Mobile mechanic software for invoicing from the parking lot.
You're under a car in an office lot with no desk and no counter. Redline keeps a record of the call where the customer said yes to the extra work, drafts the invoice from what you tell it and takes the card before you pack up the jack.
Added work, approved and billed
Logged a call on Tasha Greene: approved rear pads and rotors on the 2016 CR-V. Want the invoice with both axles?
Invoice drafted: $840, "2016 CR-V: front and rear pads and rotors ($260 per axle), 2.5 hours labor at $110, call-out $45", plus your sales tax.
Approve it and the pay link goes live.
A logged call is a record in Redline, not a signature. Invoices are on Solo and up.
Between the jack stand and the pay link
The OK on added work, on record
When you call about the extra repair, log it on the customer with what they approved. It's a dated entry on their file, so you have a record when the bill comes up.
Parts deposit before you order
Bill a parts deposit on its own invoice before you buy the alternator, then the balance when the job's done. Both are paid by card on a pay link. On Solo and up. See invoicing.
VIN and mileage on the customer
Send a photo of the door jamb sticker or the dash and Redline puts the VIN and mileage in the customer's notes. It reads the photo; it doesn't decode the VIN.
Fleet accounts on a cadence
A landscaper's trucks or a small delivery fleet can sit on a repeating schedule, every 3 months for oil changes or whatever the contract says. See recurring jobs.
Profit after parts
Log each part as an expense on the job and Reports shows profit per job after what you spent. Amounts are typed in. On Solo and up. See expenses and reports.
A shop that fits in a van
Plenty of mobile mechanics work alone. The day is brakes in a driveway, a no-start in a parking garage, a battery at an office lot and a pre-purchase inspection on the other side of town. Pricing is book time or flat rate for common jobs, plus parts with a markup and a call-out fee for the drive.
The friction is all paperwork. You find something else wrong halfway through and need the customer's OK before you touch it. You need a deposit before you spend your own money on a part. Then you need to get paid while you're still there, with greasy hands, on your phone. Redline handles each of those by chat, and the job keeps the whole story: the approval, the deposit, the parts cost and the final.
Winter is batteries and starters; summer is AC. Fleet work and oil-change intervals smooth out the rest. When those are on a repeating schedule, they stop depending on you remembering who's due.
Straight answers for mobile mechanics
Redline does
- Log the customer's approval for added work as a note
- Bill parts deposits and the balance (Solo and up)
- Keep VIN, mileage and photos on each customer
- Show profit per job after parts you logged (Solo and up)
- Repeat fleet visits on a schedule
Redline doesn't
- Decode VINs or look up labor times
- Order parts or search a parts catalog
- Collect a signed repair authorization
- Tax parts and labor at different rates on one invoice
- Work fully offline
Questions contractors ask
Can I tax parts but not labor?
Redline applies one workspace sales tax rate to the whole invoice. It doesn't split taxable parts from non-taxable labor, so check how that fits your state before you rely on it.
Can customers approve added work online?
No. Call them, then log the call and what they approved on their file. That gives you a dated record, but it isn't a signature.
What if I'm in a garage with no signal?
A call you log offline is saved and syncs when you're back in range. Invoices and pay links need a connection.
What plan does a solo mechanic need?
Solo at $29 a month: invoicing, card payments, deposits, expenses and reports, with a 7-day free trial on the web. See pricing.
Free mobile mechanic paperwork and tools
- Mobile mechanic invoice templateCall-out, parts per axle, labor and core charge
- Mobile mechanic estimate templateRepair estimate with a parts deposit
- Mobile mechanic estimate appPhone quotes with parts grades side by side and a parts deposit
- Markup vs margin calculatorSee what your parts markup is really worth
Keep reading
- Invoicing and card paymentsInvoice from the job in two taps or one message. Customers pay by card.
- Expenses and reportsReceipts filed against the job, profit per job after materials, and CSV exports.
- Auto detailing softwareInvoice packages and add-ons in the driveway and keep maintenance washes coming back.
- Appliance repair softwareDiagnose, order the part, come back: keep two-visit repairs from slipping.
- Markup vs margin calculatorSee profit, markup and margin on any job, or price for a target margin.
Run your business by chat.
Redline is free to start. Tell it about the job and it handles the quote, the schedule, the invoice and the follow-up.