Job cards & WIP tracking
One record per job, booking to invoice. Everyone works from it. Nobody re-types it.
WIPline · workshop control
Workshop WIP tracking for bodyshops, SMART repair and alloy refurbishment.
Not a developer who found the trade. A tradesman who got tired of back and forth admin and learned to build around it.
“Where is that car up to?” should not need a walk to the floor or a phone call. WIPline puts every job on one screen.
Everybody in the shop sees this same screen.
Why it goes wrong
Everyone has a part
Everyone has a part
to play in the system.
Manager
Are we going to hit targets for the month?
Adds today’s invoicing to yesterday’s figure
Watches the total build up
Estimator
Has the dealership approved the extra work?
Emails or calls for a third time
The approval sits on the job
Supervisor
Which jobs are going to miss their date?
Works it out from an out of date whiteboard
Late jobs flag themselves
Technician
What state was this in before we started?
Does anyone have a picture of it before it was prepped?
The photos are on the job
Dealership
Where has my customer’s car got to?
Calls or emails, then waits
Looks it up without ringing
How a job moves
One job, from booked in to paid.
Five steps. The last two happen on their own.
A person does this
WIPline does this
Step 01
Booked in
Car, damage and how urgent it is, typed in once. WIPline works out the due date from your own lead times.
A person does thisStep 02
Priced and authorised
The estimator says what the work is and what it costs. The dealer approves it on screen, so there is a record.
A person does thisStep 03
On the floor
The technician picks the job up on their phone and taps it through each stage as they go.
A person does thisStep 04
Signed off
Wheels need a torque reading. Bodywork needs a quality check. Once both are in, the job marks itself ready.
WIPline does thisStep 05
Invoiced
The invoice uses the same record the job was booked on, with the checks already attached.
WIPline does thisAnd when extra damage turns up
The technician adds it to the same job with photos. The dealer approves it on their own screen, the price and the due date update, and the job carries on. Most shops do this on the phone and forget to bill it.
02 · Inside WIPline
Real screens
This is what it
actually looks like.
A real prototype, running on demonstration data.
EVERY JOB, ONE LIST
See the whole shop
See the whole shop
without walking it.
Every branch, what each has in, and how many hours are still to do on it. It stays up to date on its own, because the shop floor updates it as they work.
On the shop floor
The same job, in a pocket.
Technicians never touch a computer. Four numbers to sign in, three taps to move a job on.
What I do
What I build for workshops.
Dealer & customer portals
Give the people who call and email you a screen instead. Status, bookings, written approvals.
Workflow automations
The chasing, reminding and re-keying that quietly fills a day a week.
Not sure what to fix first?
Answer 20 questions about your shop and I will send back where your time is going. It is free and takes three minutes.
Not a bodyshop? There is a general version for any business.
Work out the cost
How much time is this costing you?
Tick whatever sounds like your shop. These are averages, not a promise.
What would you hand over first?
What does an hour of that time cost the shop?
£35/hr
What you get back
0 hrs
Hours back, every week
£0
Saved every month
A 45-hour week
Spoken for
Handed back
Each square is one hour of somebody's working week.
Do not take my word for it. A free pilot proves it in your own shop.
How the free pilot works
The offer
Try it before you pay anything.
I build one thing for you first. It runs in your shop for 30 days. You only pay if it does what we agreed.
Start here: Tier 1
The Prove It Pilot
We pick the one job in your shop that wastes the most time. Chasing approvals, writing out job cards twice, working out where a set of wheels has got to. I build the fix, it runs in your shop for 30 days, and you only pay if it works.
Apply for a pilot slot- £0 up front. No deposit, no card details, no contract before anything exists.
- One 20-minute call to agree what "working" means. We write it down, and that is what you judge it on.
- Live in 7–10 days, then 30 days running in your shop before an invoice exists.
- Didn't work? Pay nothing. Keep it anyway. I would rather have the honest feedback.
- Two a month, maximum. I build these myself, so that is all I can do properly.
Tier 1 · You are here
Prove It Pilot
One small fix that saves real time, built and run at my risk. This is the only thing I will talk to you about on a first call.
£0 up front · pay on result
Tier 2 · If it landed
Full build
The whole run, from quote to job to sign-off to invoice. Fixed price agreed before I start, with 30 days of changes included.
Fixed project price
Tier 3 · Only if you want it
Ongoing
Something new built or improved each month, plus support when you need it. Cancel any time.
Monthly · no fixed term
Background
Twelve years on the tools.
I have done the jobs I now write software for. Every bit of waste I look for is one that used to cost me my own evenings.
-
7 yearsFibreglass manufacturing
Laminating, finishing and mould work, with the final two years running the workshop as manager. That is where I learned that you rarely lose time on the skilled work. You lose it handing over, waiting for an answer, or doing something twice because nobody wrote down that it had changed.
-
3 yearsSMART repair & paint
Shop floor, dealer work and alloy refurbishment. Job cards, approvals, amendments, month-end. The everyday admin of a busy workshop, and the reason the software assumes things other systems don't.
-
2 yearsBuilding the systems
Automation and software applied to all of the above. Built on my own time, from scratch, around the workflows the whole trade runs on rather than any one shop's.
Matt Smith
Founder, and the person who builds it
Straight answers
Questions you should ask.
If yours is not here, email me. You will get a real answer, not a brochure.
Ask me directly
Most bodyshop DMS packages handle the accounting side well and the shop floor badly.
The gap is nearly always everything between the job landing and the invoice going
out. Paper job cards, whiteboards, chase calls, WhatsApp photos and amendments
nobody logged. I build into that gap and leave your DMS doing what it
already does well. Replacing it is usually the wrong answer.
They are right not to, if it is built badly, and most of it is. This is a design
problem, not a people problem. Technician screens get built for a phone, in a
workshop, with gloves on: claim a job, log time, add a photo.
If it takes longer than the paper card it replaced, it's wrong and I
rebuild it. That's on me, not on your team.
The pilot costs nothing up front, and nothing at all if it doesn't do what we
agreed. After that, a full build is quoted as a fixed price before any
work starts. You see the number and the scope together, and it does not matter if it doesn't
move. No retainers, no twelve-month contracts, no day rates that grow once the work starts.
No, and it's usually the opposite of what people expect. The smaller the
team, the more of the admin lands on one person, and the more a single
well-built automation is worth. A two-bay unit and a multi-site group lose time in
exactly the same places. The only difference is how many people are absorbing it.
No, and that is deliberate. WIPline was built and coded with AI, but there
is no AI running inside it. Nothing guesses at your prices, writes to your
customers or decides what happens to a job. It does what you tell it to, the same
way every time, and you can always see why. AI made it quick to build. It is not
what you are buying.
No. One person. I scope it, build it and support it myself, which is exactly why
I only take two pilots a month. You'll never be handed over to an account
manager, because there isn't one.
Seven years in fibreglass manufacturing, the final two running the workshop as
manager, and three years in SMART repair and paint. I've written the job
cards, chased the approvals and done the month-end. That's the entire
reason this business exists rather than another general-purpose automation shop.
Get started
Tell me what's wasting the most time.
That is the whole first conversation. No slides, no sales process. Just what is broken and whether I can fix it in a fortnight. If I cannot help, I will say so.
Apply for a pilot slot
Two a month. Takes about a minute.