Everything MechIQ does
The complete feature list — from AI diagnosis to live accounting integrations. Features most garage software doesn't have, at a price that includes all of them.
AI Intelligence
AI woven into every workflow — not bolted on. MechIQ uses Claude (Anthropic) with automotive and vehicle-specific context for every call.
Fault Code Diagnosis
Paste one or more OBD-II / manufacturer fault codes. AI cross-references with vehicle make, model, year, mileage, and engine type to give ranked findings with likely causes, repair steps, and parts needed.
Symptom-Based Diagnosis
No scanner? Describe what the customer said. Free-text symptom input generates a differential diagnosis with tests to confirm each possibility — same AI model, same structured output.
Scan PDF Upload
Upload a diagnostic PDF from any scanner tool. AI reads the document, extracts fault codes and live data, and generates the work plan automatically. No re-typing.
Photo / Camera Diagnosis
Tech taps the camera button, snaps what they see, and AI identifies the issue from the image. Rust, worn components, damaged parts — visual diagnosis saved directly to the job.
Voice Notes
Hold a button and speak. Notes are transcribed and saved to the job. No typing with dirty hands. Ask the AI a question mid-job — "what torque spec for this bearing?" — and get an immediate answer.
Mileage-Aware Recommendations
AI checks the vehicle's current mileage against manufacturer service intervals. Approaching a 60k service? AI flags it in the quote so FOH can upsell — without anyone having to remember.
Standalone Diagnostics Page
Techs can run a fault code or symptom lookup any time — without creating a job first. Useful for quick lookups on a customer standing at the counter, or diagnosing a car before booking it in.
AI Customer Comms Drafting
When a job reaches a key milestone — customer approval needed, or job complete — AI drafts the message in plain English. FOH reviews and sends. Never stares at a blank text box again.
Cross-Garage Learning Pool
Anonymised fault code + repair outcome pairs from across the network improve AI accuracy over time. Your pricing, customer names, and registration plates are never shared — only the technical outcome.
Job Management
Full lifecycle tracking from first booking to vehicle collection. Every status change timestamped, every action logged.
Full Job Lifecycle
Booking → Check-in → In Progress → Awaiting Approval → QC → Complete → Collected. Every stage tracked with timestamp and actor. Full audit trail.
Vehicle Health Check (VHC)
Tech works through a structured checklist of vehicle components at the start of every job. Green = OK, Amber = monitor, Red = action needed. AI uses VHC results to skip items already confirmed as fine — no redundant tasks.
Labour Timer
Clock starts the moment a tech is assigned. Runs continuously through the job. Pauses automatically when the job is awaiting customer approval, resumes when they approve. Actual time vs estimated always visible.
Awaiting Actions Panel
Persistent notification panel + bell dropdown shows FOH exactly what needs attention right now — approvals pending, jobs complete, vehicles ready to collect. No hunting through a job list.
Tech Strip on FOH Dashboard
FOH sees every tech in a live strip: available (green), waiting for approval (amber), or on a job. No walking to the workshop to find out what's happening.
Return Visit (Comeback) Tracking
Customer brings the car back? Log it as a comeback linked to the original job. Track severity (minor / medium / major / safety-critical), reason, and which tech did the original work. Comeback rate per technician reported separately — so you can coach, not blame in the dark.
Online Booking
Customers book directly from your website or a MechIQ link. Reg lookup pre-fills vehicle details. FOH sees new bookings instantly on the calendar. No phone call needed to get a car in.
Registration Lookup
Type a UK reg and vehicle make, model, year, engine, and colour are filled in automatically. No more transcription errors or "what year is it?" conversations at the desk.
Statutory Test Tracking
Vehicle type and applicable test regime tracked per vehicle. MOT (UK), NCT (Ireland), CVRT (commercial), SPSV (taxi). Expiry dates visible on every job so FOH can flag it to the customer.
Quoting & Pricing
Intelligent pricing that learns your garage, respects your margins, and gets quotes out in under 2 minutes.
AI Quote Generation
From a diagnosis result or a customer request, AI builds a full itemised quote with parts and labour. FOH reviews, adjusts, and sends. Average time: under 2 minutes.
4-Tier Parts Pricing
Parts price is resolved in order: (1) your inventory stock price, (2) live supplier API, (3) your uploaded supplier price list, (4) AI estimate flagged for FOH verification. Always uses the best available source — no manual lookup needed.
Target Profit Margin
Set a target gross margin per garage. AI adjusts parts markup on quotes to hit it. If a job runs thin, it tells you before you've committed to a price.
Labour Rate Tiers + Per-Job Override
Define labour rates by job type or vehicle class. FOH can override the rate on any individual job — system suggests from tiers, FOH has final say. Override is logged.
Trade & Fleet Account Pricing
Trade accounts get configurable parts and labour discounts applied automatically to every quote. FOH doesn't need to remember — the discount is baked in.
