Data Files samples / Garage and MOT centre
Quarrybank Motors
Customers, vehicles, bookings, job cards, MOT tests, services, reminders, parts and invoices for an independent garage.
Overview
Quarrybank Motors is an invented independent garage and MOT test centre in Leeds, with four bays. Three technicians and a workshop manager do the work, two of them as MOT testers, and a service advisor runs the desk: the phone, the diary, the estimates and the customers waiting for their keys. A few local firms run their vans and cars on a trade account and pay by transfer within thirty days.
Each vehicle is one record, known by its registration, with the dates its MOT and its service fall due. Four weeks before either, the garage sends a reminder, and most customers book in. A booking becomes a job card when the vehicle arrives; the labour (hours at the bench rate), the parts and the MOT fee go on it as lines, and when the work is done those lines are the invoice. An MOT test is recorded with its result, its own test number, and its failures and advisories; failures are put right and the car is retested, while most advisories wait for another day, so the garage can ring about them later.
Prices are kept without VAT, as a garage quotes its trade customers, and VAT is added line by line. The MOT fee carries no VAT. The records cover about thirteen months up to the day the file is made, with bookings in the diary for the weeks ahead, reminders ready for next month, cars waiting on parts, a few estimates not yet answered, and trade invoices not yet paid.
Every registration is invented and has a Q among its last three letters, which current British plates never use, and the makes and models are made up.
In Rutba Data Files, choose Garage and MOT centre on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.
It suits, with small changes
- A tyre and exhaust centre
- A van and light commercial workshop
- A motorcycle workshop, with bikes as the vehicles
- A mobile mechanic, with bookings at the customer's address
- A body shop or smart repair business, with estimates for every job
- An agricultural or plant repairer servicing machines by the hour
Read on
- Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 7 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
- Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 19 tables, and how they are related.
- Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.
Things you should know
- Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
- The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
- To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
- Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
- Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
- Prices are kept without VAT and VAT is added on each line and rounded to the penny, then the lines are added up. An invoice's Tax is that sum, so it can differ by a penny from 20 percent of the net worked out once.
- The MOT fee is a line of its own with a Tax Rate of 0: the test carries no VAT. Repairs to put a failure right are ordinary labour and part lines at the full rate.
- An invoice's lines are the job card's own lines, pointed at the invoice once it is raised. Add all the work to the job card before you invoice it.
- The numbers on job cards, invoices, estimates and MOT tests (JC-, INV-, EST-, MT-) are typed, not made by Data Files. Keep each run in date order and start again at 0001 each January. A real test centre records the national MOT test number in Test Number.
- MOT Due and Service Due on a vehicle are kept by hand when a test or service is done here. A test passed up to a month before the due date keeps the same date and adds a year; a later test starts a new year from the test.
- A print template prints every record of its table. Choose the record you want: the job card on screen, the reminders not yet sent, the accounts that owe something.
- Every registration in this sample is invented, with a Q among its last three letters so it cannot be a real car's. Your own records will have real registrations: keep the file safe, as they identify your customers' vehicles.
Starting with your own records
Start with Business, your own name, address, VAT number and payment details, which every document prints. Then Staff (tick MOT Tester for your testers), Suppliers and Parts (each part pointing at its supplier, with its cost and price without VAT), and Accounts for any trade customers. Customers and their Vehicles come in as people ring; add each vehicle's MOT Due and Service Due so reminders work from the start. Then the diary: Bookings, Job Cards with their Job Lines, MOT Tests with their items, Services, Invoices, Estimates and Reminders as the work goes on.
Making it yours
Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.
- For a tyre centre, add a Tyre Brand and Load Rating to Parts and a Tread Depth field to Job Lines, and a query of vehicles with tread below 3 mm.
- Add a Courtesy Cars table (registration, insurance, next service) and point Bookings at it instead of the Yes/No, so two cars can be booked separately.
- For a mobile mechanic, add a Visit Address and a Travel line to Job Cards, and sort the day sheet by postcode.
- Add a Labour Rate to Accounts for trade customers on a lower rate, and use it on their labour lines.
- Add a Warranty Until to Job Lines for parts with a maker's warranty, and a query of parts still covered.
- Record what technicians clock on in a Time Sheets table (technician, day, hours attended) and compare it with Technician hours by month to see efficiency.
Questions people ask
- How do I see everything done to one car?
- Open the Vehicles form and find the registration: its job cards, MOT tests and services are its history. The query Service history lists every service by registration.
- How do I find whose MOT is due so I can send reminders?
- Open the query MOTs due next month, or the report MOT reminder list to print it. Add a Reminders record for each, and print the Reminder letter.
- A car failed its MOT. What do I record?
- The failed test with its failures as MOT Items of Kind Fail. Put the work on the job card, then add a retest with Retest Of pointing at the failed test, and tick Fixed on each failure. Advisories stay unticked until they are done; the query Advisories not fixed lists them.
- Why is there no VAT on the MOT line?
- The MOT test fee carries no VAT, so its line has a Tax Rate of 0. Everything else on the invoice is at the standard rate.
- How do I print an older invoice or job card?
- Open the print template and choose the record by its number; every invoice and job card ever made is there.
- How do I see how busy each technician is?
- Open the query Technician hours last 30 days for hours sold, or the query Open job cards for what each has in the workshop now.
- Can I start with my own garage instead of Quarrybank?
- Yes. Make the database empty from the sample, fill in the Business record with your own name, address, VAT number and bank details, then add your parts and staff. Every document prints with your details.
The other samples
- Shop
- Food and beverages
- Cafe or restaurant
- Takeaway
- Florist
- Pharmacy counter
- Wholesale and trading
- Workshop or maker
- Builder
- Used car dealer
- Salon
- Barber shop
- Repair shop
- Cleaning company
- Consultancy or agency
- Gym and fitness studio
- Clinic
- School or training centre
- Charity or club
- Property rentals
- Estate and letting agent
- Guest house or B and B
- Building front desk
- HR, payroll and timesheets