- Reduce the time and energy you waste on paper
- Save the expense of paper itself
- Step-by-step guide for moving to digital
- Template for organizing your business for digital
Last year, Skratch House Automotive Services owner and technician, Nathane Vanhoose, made the switch to paperless. Even though it seemed like a challenging task, he says it was actually pretty easy. As a shop owner himself, the switch to paperless became a massive time and money saver for his business. By using the management software, ReconPro™, he now has all of his files, photos, accounts, service orders, invoices, and more stored electronically– saving his company the cost of time, manpower, ink, and paper. Not only is it stored digitally, but also available to him anywhere at any time with the click of a button on both his mobile device and desktop.
Taking The Leap Into Paperless
Paul Maximov, President and Founder of AutoMobile Technologies Inc., developed the concept of ReconPro – a system geared specifically to all the needs of auto reconditioning businesses – after seeing how effective management software had been in other industries. “I founded AMT in 2008 to offer mobile solutions to the automotive industry. Our product, ReconPro, is a revolutionary system that uses cell phones or handheld computers to identify, estimate, book, and bill reconditioning work. It’s in use by more than 9,000 automotive technicians worldwide who find that it is a competitive advantage in winning and keeping customers.”
“From 2011 to 2018, we were keeping track of paperwork by hand. I’m the type of guy that likes to see it and know where everything is. However, over the years we’ve gotten quite a few employees and my wife and I had to log them in with invoices every night on a spreadsheet. So, it would be a couple of hours every night. That has now become non-existent. Each employee puts the cars into their phones, and it totally eliminates all that.” -Nathan VanHoose, Skratch House Automotive Services.
Vanhoose realized the more employees he had working for him, the more time and money he was losing each day going through paperwork.
“What used to take me an hour and a half, I can do now in 5 or 10 minutes. It’s done and then I’m on to the next thing. It’s all so organized and locked in. I couldn’t imagine working without it at this point. I went through testing 20 different programs and it was a nightmare until I found this one.”
Vanhoose was skeptical at first of management software because he liked to see the paper; however, he also prioritizes staying up to date on the technology in the world of automotive repair.
“If an issue pops up, it’s easy for me to pull everything up. When we know a situation might become a ‘situation,’ we can easily attach pictures and the technicians bring up the order and all that stuff. I can pull it up anywhere I’m at from my phone and just get access to all that information. So, it saves you time and it helps me look professional to clients when I can pull their information upon demand.”
How Much Paper Costs Your Shop
While it may not seem very costly, according to a study by reduce.org, you could be paying anywhere from 13 – 31 times the initial amount of paper. So, let’s say you paid $5 for the paper, you still have to account for storage costs, copying, printing, postage, disposal, recycling, and even labor. It all adds up pretty quickly. An initial $5 could actually be $65 – $155.
“ReconPro allows me to focus on my business because I’m not caught up in back-end stuff trying to make sure everything is right. We would have gone with an office staff one way or another, but this has allowed me to save money right now and become a full back office that I control with little time. It’s amazing!”
Steps To Going Paperless
The transition to paperless may seem daunting at first, but it’s very doable. It’ll take a bit of time, but as long as you organize your shop during the initial transition, everything after will become extremely easy. To start, you’ll need to:
- Have A Services List
- Have Price Exceptions Per Customer
- List Of Technicians
- List Of Clients
- List Of Technician Commissions
How To Start Organizing Digitally
While ReconPro can help you keep track of your business, it’s still important to organize everything in a spreadsheet during the transition. AMT offers a free, downloadable, spreadsheet template to help get your shop organized and ready to make the full transition from paper to digital.
You Can Download it here: Customer – Services Data Import Template.
If you want to tackle the constraint paper has put on your operation, management software is the best way to do it. It’s designed to make your life easier and allow you to access all of your operational information on the fly, increase productivity, and manage workflow all at the click of a button.
AutoMobile Technologies Can Help
AMT offers software solutions designed to make your reconditioning business more efficient, provide you with better visibility, and give you peace of mind knowing that your back-office is always up-to-date.
ReconPro is the industry’s most versatile and powerful software solution purpose-built for auto recon professionals. With essential tools for performing estimates, hail and insurance matrixes, parts management, paint code lookups, integrations with body shop crash systems and accounting systems, too. Recon pro manages the details of running your business so you can focus on growing your business.
