, more efficient, and easier to use. 

Massive quality of life improvements to Purchases in VGM Classic

We have greatly improved and enhanced the purchases functionality inside of VGM classic.

It is now possible to link purchases to jobsheet or sales invoice lines when adding parts to a document, making the whole process fast and intuitive. In doing this, it’ll allow better tracking of profit and greater visibility of what purchase items belong to each job, this means that users will be able to easily see if a part was ordered for a certain customer or vehicle.

Searchable Technical Data for VGM Classic

Our Technical Data implementation in VGM classic has also received some quality-of-life improvements. When the repair times subject is selected, there are now some additional user controls visible to allow users to search using keywords or terms. We have also streamlined how you can add repair times to a document.

Technical Data Update

We’ve given our Technical Data features a fresh look and a smoother, easier-to-use interface. With the updated design, you can find and use critical information faster and more efficiently. Whether you’re digging into wiring diagrams or detailed repair instructions, the improved UI makes it all quicker and more straightforward. This update is all about making your experience more seamless and getting you the info you need without any hassle.  

Jobsheet Custom Reports 

We’ve seriously upgraded our job sheets – you can now create custom reports to suit your business’s needs. This will help you and your team manage jobs more efficiently by giving you a clear, organized view of everything you need in one place.  

It’s now much easier to spot the details you need at a glance and keep everything on track. Whether sorting through tasks or keeping tabs on progress, this update is designed to help you get the job done quickly.  

Booking Functionality Improvements  

We’ve listened to our customers’ feedback and changed our booking functionality to make it quicker, easier, and more reliable. The latest update will make managing bookings easier with a dedicated tab for reminders and extras. A ‘New Booking’ button has also been added to the booking grid, reducing the number of clicks it takes to create a booking.  

Integrating Dojo Payments – Sales Receipts  

The sales receipts functionality has simplified how you and your team can create receipts, allocate payments, and process payments via terminals. The sales receipt form has been completely redesigned from the ground up to quickly be able to take payments and allocate them correctly to sales invoices, all with as few clicks as possible.

We’ve also extended our Dojo integration to our VGM successor, so a fully integrated payment process is available across both platforms. 

Real-time updates across the application  

We’re excited to announce that real-time updates are now available throughout multiple key areas of our application, making it easier for your team to stay in sync without unnecessary delays or page refreshes.

In addition to the scheduler, real-time functionality has been extended to the main grids, including jobsheets, customers, vehicles, invoices, and more. These enhancements make it easier to manage your workflow, collaborate efficiently, and respond to changes without the need for manually refreshing data. 

Scheduler improvements

We’ve introduced several improvements and enhancements to the scheduler, based upon user feedback.

• Default templates – We’ve created a selection of default scheduler layouts, ready for you to customise to your needs.
• Enhance jobsheet search – We’ve added a new search filter called ‘Scheduler’ which will link the jobsheet search on the left, to the current scheduler visible on the right, so you only see jobsheets within the visible date range.
• New customisation options – A new way to colour code the tasks on the scheduler has been added. You can now colour code tasks, bookings, appointments and jobsheets by their current state, so it’s easier to show which jobs are currently in progress as well as which jobs have been completed.
• Additional context menu options – Right-clicking any task or an empty cell will reveal more in-depth, context-aware menus, allowing you to modify and work with the job instantly, without needing to navigate to another screen first.

Bug Fixes

VGM Classic

• Insurance companies could be deleted when linked to an invoice causing orphaned records.
• It was possible to delete a supplier that was linked to payments causing orphaned records.
• Purchase invoices were missing having their number generated in some places. 
• Technician combo was visible when editing part as a work item, which isn’t compatible with this item type.
• Couldn’t change the booking status in the diary when the customer column wasn’t visible.
• Vehicle owners were reverting to the previous owner in some situations.
• VHC free text was getting cut off when using line breaks.
• When creating generic appointments in the planner, the text was sometimes being cleared down due to automatic refreshing.
• MOT reminders service would still send out any messages that it had created after it was switched off. So now when the setting is switched off, the messages are deleted.
• Sage exports should no longer export lines with zero value.
• Special offers were showing a saving of zero when there was no discount applied.
• Custom or trade pricing was not being applied to special offers.
• If a slot type was part of multiple slot-type groups, only one of them would show in the services list.
• When sending a booking confirmation email, if a custom path was configured incorrectly no email would go out. Now it’ll revert to a default path.

VGM

• In the sales receipt list, we have removed the time attribute from the received column as it should just show as a date.
• Changed dashboard latest news to a static component to not rely on Wordpress. 
• When sending a VHC checklist via SMS was sending a merge tag rather than the actual value as the link. 
• When adding services to sales invoices it could miss calculating the VAT in some situations.
• Customer detail was sometimes not populating any data fields.
• Booking details now shows a warning when a booking has already been converted so users are aware any modifications won’t be shown on those documents.
• SMS Messaging was only sending the content of a message template, if the content was edited it was not being sent.
• Sales Receipt detail has had general improvements to the UX and design of this component to make it more user-friendly.
• Jobsheet overview when creating a new Jobsheet the notes didn’t save and the MOT status and tax didn’t load.
• Sales Invoices messaging was missing SMS. 
• Sales Invoice and receipt grids were retaining filters from other views when being viewed within a customer record.
• Jobsheet task view shows a loading panel when creating a new Jobsheet.
• Task clock on / off times were showing an hour off.
• Dragging a task onto the scheduler only showed a temporary appointment.
• Getting slot types for the drop-down in a booking wasn’t including inactive ones which would then not display if the booking was linked to an inactive slot type. 
• There was no way to delete a generic scheduler appointment.
• Scheduler config – If the ‘enable technician planner VHC’ setting is not enabled, then tasks can’t be displayed or edited.
• Job templates list is now searchable.
• When creating a booking if using the VRM lookup function it stopped the booking from being created.
• Editing a booking and changing the customer didn’t prompt to ask if it should update the current owner’s vehicle.

Get ready for the future of VGM  

We are always working on improving VGM and adding cost-saving and time-saving features for you and your team. If you want to see more of the future of VGM or would like to shape its future, you could join us as a beta tester.   

You will get a first look at all our upcoming features and improvements and will be able to give your feedback directly to our team. For more information, please drop us a message directly in VGM or email us at support@motasoft.co.uk – we can’t wait to hear from you! 

Key Benefits of the Gantt Chart View

• Comprehensive Visualization: See all tasks, timelines, and statuses at a glance, enhancing your ability to plan and adjust workflows.
• Real-Time Tracking: Monitor progress with updates that reflect actual work times, helping you stay on top of every task.
• Amend clock in data: Quickly visualise and update clock on/off data against your tasks.

Quick Look: Gantt Chart in Action

Check out our video walkthrough to see the Gantt chart in action, demonstrating its powerful capabilities and ease of use.

Exclusive Access for Beta Testers

This feature is currently available for our VGM successor beta testers, offering a sneak peek into the future capabilities of VGM. Beta testers play a crucial role in refining this tool, ensuring it meets real-world demands.

Become a Beta Tester

Join our beta program to test the latest features like the Gantt chart and influence the final product. Your feedback is vital to our development process. If you’re interested drop us an in-app message, call us on 0117 9 428678 or send us a message.