How do you set up a booking system for a car service garage?
Job types with set durations, one calendar per mechanic or ramp and confirmation by your own team.
Guides by type of business
A garage that takes bookings online spends less time on the phone and can plan its ramps and mechanics better. 4appointments gives you a public booking page and a calendar for each provider. It doesn’t manage parts, vehicle records or invoices, and it sends no messages to clients, so the workshop confirms each request itself.
Create your job types as services with name, duration and price, such as an inspection, an oil change, a suspension repair or wheel alignment. Correct durations are what keep the day from overlapping, and the pause field leaves time after each booking for the next car. The tool has no ramps or bays as bookable resources, but you can create one provider per mechanic, or one per ramp, each with their own weekly schedule. It’s a workaround: the provider is simply the name that carries a calendar.
Share the public link in your listing, on your website and in your messages. Clients choose a job type and a free time without an account, and “Any available person” saves them choosing. The form takes a name, an optional email address and a free note, with no fields for the registration or vehicle, and the note isn’t shown in the panel calendar, so ask for the car’s details when you confirm.
Each request arrives as pending and holds the slot. Confirm or reject it in the Bookings section and tell the customer yourself, by phone or message. Pending requests nobody handles are cancelled quietly about an hour after their time ends.
For regular checks, staff can create a recurring series when making a booking: weekly, every two weeks or every 30 days. Customers can cancel or reschedule with their management link, which you send by hand for bookings you create yourself.
The essentials
- ✓Job types with set durations and prices as services
- ✓One provider per mechanic or per ramp, as a workaround
- ✓No vehicle fields: collect the details when you confirm
Common questions
Is it possible to manage parts orders in the same system?+
No. 4appointments schedules appointments only. It doesn’t manage parts, stock or invoices, so keep those in your garage software.
Will clients see a price when they book?+
Yes, each service has a price that appears on the page. If extra work comes to light during the inspection, the final price is agreed with the customer at the workshop.
More guides you may find useful
Do you run a garage or service centre?
Organise your mechanics’ calendars, share one booking link and confirm each request yourself. The first 12 months are free, with no card; see the pricing page for the plans.
Give 4appointments a go