Repair tracking software: history that stays

Three ways to record — and where each one breaks

	Notebook	Spreadsheet	System
Finding an old entry	Leafing through by hand	Search, if the file is tidy	On the asset record, immediately
Several people writing	One book in the workshop	Copies of the file and conflicts	Everyone from their own phone
Link to parts and hours	None	Manual formulas	Entered on the job itself
Cost of a past repair	Added up again by hand	Changes when a price cell is edited	Fixed when the part was used
When someone leaves	The history leaves with them	The file stays, the context does not	The history stays with the company

What one repair record keeps

Part of the record	What is stored
The machine	Exactly one asset, so the cost lands on the right unit
The fault	The linked defect: who reported it, when, its severity and photos
Type of repair	Mechanical, electrical, tyres, bodywork, planned maintenance, inspection or other
Who does the work	Your own workshop or an outside garage; for an outside garage, the garage and its invoices
People and dates	Who created the job and who held it; when it was created, planned, due and completed
Parts	Quantity, the unit price at the moment of use and the store the part came from
Labour	The person, hours, hourly rate and a note per line
Meter reading	Engine hours or kilometres taken when the job is created or raised from a defect, when it is completed, when the parts are checked off or a planned service is closed — stored with the job as its source; a reading lower than the last one is rejected
Comments and files	Timestamped comments, and photos or documents attached to the job itself
Status history	Every status change and edit, with the values before and after, the person and the time

When the repair is done by an outside garage

Not every job stays in your own workshop. Each repair records who does the work — your own workshop or an outside garage — and for an outside garage, which one, chosen from the company’s list of vendors. The history of the machine stays complete either way.

The garage’s invoices are recorded on the same job: number, date, amount excluding VAT, the VAT rate (21 % by default), amount including VAT, a description and the PDF file. One repair can carry several invoices — parts and labour billed separately, for example — and they count towards the repair’s cost and appear in the monthly repair report. This is recording invoices you receive for your own equipment, not billing anyone; it is a module the company switches on when it needs it.

Why the history cannot quietly change

Booked jobs stay. A work order with parts, hours, comments, planned parts or a checklist on it cannot be deleted — the database refuses. Only an empty job raised by mistake can go.
Parts keep their meaning. A part that has been used on a job cannot be deleted from the catalogue, so no cost line ever points at nothing.
Hours outlive accounts. A labour line keeps its hours and amount even if the mechanic’s account is removed.
Edits leave a trace. A changed title, priority, deadline or mechanic is recorded with the old and new values; closing a converted defect by hand needs a written reason.

Faults that come back

A repeat fault only shows when the second repair is tied to the first — then you can deal with the cause instead of fixing the consequence for the tenth time. In Torek that tie is the defect: a closed defect can be reopened on the same record and turned into a new work order, so every repair made for it stays under that one fault. The defect closes again only when the last of its work orders is completed, and each time a job raised from a defect is finished, the driver or mechanic who reported the fault is told it has been fixed.

Across the fleet, the maintenance reports group defects by the assembly named in their text and name the unit with the most reports in each group.

A practical note: the discipline of recording rests on convenience, not on rules. If an entry can be made from a phone in a minute, the log fills itself; if it means sitting down at a computer, nobody will fill it in.

What a recorded history is worth after six months

The true cost of a unit — parts and labour are totalled on every job and carried onto the asset, so “repair or replace” becomes arithmetic rather than instinct. Labour counts only on lines that carry an hourly rate.
An argument when selling — a complete service history raises what a machine is worth, and each work order prints as a PDF with its parts, labour and totals.
The last job at hand — on each unit, work orders and defects form one dated timeline, so whoever starts a repair sees what was done last time.

Where this joins the other processes

Recorded repairs live in the same queue as preventive maintenance, and the parts consumed are written off from stock straight onto the job. For recurring services the parts list can come from a reusable service template instead of being assembled by hand each time. Jobs started and finished at the shared workshop kiosk land in the same history, under the name of the mechanic who signed in.

Frequently asked questions

Why record repairs at all?

Without records you cannot answer the simplest questions: when was that bearing last replaced, how many times has this fault come back, what does it really cost to keep this one unit running.

A recorded history is also an argument when the machine is sold, and the basis for deciding whether to repair it again or replace it.

How long should recording a repair take?

If it takes more than a couple of minutes, mechanics will not do it — that is the main reason repair logs end up empty.

So the job should start from a defect that is already recorded rather than be filled in from scratch: the description, the asset and the photos are already there, and the mechanic only marks what was done and enters the hours.

Should small jobs be recorded too?

Yes — small repeat jobs are usually what gives away a machine that is slowly failing. One connection tightened for the tenth time looks trivial on its own and becomes an obvious signal in the history.

Does the cost of a repair stay correct later?

Yes. The price of a part is frozen onto the job at the moment it is consumed, so a later change to the part’s price does not rewrite last year’s repairs.

What happens to the history when a mechanic leaves?

Nothing is lost. Their jobs, comments and status changes stay on each asset, and the hours they booked stay in every job’s cost even if their account is later removed.

Can repair costs be split by type of repair or by garage?

Yes. Every repair carries a type — mechanical, electrical, tyres, bodywork, planned maintenance, inspection or other. The monthly repair report groups repairs by asset, by type or by garage and shows parts cost, labour cost, outside-garage invoices, the total and downtime hours. It exports to Excel, CSV and PDF.

Who can see what an outside garage charged?

Only managers with approval rights. They enter the invoice amounts and see them; other staff do not see the amounts.

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