It’s 6pm on a Friday. The phone’s been ringing all day. A customer’s looking for a quote you sent last week — you’re hunting through emails trying to find it. The lad on the ramp needs to know if the parts arrived. There’s a stack of job cards on the counter that need invoicing before month-end. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you know there’s a Focus in the corner that’s been “waiting for parts” for three days, but you can’t remember which parts or who was supposed to order them.
Sound familiar?
This is how too many Irish garages still operate. Not because owners want it this way, but because the alternatives have always been worse. Software built for massive dealership networks. Systems that cost a fortune and take six months to learn. “Solutions” that create more problems than they solve.
Today, we’re launching something different. MotorWorks is garage management software built specifically for independent Irish workshops — the kind of garages that keep Ireland moving, run by owners who care about the work but are drowning in admin.
Why we built MotorWorks
MotorWorks didn’t start as a product. It started as a problem.
We spent months talking to Irish garage owners — in their workshops, over coffee, after hours when they were finally free to talk. We visited garages in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and small towns you’d need a map to find. We talked to one-man operations and workshops with ten mechanics. We talked to lads who’d been in the trade forty years and owners who’d just taken over the family business.
The same frustrations came up again and again:
“I know I’m busy, but I’ve no idea if I’m actually making money.”
“My lads are great mechanics, but asking them to fill out paperwork properly? Forget it.”
“I lose customers because I forget to follow up. They go somewhere else for their NCT work and I never see them again.”
“I spent all Sunday doing invoices. There has to be a better way.”
“I tried [other software] but it was built for dealerships. Half the features I don’t need, and the half I do need doesn’t work how we actually operate.”
That last point kept coming up. Every garage software we looked at was designed for someone else — multi-brand dealerships with dedicated IT staff, fleet operators with procurement departments, massive workshop networks with training budgets. Independent Irish garages were an afterthought at best.
When we asked garage owners what they wanted, the answers were remarkably consistent: something simple, something that works on a phone, something that doesn’t cost a fortune, and something that actually fits how they operate. Not how a consultant thinks they should operate. How they actually do.
So we built MotorWorks from scratch, designed around how Irish independents actually work.
What makes MotorWorks different
Built for independents, not dealerships
Dealership software assumes you have a service manager, a parts manager, a reception team, and a back-office admin. Most independent garages have you — doing everything.
MotorWorks is designed for that reality. One system that handles job cards, quotes, invoicing, parts tracking, and customer communication. No unnecessary complexity. No features you’ll never use clogging up the screen.
Built for Ireland
NCT tracking, not MOT. Motorcheck.ie integration for reg lookups. Irish addresses with Eircodes. VAT handled correctly. Even the default language makes sense — we say “boot” not “trunk.”
This might sound minor, but using software that wasn’t built for your market creates friction every single day. MotorWorks doesn’t need you to translate or adapt. It just works the way you work.
Priced for real garages
No per-user fees. No modules you have to pay extra for. No “enterprise tier” where all the useful features hide.
One price: €199 per month. Every feature, every user, every location if you have more than one. We’ll talk more about pricing at the end, but the principle is simple: you shouldn’t need a finance meeting to figure out what the software will cost.
The features that actually matter
Let’s walk through what MotorWorks does — not feature-list style, but in terms of what it means for how you run your garage.
Digital job cards: find any job in three seconds
Customer calls about their car. With paper job cards, you’re hunting through piles, asking the lads, checking pockets. Meanwhile the customer’s waiting on the phone getting increasingly frustrated.
With MotorWorks, you type the reg, the name, or the phone number. The job appears instantly. You can see exactly what stage it’s at, who’s working on it, what’s been done, and what’s outstanding.
Every job moves through clear statuses: Booked, In Workshop, Ready for Collection, Invoiced, Completed. Update the status and everyone sees it — reception, workshop, even the customer if you want them to.
This sounds simple because it is. But it transforms how your workshop operates. No more hunting. No more “I think Paddy was working on that.” No more jobs falling through the cracks because the card ended up under a parts catalogue.
