Automotive

Automotive is a device category, like computing or industrial machinery, built for garages. When you switch it on you get six vehicle types with their own details, a button that fills in the record from a photo or PDF of the vehicle document, the accessories, checks and risks of a garage, a catalogue of faults of the trade and a separate set of legal texts for vehicles. If you don't switch it on, nothing changes for you.

How to switch it on

If you're creating your account, you can tick it straight away under “What do you work with?”.

The six vehicle types

Car, van, motorcycle, lorry, motorhome and trailer, each with its own icon and colour on the board and in the lists. A moped is booked in as a motorcycle; anything that doesn't fit any of them, as “Other”.

The vehicle record

The number plate and the vehicle identification number (VIN) go in the usual fields. The technical details include mileage, fuel, powertrain, engine capacity, power, seats, engine number, date of first registration and next MOT. They're all optional and they're printed on the intake receipt. A trailer has no engine: it only asks for the date of first registration and the next inspection.

The fuel is whatever the document says (petrol, diesel, electric, LPG, CNG, hydrogen, ethanol or flex) and you choose the powertrain: combustion, mild hybrid, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric or hydrogen. They're kept separate because a hybrid's document usually just says “petrol”.

Fill in from the V5C

In the device step of an intake, when you choose a vehicle the Fill in from the V5C button appears. It works with the vehicle document from any of the 60 countries Sattotal works in: the permiso de circulación and the ITV card in Spain, the French carte grise, the German Fahrzeugschein, the British V5C, the Mexican tarjeta de circulación…

Warnings you may see

• Two documents. In Spain the registration certificate doesn't carry all the technical data: if you have the ITV card, upload it afterwards to fill in engine capacity, power and seats.
• Hybrids. The powertrain is left empty for you to choose, because the document doesn't tell them apart.
• Document from another country. If the document isn't from the garage's country, check the number plate and the dates.
• PDF with no text. It was read as an image: check the details.

One vehicle, one record

When you enter the registration at intake and that vehicle is already on file, a notice shows its make, its owner and how many repairs it has. If the intake's customer is the same owner, its record is used without asking. Otherwise you choose: same owner (the intake goes under that customer), new owner (the vehicle moves to the intake's customer and keeps its history) or different vehicle (a new record is created). It doesn't matter how it's typed: “AB12 CDE” and “ab12-cde” are the same registration. This works for anything with a number plate, including e-scooters and electric mopeds.

Change of owner

You can also change it from the vehicle record, with the Change owner button on the Owner card. Past repairs don't change: each one stays with the customer who signed its intake receipt and its sign-off. The record lists previous owners with their dates.

A garage's intake

When you choose a vehicle, the intake suggests the accessories left with it (V5C, MOT certificate, spare wheel, puncture repair kit, jack and wheel brace, warning triangles, hi-vis vest, charging cable, tachograph card, wheel chocks or the motorhome's gas cylinder), the intake checks (no warning lights on, lights working, bodywork undamaged) and the most common faults, so you can quickly note down what the customer tells you.

On the intake receipt, the risks you inform the customer about are those of the trade: the road tests needed to diagnose and check the repair, valuables left in the cabin or the boot, wear parts or hidden faults that only show up on stripping down, and the high voltage in hybrids and EVs.

The password field becomes the radio code or infotainment PIN, up to 20 intake photos are allowed and the vehicle is never assigned to a storage shelf.

Fault causes of the trade

The texts the customer signs

A vehicle repair garage isn't subject to the same law as an electronics shop. That's why, when what comes in is a vehicle, the customer signs warranty, disclaimer and terms texts that are different from the ones for devices. You edit them in Settings → Documents, on the Vehicles tab, which only appears when the category is on. The privacy policy is the same for everything.

In Spain they come drafted under Royal Decree 1457/1986: a prior estimate unless waived in writing, storage charges, replaced parts made available to the customer and a warranty of three months or 2,000 kilometres, plus the rules of Andalusia and Catalonia for workshops in those regions. In every other country they come drafted under the law that governs vehicle repair there —the vehicle repair law where there is one and, if not, consumer law or the general rules for repair contracts— and, where the law is regional, by region: the 14 US states with their own vehicle repair law (general wording in the rest), the Canadian provinces that have one (Ontario, Québec, Manitoba and Alberta), Scotland within the United Kingdom and the eight states and territories of Australia. Where the law couldn't be read from its official source (currently only Equatorial Guinea), the texts are a starting point and the app alerts the workshop to review them. In Florida, the estimate block required by law is printed separately, in a box and in capital letters.

In Catalonia, if you choose Català as the customer document language in Documents, the vehicle texts come out in Catalan: customers have the right to receive them in Catalan (art. 128-1 of the Catalan Consumer Code). The Vehicles tab also shows the Time limit to reclaim the vehicle field: the receipt has to state when that right lapses and the law doesn't set it, so you enter it yourself as your adviser tells you. If you leave it blank, the receipt comes out with a line to fill in by hand.

Each text's Restore default button brings back the vehicle text for your country, or for your province if the garage is in Canada.

Collection: mileage and warranty

The sign-off sheet for a vehicle shows the Mileage on collection card: enter what the odometer shows. If your country's law sets the warranty by both time and use, the customer's statement gives both limits (“3 months or 2,000 km, whichever comes first” in Spain) and the sign-off PDF prints the date and the kilometre at which it ends, along with the rule that sets it. With no mileage entered, the warranty runs by date only.

In countries without a verified rule, the warranty is the one you've set up in months, as for any other device, and the mileage on collection is written on the sign-off sheet.

Mileage history

The mileage from every intake and every collection is saved on the Mileage card in the vehicle record, with its date and where it came from, and you can also add a reading by hand. If a reading is lower than the previous one, you're warned before it's saved.

MOT reminder

If you fill in the Next MOT in the vehicle record, an MOT tab appears in Alerts with the vehicles whose MOT is due in the next 30 days or expired less than 90 days ago, and the bell lets you know. From each alert you can call the customer or open a WhatsApp chat with them; the app doesn't message them on its own.