Auto Repair Work Order Form (Excel) — Free Vehicle Intake and Repair Tracking Template

It is the document opened for each vehicle that comes in for service, showing the vehicle and customer details, the complaint, the work to be done and done, the parts used and the labor charge. It is signed by the customer at intake and signed again at delivery. For the shop, it is the record of "which vehicle I took in, from whom, in what condition and with what complaint"; for the customer, it is the proof that "I left my vehicle in this condition and approved this work."

At a minimum: work order number, intake date and time, customer name and phone, plate, make/model, VIN, mileage, fuel level, visible damage and items left in the vehicle, the customer's complaint, and the customer's signature. The two most often forgotten are mileage and existing damage; both prevent an argument at delivery. The first tab of this template combines the vehicle intake form and the work order on a single page.

Because the plate is the shop's memory. When the same vehicle comes back two weeks later with the same complaint, you can filter by plate and find in seconds which part was fitted on the previous job, at what mileage the service was done and which mechanic worked on it. The "Visit" column in this template's "Service Log" tab counts how many times the same plate has come in and turns colored when it is greater than 1, so a returning vehicle doesn't slip past you. It is essential to write the plate in the same format on every row; "34ABC123" and "34 ABC 123" are counted as two different vehicles.

For three reasons. First, the customer: they can see what they are paying for, and objections like "it can't cost this much" decrease. Second, profitability: on parts, your earnings are the difference between purchase and sale price, while on labor almost all of it is your work; without totaling them separately you can't see which one you make money from. Third, stock: a part is goods that leave your hands and must be deducted from stock, while labor doesn't hold stock. That is why the template keeps the parts table and the labor lines separate, and the Summary tab shows this month's labor and parts revenue separately.

Fill in a work order for each job and add the same job to the "Service Log" tab as a single row: date, work order no., plate, customer, fault, parts amount, labor amount, payment method and status. Update the Status column as the job progresses: Received → In repair → Ready → Delivered. In the morning, filter Status by "In repair" and "Ready" and you see which vehicles are waiting in the shop; the Summary tab calculates these counts and the month's revenue automatically.

In this template, parts and labor amounts are entered excluding VAT; the VAT rate you enter is applied to the subtotal and the grand total is shown including VAT. Which rate applies to which job, and which invoice must be issued alongside the work order, depends on your business's situation; ask your accountant about it. A work order is not an invoice; it is the record of the work done and of the customer's approval.

When extra parts or labor are needed, call the customer before starting the work; if they approve, write the date, time and a note saying "approved by phone" in the Work Performed field; if they don't, do only the approved work and note your findings. For high-value jobs, it is safer to first give the customer a written price quote. If you expect a legal dispute over approval and liability, consult a lawyer.

It is enough for a shop that takes in a few vehicles a day and has one person keeping the records. When you also need to track parts stock, customer accounts, payments and the cash register, Ofisx helps: it sells parts by barcode and deducts them from stock, opens a customer account for the customer, and processes payments; the cash report is split into Cash, Credit Card and Bank Transfer, and you can get the Profit/Loss report for any date range you want. If you turn on the "Sell Without Stock" setting and define a product named "Labor," you can put labor on the same sale as the parts without it holding stock. Ofisx does not have a separate work order, vehicle intake or plate tracking section; you keep the work order and the vehicle's service history in this template.

Yes, it's free; it asks for no email, sign-up or payment, and has no watermark or cell protection. The file is in Excel (.xlsx) format because the line amounts, VAT and summary are calculated by formula. You can open it with Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice and print the work order directly, or save it as a PDF with "Save as PDF" and send it to the customer on WhatsApp. If you want a blank form, delete the light blue cells and rows and print it to fill in by hand.