A standard automotive repair order form usually isn’t more than a page or two. It contains vital information like the work to be done on a vehicle, any parts to be ordered, and a cost estimate of all the services to be provided.
While traditional auto repair order forms have served as a reliable method for managing repair orders for many years, it is becoming increasingly clear that they are no longer the most efficient or effective option available.
In fact, there are several ways in which the use of manual auto repair order forms may be limiting the potential of your shop.
Old-School Repair Order Forms Should be a Thing of the Past
Auto repair shops typically use repair order forms to present customers with vital information like vehicle inspection findings, recommended repairs, parts information, and a cost estimate for all the services provided.
Traditional repair order forms are printed out on paper, typically only one or two pages, or even handwritten in some shops.
While traditional auto repair order forms have served as a reliable method for managing repair orders for many years, it is becoming increasingly clear that paper-based systems just won't cut it.
Everything today is digital, from paying your doctor to ordering a slice of pizza. Most customers just don't want to have to worry about paper receipts.
Even if they haven't realized it yet, offering a completely digital experience will be a game changer.
Provide a Modern Customer Experience with Digital Repair Order Forms
Customers feel the same way about paper receipts and paper estimates as most of us do about a glove compartment crammed full of paper maps: inconvenienced and overwhelmed.
With a cloud-based shop management system, independent auto repair shops can revolutionize their entire process of building, sending, and approving estimates in a way that encourages customers to complete those critical repairs.
1. Simplify The Entire Repair Order Process
Your customers lead busy lives and might dread coming into the shop because of the time commitment alone. Relying on a traditional auto repair order form process means taking up even more of their time by tying them to your shop with in-person authorizations and payments.
Typed reports are easy for everyone to read, minimizing the potential problems that come with difficult-to-decipher automotive repair order forms.
Remember: more time spent tending to prospective customers is more opportunity to say “yes” to customers. Help your team focus on the tasks at hand and get customers back on the road.
2. Add Visibility with Digital Vehicle Inspections
A picture speaks a thousand words. With digital vehicle inspections, you can write a story for the customer using pictures and explanations of any vehicle issues your technicians found. A handy color-coded system even lets customers know which concerns are most time-sensitive.
Simply telling customers their ball joint is loose might leave them wondering why it matters if they can't feel the impact when driving. But showing them the massive play between components, torn boots, and dirty globs of grease will help them understand why the repair is worth the cost.
3. Text or Email Customers Directly
Customers want things fast, simple, and on their phones. When they're already texting their doctor, babysitter, or coworkers, why shouldn't they be able to text their shop when they drop off their car?
Well, now they can. With a digital automotive repair order form process, shops can text or email inspection findings, estimate forms, or even directly communicate and answer questions customers might have through text or email.
Tekmetric makes it easy and lets shops text directly from the app with their shop's landline number, so no extra phone services or phone lines to worry about.
4. Make Paying Your Shop Easy
Shops should look to take advantage of alternative payment methods when possible to provide customers with flexible service to simplify the payment process.
Whether you let customers text-to-pay directly from their estimates, or offer Buy Now, Pay Later options, your shop will surprise customers with the convenience offered, and have the opportunity to sell larger repair orders.
Not only does this make it easier for your customers, but Tekmerchant and our buy now, pay later options provide shops with the necessary protections, working to prevent any potential fraud from falling on your shoulders. You can relax with that peace of mind, knowing your shop will always get paid for completed work.
Streamline Your Auto Repair Order Form Process, Boost Your Sales
By digitizing your automotive repair order form process with Tekmetric, you can simplify your shop’s data, improve legibility, provide a full picture of each vehicle, and give your customers more freedom and convenience.
Make the switch to a modern digital solution to drive your sales, your team, and your success.
We’re proud to share that the Tekmetric Mobile App has been named a winner of the 2025 MOTOR Top 20 Award, an honor that recognizes the 20 most innovative and impactful tools and technologies shaping the automotive industry.
For decades, the MOTOR Top 20 Awards have been a benchmark for excellence, celebrating advancements that help technicians work more efficiently and shop owners operate more profitably. To be included on this list is a powerful acknowledgment of our team’s commitment to solving real challenges for repair shops
The Tekmetric Mobile App was designed to make shop management easier and more effective. By streamlining workflows, enhancing communication, and providing shop owners with the real-time insights, the app equips teams to deliver a better customer experience while running a more profitable business..
Tek-Tip: Learn more about the Tekmetric Mobile App. Now available in the Apple and Google App stores.
This recognition wouldn’t be possible without the thousands of shop owners, service advisors, and technicians who share their feedback with us every day. Your trust pushes us to keep improving, and this award reflects both your partnership and our team’s dedication to moving the industry forward.
