Automotive

Automotive is a device category, like computing or industrial machinery, built for auto repair shops. 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 an auto repair shop, a catalog 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 check it right away under “What do you work with?”.

The six vehicle types

Car, van, motorcycle, truck, motorhome and trailer, each with its own icon and color 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 license plate and the vehicle identification number (VIN) go in the usual fields. The technical details include mileage, fuel, powertrain, engine displacement, power, seats, engine number, first registration date and next inspection. They're all optional and they're printed on the intake receipt. A trailer has no engine: it only asks for the first registration and the next inspection.

The fuel is whatever the document says (gasoline, 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 “gasoline”.

Fill in from the registration card

In the device step of an intake, when you choose a vehicle the Fill in from the registration card 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 displacement, 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 shop's country, check the license 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 license plate 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: “7ABC123” and “7abc-123” are the same plate. This works for anything with a license plate, including electric kick scooters and 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.

An auto repair shop's intake

When you choose a vehicle, the intake suggests the accessories left with it (registration card, inspection certificate, spare tire, tire repair kit, jack and lug wrench, warning triangles, reflective vest, charging cable, tachograph card, wheel chocks or the motorhome's propane tank), the intake checks (no warning lights on, lights working, body undamaged) and the most common faults, so you can quickly write 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 trunk, wear parts or hidden faults that only show up during teardown, 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 shop isn't subject to the same law as an electronics store. That's why, when what comes in is a vehicle, the customer signs warranty, liability waiver 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 kilometers, plus the rules of Andalusia and Catalonia for shops in those regions. In every other country they come drafted under the law that governs vehicle repair there —the auto 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 auto 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 shop to review them. In Florida, the estimate block required by law prints separately, boxed and in capital letters.

In Catalonia, if you choose Català as the customer document language in Documents, the vehicle texts print 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 advisor tells you. If you leave it blank, the receipt prints 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 shop is in Canada.

Pick-up: mileage and warranty

The sign-off sheet for a vehicle shows the Odometer reading at pick-up card: enter what the dash 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 kilometer 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 odometer reading at pick-up is written on the sign-off sheet.

Mileage history

The mileage from every intake and every pick-up 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.

Inspection reminder

If you fill in Next inspection in the vehicle record, an Inspection tab appears in Alerts with the vehicles whose inspection 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.