For independent auto repair + mechanic shops.
Shop bookkeeping with parts COGS + tool spend + fleet AR all separated.
Parts purchases post to inventory or COGS. Tool-truck draws (Snap-on, Matco, Mac) roll up to one annual figure. Customer-financing pass-through splits into Service Revenue + Finance Fee Expense. The monthly P&L reflects real margin, not a rolled-up gross.
No card required · $15/mo after trial · 30-day money-back
Parts-spend visibility
Daily NAPA and O'Reilly orders, Worldpac next-day, AutoZone Commercial. PlainBooks tallies your monthly parts run from the actual bank lines so you can compare it against revenue — not the rough number you carry in your head.
Tool-truck reality check
Snap-on $25–$100/week per tech, Matco the same, Mac. These never show as a single P&L line, just dozens of weekly debits. PlainBooks groups them so the real annual tool spend is one number you can see.
Slow-season runway
January is rough. July-August is hot. PlainBooks shows the date your balance hits zero at current burn so you can pull a brake-job promotion forward — not wait until the rent bounces.
Where the books get messy
The shop did $11,000 in repair orders last week. About 40% of that was parts — bought from NAPA on Net-30, AutoZone Commercial on a running account, Worldpac next-day on the card. Snap-on rolled through Thursday and the lead tech's $80 came off the shop card. Payroll runs Friday. The diagnostic-subscription auto-debit hit the 12th. One customer's car has been on the lift for three days waiting for a part — the labor isn't billable until it goes out.
The books need to track parts as COGS (not as supplies), tool-truck payments as expense not asset, and work-in-progress on cars sitting in the shop without inflating revenue.
What PlainBooks does
PlainBooks gives you the books — chart of accounts shaped for an independent repair shop, the journal where each repair order, parts purchase, tool-truck draw, payroll run, and equipment lease writes a balanced entry, and a period close that locks each month.
Parts purchases post to Inventory or directly to COGS depending on how your shop handles it. Tool-truck draws from Snap-on, Matco, Mac each post to a single Tools expense line, so the real annual tool spend is one number — not dozens of forgotten weekly debits.
Warranty work, courtesy fixes, and inter-shop returns each have their own categories so the gross-to-net revenue math is honest. Customer financing pass-through (when you take a card for a job and the customer financed through Synchrony or Snap Finance) splits into Service Revenue + Finance Fee Expense.
When the month closes
Close the period and PlainBooks generates the closing entries. The monthly PDF package — Trial Balance, P&L (revenue → parts COGS → labor → tools → rent → other → net), Balance Sheet (with shop-card AP and equipment-lease liability broken out), GL detail, AR aging if you have fleet accounts, AP aging for NAPA and Worldpac — comes out in one file.
PlainBooks does not manage repair orders, look up parts, or schedule techs. Mitchell1, Shop-Ware, Tekmetric handle those. If a fleet customer pays a 30-day-old invoice in week six, the AR aging shifts and the deposit posts cleanly.
Bills you can't afford to forget
PlainBooks puts each one on the same calendar as your real bank balance, so you see the collision before it happens.
- Shop rentMonthly, the 1st$1,500–$3,500
- Parts (wholesale, NAPA / AutoZone / Worldpac)Daily, net 30 statements$2,500–$5,000/mo
- PayrollBiweekly$3,000–$6,000
- Tool-truck payments (Snap-on, Matco, Mac)Weekly$200–$600/mo per tech
- Shop software + diagnostic subscriptionsMonthly$200–$500
- Garage Keepers + GL insurance + workers compMonthly$300–$600
The tool-truck tally most shops don't run
Snap-on visits weekly. The lead tech pays $80, the second tech pays $50, the apprentice pays $25. That is $155 a week before Matco shows up Thursday. Across two techs, $700–$1,500 a month is leaving in tool payments — much of it not on the P&L as a single line. PlainBooks groups every tool-truck debit so the real annual cost is one figure.
What PlainBooks doesn't do
Honest about scope. If you need any of these, you need different software.
- Run shop management — Mitchell1, Shop-Ware, Tekmetric for ROs
- Order parts or check inventory — that lives in your shop software
- Schedule techs or write estimates — same
- Tell you what to charge for labor. Your hourly rate is yours to set — PlainBooks just shows what the parts run, rent, and tools actually cost.
Ready to see your cash position?
$15/month or $150/year (two months free). 14-day free trial. No card required.
Start your free trialCommon questions
- Does PlainBooks work for auto repair / mechanic shop?
- Yes. PlainBooks is general-ledger bookkeeping software — workspaces, chart of accounts, journal entries, period close, bank reconciliation, the full report set (Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, GL detail, AR aging, AP aging, 1099 summary). The auto repair / mechanic shop-specific copy on this page describes the accounts and bills that matter most in this vertical.
- What does it cost?
- $15/month or $150/year when signups open. One price, all features, no tiers. Signups aren't open yet — leave your email on the home page and we'll send one note when launch happens.
- Do I need to connect a bank account?
- No. PlainBooks does not ingest bank feeds. You post journal entries directly (and for trucking workspaces, trips and state-mileage entries write the underlying entries automatically). If you want bank-fed cash visibility, that's a different category of tool.
- What about cash-flow forecasting?
- On the roadmap, not in the current build. PlainBooks today shows what your books say — current balances, what's open in AR and AP, what's posted, what's pending close. We don't promise features that aren't built.