And because everything’s digital, you’re building a complete history. When the customer comes back next year, you can pull up exactly what was done last time. What parts were used. What the technician noted. That kind of information used to live in people’s heads — now it lives in the system, accessible to anyone who needs it.
Quotes that actually get approved
How many quotes have you sent that just… disappeared? Customer said they’d think about it. You meant to follow up but got busy. Three weeks later they’ve gone somewhere else.
MotorWorks changes this in two ways.
First, quotes are dead simple for customers to approve. They get a link, see exactly what you’ve quoted, and approve with one click. They don’t need to call you back during business hours. They can approve at 10pm from the couch if that’s when they’re looking at it.
Second, you can actually see what’s happening. Which quotes are still open? Which ones have been viewed but not approved? Which are about to expire? Set automatic follow-up reminders and opportunities stop slipping through the cracks.
You can also build quote templates for your most common work. Interim service, full service, timing belt, brake pad replacement — start with a template and adjust for the specific vehicle. Consistent pricing, professional presentation, faster turnaround. Your quotes look the same whether you created them or your newest team member did.
Invoicing that doesn’t eat your weekend
Here’s a pattern we heard constantly: garage owners spending Sunday afternoons doing invoices. Going through paper job cards, adding up parts and labour, typing everything into a spreadsheet or Word document, hoping the numbers match up.
MotorWorks ends this. The job card already has the parts, the labour, the time. When the work’s done, the invoice builds itself — you just review and send.
Email the invoice directly from the system. See when the customer opens it. Send automatic reminders for overdue payments without making awkward phone calls.
Month-end stops being a weekend job. The numbers are already there.
Parts tracking that prevents chaos
“Did the parts arrive for the Passat?” “Who ordered the brake pads for the Golf?” “Why do we have three timing belts and no oil filters?”
Parts chaos is expensive. You’re either waiting for parts that should’ve been ordered, or you’ve got money sitting on shelves in stock you didn’t need.
MotorWorks connects purchase orders to jobs. When you order parts for a vehicle, that order is logged against the job. When parts arrive, you mark them in. You can see what’s on order, what’s arrived, and what’s still outstanding — without asking around or digging through emails.
Profitability reports: stop guessing, start knowing
This is where most garage software falls down badly. They’ll tell you how many jobs you did. They’ll tell you your total revenue. What they won’t tell you is whether you actually made any money.
Full ramps don’t mean full bank accounts. That two-hour timing belt job that turned into four hours? You lost money on it. Those cheap diagnostics jobs that seem like easy revenue? Often losing propositions when you factor in real time spent.
MotorWorks tracks profitability at the job level. Labour charged versus time spent. Parts cost versus parts billed. You can see exactly which work is making you money and which is costing you.
Beyond individual jobs, you get bigger-picture analysis:
- Which service types are profitable? Maybe your servicing is solid but diagnostics is losing money. You won’t know until you can see it.
- Which technicians are efficient? Not just who bills the most, but who completes jobs closest to quoted time. Who has the fewest comebacks?
- How’s this month compared to last year? Trends matter. Are margins holding up or slipping?
When you can see the numbers clearly, you can make better decisions. Price work appropriately. Focus on profitable service types. Address efficiency issues before they drain your margin.
Your garage in your pocket: the mobile app (coming soon)
You’re not always at the desk. You’re on the workshop floor, driving between sites, or at home wondering if that Focus got finished.
The MotorWorks mobile app — native iOS and Android, coming soon — will put everything in your pocket. Not a cut-down “mobile view” that lets you check a few things. The full system.
- Create jobs, send quotes, check reports, update statuses
- Push notifications when jobs change, quotes get approved, or payments come in
- Works offline for basic functions when signal is patchy
This matters more than you might think. How many times have you been stuck at the office PC when you needed to be on the floor? How many times has a customer asked a question and you’ve had to say “hang on, let me go check”? With the mobile app, you check on the spot.
If you run multiple locations, the mobile app is how you stay on top of all of them. Check each site’s jobs, see who’s busy, spot problems before they become emergencies. You’re not chained to one workshop — you can manage from wherever you are.