As we look ahead, we are more motivated than ever to build solutions that give repair shops the horsepower to grow, the efficiency to scale, and the tools to deliver service with confidence.
To learn more about the MOTOR Awards and view the 2025 Top 20 Awards, visit https://www.motor.com/2025/09/motor-announces-2025-top-20-awards-winners/
About Tekmetric
Tekmetric, the leading auto repair technology company, improves auto repair shops through the relentless pursuit of innovation. Tekmetric’s all-in-one cloud-based auto repair platform, including shop management, payments, marketing, technology integrations, and real-time data, empowers auto repair shops nationwide. With Tekmetric, shop owners can create transparency, enhance productivity, increase profitability, and deliver a superior customer experience for vehicle owners.
Tekmetric is a huge improvement over a traditional paper process for sure. Estimates are easy to draft, orders are easy to create, and work flows easily through the platform as cars move through your shop.
That's because there’s always a better way! Canned jobs in Tekmetric are particularly powerful, saving service writers time by simplifying the process of building job estimates. Less clicks means more time to focus on the customer and offer amazing service while selling even more amazing BG Products.
When you have the right tool that helps simplify your work, why not use them? You wouldn’t use an open-ended wrench when a ratcheting socket wrench cuts the time in half and saves your knuckles.
In our effort to keep growing Tekmetric so running your shop is even easier, our latest update to canned jobs now includes even more canned jobs for BG Products and services right in Tekmetric. Just enable the canned jobs you want to use, and start selling even more BG services right away!
What are canned jobs?
Canned jobs are pre-saved job templates in Tekmetric that include labor and parts associated with common repair work done.
Instead of recreating jobs you perform on a regular basis, shops can create as many canned-jobs as they like to build estimates in just seconds. Just apply the right canned job and you're ready to send for approval.
In fact, shops find canned jobs so helpful, one shop running on Tekmetric has created over 2,000 customer canned jobs, and even uses at least one canned job per RO.
The value of canned jobs is clear: making it easier for repair teams to provide customers with the best of the best.
Simple, efficient, and reliable processes lead to more completed work and happier customers. And as we know, happier customers leads to even more customer retention, and better customer retention increases shop profitability.
In essence, canned jobs can even help you pay for Tekmetric. The profit generated from saving time, closing more repair orders and selling better service can cover the cost of the platform, and then some.
Just why are canned jobs so powerful for your shop? That's easy:
Make your jobs easier by simplifying your workflows for common repair orders into just a few clicks
Shorten the time it takes to operate, get estimates built and approved sooner and move cars faster.
BG Canned Jobs, using BG products in particular, enable your shop to offer more specialized service options for improved vehicle performance
Payment methods aren’t simply about an exchange of money. They're personal. And in the ecommerce environment, offering the right payment methods is like extending an invitation — it lets your customers know they're welcome here and they can expect a seamless experience.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods provide even more convenience and flexibility, allowing customers to break their purchases into smaller payments. When you add BNPL to your menu of payment options, you open the door to even more customers and to higher-value sales. In fact, a recent survey found that more than 70% of businesses using BNPL report higher conversions, average order value, and customer acquisitions.
We've partnered with Stripe to make Affirm’s BNPL payment methods available to your customers. Businesses that offer BNPL through Stripe on average see a 24.5% increase in sales. Adding Affirm to your mix of payment methods can help your business:
1. Boost Conversion
A $400 price tag, for example, might discourage some customers from clicking buy, but when they can split that cost into four $100 payments, the transaction may be more appealing. That's how BNPL methods can help motivate your customers to make an order, driving up your conversion rate.
2. Increase Your Average Order Value
BNPL methods may encourage your customers to order more lower-value goods at one time, increasing your average cart size. It may also encourage them to purchase high-value goods, such as luxury items or furniture. In either case, your customers have greater ability to place higher-value orders, which can help drive revenue.
3. Reach More Customers
BNPL methods can help you tap into new market segments by making a purchase easier on a customer's budget through a series of smaller payments. These payment methods are especially attractive to younger customers who may not have a credit card or the ability to pay for large purchases in a single payment.
The flexibility of buy now, pay later is a huge benefit to your customers—one that can inspire them to make a purchase. And—maybe the best part—this all happens without extra work on your part, and Affirm takes on any potential risk.
With Affirm, you get paid in full immediately, while your customer owes only a portion or nothing up front. Affirm handles underwriting the customer and collecting payments, and assumes liability if a customer files a fraud-related dispute, so you can focus on growing your business.
Click here to learn more about how Tekmetric and Stripe can help you optimize your checkout
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