Quote History & Learning
Every accepted and completed quote feeds back into the system. Over time, AI gets more accurate on parts costs and labour times for the jobs your garage does most. Tenant-scoped — your quote learning stays private to your garage.
Split Invoicing
Insurance job? Warranty claim where the garage covers part of the cost? Split a job between two payers with automatic line allocation. Each payer gets their own invoice, tracked and exported to accounting independently.
Sundries & Consumables
Add a sundries line to any job for consumables — brake cleaner, rags, wire, clips. Keeps the invoice clean while still recovering the cost.
Customer Experience
Customers who know what's happening don't ring to ask. MechIQ eliminates the "is it ready yet?" call entirely.
Live Customer Portal
Customer gets a link by SMS when their car is checked in. They see live job status, what's been found, what's been approved, and estimated completion. No login required — link is their access.
One-Tap Approval
When extra work is found, AI drafts an explanation in plain English and sends it by SMS. Customer taps Approve or Decline — no phone call, no voicemail, no waiting. FOH sees the response immediately.
Automatic Status Notifications
Automated messages at the moments customers care about: car checked in, work complete, ready for collection. AI-drafted, FOH-reviewed. Configurable per garage — only fires at key milestones, not on every status change.
Payment Link Integration
Garages configure their own payment link (Revolut Business, AIB, Stripe — whatever your garage uses). MechIQ sends it in the collection SMS and email so customers can pay before they arrive. No card terminals, no provider lock-in.
Trade & Fleet Accounts
Account customers get auto-approved quotes, periodic billing (weekly or monthly), and a consolidated statement invoice. Credit limits and payment terms configurable per account. Less friction, faster throughput on fleet work.
Full Vehicle History
Every job, diagnosis, invoice, and communication stored against the vehicle. When the same car comes back in a year, FOH and the tech can see exactly what was done before.
Branded Registration Plates
Vehicle registration displayed with the correct plate style — Irish (blue strip, IRL badge) or UK (yellow/white). Detected automatically from the reg format, not a manual setting.
Team & Scheduling
Role-based access for every person in the garage. Each role sees exactly what they need and nothing they don't.
Role-Based Access
Three roles out of the box: Admin (full access + settings), Front of House (jobs, customers, quotes, invoices), Technician (job tasks, diagnosis, VHC, voice notes). One user can hold multiple roles — switch with a tap.
Visual Calendar
Day and week views with tech availability. Colour-coded by status. Drag to reschedule. Online bookings appear instantly. Capacity model is tech-based — some jobs are floor work without a bay, so bays don't limit your throughput.
Leave Tracking
Annual leave, sick leave, and public holidays managed in MechIQ. When a tech is on leave, they're greyed out in scheduling and the calendar won't allow bookings against them.
Per-User Dark Mode
Each user can switch between light and dark mode independently. Stored per user — the tech on night shifts gets dark mode, the owner on a laptop gets light mode. No whole-garage setting.
Tech-Specific Username Formats
Admin-managed accounts for techs and FOH staff — email is optional. Techs can log in with a short username (e.g. darcy\niall). Admin resets passwords directly; no self-service password reset flow needed for workshop tablets.
All-Day Tech Sessions
Techs log in once at the start of the day and stay logged in. No repeated authentication on the workshop tablet. Daily login enforced — next morning requires a fresh sign-in. Designed for the real workshop environment.
Parts & Inventory
Stock management that ties directly into quoting and job completion — no separate system, no re-entry.
Full Stock Management
Track every part in stock — quantity, cost price, retail price, reorder level, supplier. Parts used on jobs are deducted automatically when the tech confirms them at job completion.
Bulk CSV Import
Load your existing stock list from a spreadsheet in one go. Column mapping wizard handles different formats. Coming from another garage system? We handle the import.
AI-Assisted Stocktake
Tech walks the shelves with a phone. Scan, speak, or type quantities. AI cross-references against expected stock and flags discrepancies. Stocktake that takes minutes, not hours.
Automated Reorder Suggestions
When stock drops below reorder level, MechIQ flags it. Reorder suggestions include supplier details so FOH can place the order without looking anything up.
Parts Logged to Jobs
Every part used is logged to the job at the tech's confirmation step. Stock is updated, the invoice is built, and the margin is calculated — all in one action. No separate stock-out form.
Supplier Management
Maintain a supplier list with contact details and pricing. Upload a price list CSV per supplier — used as the third tier in parts pricing when a live API isn't available.
Accounting & Finance
Real integrations — not CSV export. Invoices pushed directly to your accounting package the moment a job is complete.
How most garage software handles accounting
Export to CSV, import into Sage/Xero manually. Someone like Jill exports once a week from GarageHive and drags the file into Sage by hand. MechIQ pushes invoices via API the moment a job is closed — no exports, no imports, no Jill's Friday task.