Your technicians can use it too. They see their assigned jobs, update statuses when work’s done, log time — without walking back to the computer every five minutes. This is especially valuable for larger workshops where technicians historically got frustrated with paper systems that didn’t keep up with the actual work.
Built for Ireland: NCT tracking and Motorcheck.ie integration
Here’s something that simply doesn’t exist in software built for other markets: proper Irish vehicle integration.
Motorcheck.ie reg lookups
Type a registration number and MotorWorks pulls vehicle details automatically. Make, model, year, NCT due date — straight from Motorcheck.ie’s database. No manual entry, no mistakes.
This saves time on every single job. But more importantly, it builds a valuable database over time. Every vehicle that comes through your garage, with accurate information attached.
NCT tracking that generates business
Every car in Ireland needs an NCT. Every NCT needs the car to be roadworthy. That’s work waiting to happen — if you’re the one who reminds them.
MotorWorks stores the NCT due date for every vehicle. Run the NCT Due report and see every vehicle due in the next 30 days. That’s your outreach list, ready to go.
Contact those customers with a simple “NCT coming up — want us to check it over?” Pre-NCT inspections are easy upsells. You spot issues before the test, fix them on your ramp rather than the NCT centre’s, and the customer passes first time.
Most garages wait for customers to call when their NCT is due. With MotorWorks, you reach out first. That’s the difference between keeping customers and losing them to whoever remembered to get in touch.
Bringing customers back: service reminders and the customer portal
Winning new customers is expensive. Keeping existing ones is where the real money is. But most garages have no systematic way to stay in touch with customers between visits.
Automatic service reminders
MotorWorks tracks when each vehicle was last serviced. When it’s been 9, 12, 15 months — you’ll know. And you can reach out before they drift to a competitor.
Three clicks to fill your diary:
- Open service reminders
- Select customers due for service
- Send
Each customer gets a personalised email reminding them their vehicle is due. They can book directly or call you back.
The system categorises customers by urgency, so you know where to focus:
- 9-12 months: Due soon — friendly reminder territory
- 12-15 months: Overdue — time for a more direct reach out
- 15+ months: At risk — these customers might be drifting away
These aren’t cold leads. These are people who’ve already trusted you with their car. A simple reminder often turns into a booking — and you didn’t have to spend a penny on advertising. The cost of sending a reminder is essentially zero. The return is real revenue from customers who were about to forget about you.
The customer portal
Every “is my car ready yet?” call stops someone working. Every “can you send that invoice again?” request takes time you don’t have.
The customer portal gives your customers a place to check without calling. They can see:
- Job progress: Booked, In Workshop, Ready for Collection
- Quotes waiting for approval
- Invoices and payment history
- Complete service history for their vehicles
No app to download, no password to remember. Just a link that takes them to their information.
Customers don’t work 9-5. They check quotes on the train home, approve them after dinner, review invoices on the weekend. The portal works when they’re ready, not just when you’re open.
Multi-location support
Running two or three locations? MotorWorks is built for it.
- Single dashboard, all sites: See jobs, revenue, and activity across all your locations in one place
- Per-location views: Drill into individual sites when you need to
- Staff permissions: Control who can see what at each location
- Cross-location reporting: Compare performance between sites
You shouldn’t need three different logins or three different screens to manage three workshops. MotorWorks gives you one system that handles them all.
Statements and credit notes
Trade accounts. Fleet customers. Anyone who doesn’t pay per job.
MotorWorks handles this properly. Issue statements showing all outstanding invoices. Create credit notes when you need to adjust. Track account balances without spreadsheet gymnastics.
If you do work for local businesses — delivery vans, company cars, taxi fleets — you know how messy account management can get. Who owes what? Which invoices are still outstanding? When did they last pay? MotorWorks keeps it all in one place.
For your accountant, everything exports cleanly. No more copying numbers between systems. No more “the books don’t match the records” conversations. The data is there, formatted correctly, ready to use. VAT is handled properly — Irish VAT rates, Irish invoice requirements, nothing you need to translate or adapt.
