What’s the Difference Between Shop Management and Accounting Software?

Shop owners looking into Fullbay often have a lot of questions. Some are expected (“How much does it cost to add a user?”); some are funny (“Can I run this on my flip phone?”); some we wish we had better answers for (“Does it make my coffee?”).

One of the biggest questions our sales team gets, however, goes like this: “Do I need Fullbay? Can’t I just use my accounting software?”

The short answer: No.

The long answer: We don’t advise it. (Still no.)

Fullbay is designed to work with your accounting app, not take its place. It’s a total whiz when it comes to tech efficiency, scheduling, and inventory management, but you’ll still need your favorite accounting app to handle expenses, overhead, payroll, and so on.

Many of our users trust QuickBooks with their financials, but the advice we’re going to give you applies to any kind of accounting app.

With that out of the way, let’s talk a little more about the differences between Fullbay and accounting software, and why a repair shop will benefit from genuine shop management software.

MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING ARE TWO SEPARATE THINGS

“Do I have to run two apps?!”

We totally get where the question comes from. If you’re running a shop these days, you’ve always got your eye on expenses. Why invest in two pieces of software if one can get the job done?

True story: we run into shops occasionally that don’t see the benefit of having a dedicated shop management software. They generally believe they can accomplish the same thing with an accounting app and Excel.

Doable? Yes. But cumbersome. And your accounting software isn’t going to track the PM schedules on hundreds of tractors and trailers. It’s also not going to help you contact customers, order parts, or assign jobs to techs.

Think of your time. Think of your revenue!

We knew when we developed Fullbay that we wanted to fill the gap between an accounting software and using just pen and paper to manage your shop Rather than reinventing the software wheel, we elected to leave the accounting to the accounting apps, so to speak, and zero in on creating a heck of a shop management platform.

Your accounting software can’t manage a fleet. It can’t track maintenance or build out service options. It’s brilliant at what it does—your finances!—but it can’t manage your shop.

Genuine shop management software like Fullbay lets you take advantage of benefits like the following:

• Inventory management
• Parts markup
• A slew of reports
• Managing and boosting tech efficiency
• Tracking PMs
• Industry-leading integrations to make your job easier

…and that’s just scratching on the surface.

Fullbay is a comprehensive shop management software. That’s what it was designed to do.

FULLBAY PLAYS NICELY WITH QUICKBOOKS

With all that said, Fullbay does integrate with a number of popular payment methods, allowing you to collect what’s owed. When you use it, you can configure tax rates and tax locations and process payments on the go (a huge plus for mobile techs).

But you’ll still use accounting software for your financial matters. Fullbay syncs with QuickBooks, for example, pretty effortlessly, keeping your monetary records up to date. Yes, you do need the accounting app, but you don’t need to do anything with it. Once it’s set up, it’ll handle matters on its own.

Not bad, right?

We hope this has been a useful introduction for you! For more information about how Fullbay plays with an app like QuickBooks, check out Jacob’s comments here. And if you’re ready to give shop management software a try, well, there’s always our demo!