Sage Business Cloud
Live ✓Full OAuth2 integration. Garage admin authorises once with their Sage account. MechIQ creates the customer contact, maps ledger accounts (labour → Services, parts → Products), resolves VAT rate, and pushes the invoice. Auto-export on job completion, or manual export per invoice.
Xero
LiveFull OAuth2 integration with Xero Accounting API. Invoice push, credit notes, contact creation, tax code mapping, PDF attachment. Garage admin authorises once — invoices flow automatically.
QuickBooks Online
LiveOAuth2 integration with the QBO Accounting API. Customer creation, invoice push, credit memos, PDF attachments. Connect in one click from Settings.
CSV Export (Fallback)
Don't use Sage, Xero, or QuickBooks? Download a structured CSV of all unexported invoices for any date range. Mark-as-exported tracking so nothing is counted twice. Import into any accounting package that accepts CSV.
Invoice Status Tracking
Payment status (unpaid / paid / waived / deferred) and export status (pending / exported / failed) tracked independently. An invoice can be paid but not yet exported, or exported but awaiting payment on account terms. Both visible at a glance in the Invoices view.
Account Customer Statements
Fleet and trade account customers get consolidated statements — weekly or monthly. One statement invoice per period with all jobs listed, payment terms applied, and credit limit visible. Exported to accounting like any other invoice.
Reporting & Analytics
The numbers you need to run a profitable garage — not just a busy one.
Profit per Job
Labour cost vs labour charged, parts cost vs parts charged, total margin. Per job, per job type, and across the garage. Know whether a DPF clean is worth your time.
Revenue per Technician
Revenue generated per tech over any period. Labour efficiency (billed hours vs clock hours). Objective numbers for pay reviews and performance conversations.
Comeback Rate by Technician
How many return visits link back to each tech's original work — broken down by severity. The quality measure no other garage system tracks.
Aged Debtor Report
All unpaid invoices grouped by customer with 30 / 60 / 90+ day buckets. Colour-coded stacked bar per customer. Know exactly who owes you what and for how long.
Bay & Capacity Utilisation
Bays in use vs available at any point. Peak days and hours. Understand where you have room to grow throughput before hiring.
Waived & Comeback Costs
Comeback jobs that were waived (no charge to the customer) are tracked separately. Real cost of quality issues visible as a monthly number — not hidden in "miscellaneous".
Reconciliation Report
Download a CSV of every invoice exported to Sage this month — invoice number, date, customer, vehicle reg, subtotal, VAT, total, and Sage reference. Paste alongside a Sage export and the two lists should match line-for-line. Monthly bookkeeper check before VAT filing.
Financial Integrity Check
One-click check across all invoices: line items sum to subtotal, every exported invoice has a Sage reference, no invoices stuck in a failed export loop. Returns a clean bill of health or a specific list of issues to act on. Run before VAT filing.
NPS & Customer Satisfaction
Automated post-collection survey sent by SMS. 0–10 score with optional comment. NPS score, per-tech breakdown, and detractor alerts on the Reports page. Detractors (score ≤6) notify FOH and admin immediately so the garage can follow up before the review goes online.
Platform & Security
Built for garages that take data seriously. EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant, and architecturally isolated at the database level.
Database-Level Data Isolation
PostgreSQL Row-Level Security enforces that no garage can ever see another garage's data — at the database engine level. Not application filtering, which can be bypassed by a bug. Full security details →
Per-Garage Subdomain
Each garage gets their own subdomain: servicestop.mechiq.ie. The URL is how staff know they're on the right garage — and it's how multi-role users switch between locations.
Self-Service Onboarding
Garage signs up, picks a subdomain, and goes through a setup wizard — bays, labour rates, staff, VAT, accounting integration. Live in under an hour, no manual provisioning on our end.
Multi-Garage Organisation
Running more than one site? A parent organisation can hold multiple garages. Org-level admins see cross-garage reports. Staff are scoped to their own garage — they don't see data from other sites in the group.
GDPR Compliant
Customer consent, right-to-access, and right-to-erasure built in. EU data residency on AWS (Ireland region). Designed for the EU market from the first line of code.
Migration from Other Systems
Coming from GarageHive, TechMan, Motasoft, or a spreadsheet? MechIQ imports customer and vehicle data from a CSV export. We map the fields — you're not starting from zero.
Works on Any Device
Fully responsive — desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. FOH on a desktop, tech on an Android tablet, owner checking in on a phone. No app required (native iOS and Android apps coming Q4 2026).
Circuit Breakers on All External Services
If the AI API, accounting integration, or notification service is unavailable, MechIQ degrades gracefully — it doesn't take your whole system down with it. Jobs keep moving even when a third-party service has an outage.
Structured Logging & Observability
Every request, job event, AI call, and comms send is logged with a correlation ID. Deployed on AWS with CloudWatch — if something goes wrong, we can find it before you notice.
All of this. One flat price.
No per-technician fees. No modules. No "reporting is an add-on". Every feature on this page is included — from day one, forever.