Migration: bring your data with you
Switching to new software shouldn’t mean starting from scratch. You’ve got years of customer data, vehicle histories, and invoice records.
MotorWorks supports importing:
- Customers: Names, contact details, addresses, notes
- Vehicles: Registration, make, model, linked to owners
- Invoices: Numbers, dates, line items, payment status
- Payments: Records against invoices
Export from your current system, map the columns, and import. Dry-run mode shows you exactly what will happen before you commit — catch errors before they become problems.
Not comfortable doing it yourself? We’ll handle it. Data migration is included with every MotorWorks setup. We’ll extract data from your current system, clean and format it, run the migration, and verify everything came across correctly.
And because we believe your data is yours: export works too. Take your customers, vehicles, jobs, and invoices any time. No lock-in.
Pricing: €199/month. That’s it.
We’ve tried to make this as simple as possible.
€199 per month. All features included. No per-user fees. No module add-ons. No hidden costs.
Got three staff? €199. Got ten? Still €199. Running two locations? €199 total, not per location.
Why this approach? Because we’ve seen what the alternative does. Garage owners trying to save money by limiting user accounts. Features behind paywalls that they discover they need six months in. Costs that escalate as the business grows.
We’d rather you use the software fully. Add your whole team. Give everyone access. Use every feature. That’s how you get the benefit.
What’s included
- Digital job cards and scheduling
- Quotes with online approval
- Invoicing and payments
- Customer portal
- Mobile apps (iOS and Android) — coming soon
- NCT tracking and Motorcheck.ie integration
- Service reminders
- Purchase orders and parts tracking
- Profitability reports
- Multi-location support
- Statements and credit notes
- Data import/migration assistance
- Email and phone support
No tiers. No “upgrade to unlock.” Everything, from day one.
Try before you commit
We offer a 14-day free trial. Full access, no credit card required upfront. Set it up, import some data, run it alongside your current process. See if it works for you.
If it doesn’t, no hard feelings. Delete the account and carry on. We’re confident enough in MotorWorks that we don’t need to lock you in.
Getting started
Ready to see what MotorWorks can do for your garage?
Book a demo: We’ll show you around the system, answer your questions, and discuss how it would work for your specific situation. No pressure, no sales tactics — just an honest look at whether MotorWorks is right for you.
Start a free trial: If you prefer to explore on your own, start a 14-day trial. Full access, no commitment.
Talk to us: Questions? Just want to have a chat about your garage setup? Get in touch. We’re not a faceless corporation — we’re a small team building software for people we actually understand.
The bigger picture
We built MotorWorks because we believe independent garages deserve better tools. Not “enterprise solutions” dumbed down. Not dealership software with features stripped out. Purpose-built software that fits how you actually work.
The Irish independent garage sector is the backbone of vehicle maintenance in this country. There are thousands of independent workshops keeping Ireland on the road — from city garages doing everything from NCT prep to full engine rebuilds, to rural workshops that serve their communities with honest work at fair prices. You provide jobs in every town. You offer an alternative to the main dealer monopoly. You deserve software that helps rather than hinders.
We’ve seen what happens when technology actually works for you. Garage owners who used to spend weekends catching up on admin now finish their paperwork before they leave on Friday. Shops that were losing customers to competitors now have automatic reminders bringing them back. Owners who felt like they were always behind finally feel in control.
That’s what we want for every Irish independent garage.
MotorWorks is just getting started. We’re adding new features based on what customers tell us they need. We’re improving existing features based on how people actually use them. We’re building this with you — with your feedback, your frustrations, and your real-world needs guiding every decision.
Stop fighting paper job cards. Stop losing quotes in email threads. Stop spending weekends on invoices. Stop guessing whether you’re making money.
There’s a better way to run your garage. Let us show you.
Ready to take the next step?
Book a Demo | Start Free Trial | See All Features
Questions? Email us at hello@motorworks.ie or call us on 01 XXX XXXX. We’re here to help.
