Run jobs, invoices, vehicles, inspections, inventory, project builds and tuning work from one offline-first desktop app. Pay once — your records live on your machine.
Four jobs any shop software has to do — here's how Shop Manager Lite does them.
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Front desk
Describe the job in plain words and AI fills the form — or scan a VIN and the year, make, model and engine fill themselves, recalls included. Estimates print clean, copy as text for SMS, and flip to invoices with tax and shop fees already done. The scheduler books the week and sends appointments to Google Calendar.
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Shop floor
A drag-and-drop Work Board runs jobs from Estimate to Ready, the tech time clock tracks real wrench time against billed hours, and digital inspections walk the car green / yellow / red with measurements and photos — printable report included. Mechanic mode turns any bay tablet into big, glove-friendly screens.
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Business
A real payment ledger — deposits, partials, refunds, write-offs — with AR aging that shows exactly who owes what. Inventory lives as bins on a wall that auto-decrement as jobs use parts and warn before you run out. Analytics tracks revenue, margins, best jobs and monthly targets without ever hiding a loss.
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Performance
Year-accurate engines (a '92 Integra shows B-series, not a modern turbo), dyno imports with real HP and torque curves, and the Project Car build planner — 42 platforms, staged power mods, honest projected gains, and one click turns the whole build into a customer estimate. Tire Hotel handles seasonal storage too.
Straight off the screen
Real screenshots of the real app running its built-in demo shop — living data, not a mock-up. Every copy ships with this demo so you can explore before your first job.
Command
The home screen: live bays, today's money, the job pipeline and tomorrow's bookings — the whole shop at a glance.
Work Board & Ledger
Drag jobs between stages, then find any job ever written — payment status, balance and margin on every row.
Analytics
Revenue, margins, job mix and a real P&L with expenses — it never hides a loss from you.
Inventory
Parts as bins on a wall with live fill gauges — stock drops as jobs use parts and warns before you run out.
Inspection
Six inspection protocols, from a 50-point general to a brake special — every finished inspection lands in a log you can reopen or reprint.
Shot on the shipping build in Demo Mode — sample customers, no real shop data. One click removes the demo shop when you start for real.
Pay once. It's yours.
One-time purchaseNo subscriptionBuy it once and own it — no monthly fee, no contract, no per-user pricing. It keeps working whether or not you're online, and your shop's core records stay on your machine.
Cloud-dependent — core features generally need the vendor's servers reachable
If they raise prices or shut down
Keeps running — it's already on your machine
Access generally depends on the vendor staying up and your subscription staying active
Setup
Double-click the installer, start writing jobs
Account setup, onboarding calls, data migration
AI estimates
Built in and offline (AI edition) — no per-message fees
Higher tier or a paid add-on, cloud-only
Shop floor + invoicing + dyno
All included, one price
Often split across pricing tiers
Built for the solo shop and the small crew — everything you need to run the day, none of the monthly bill. Not a knock on the big platforms; a different deal for shops that just want to own their tools. Comparison reflects typical cloud shop-management platforms as of July 2026 — check each vendor for specifics.
Not a mockup — this is the actual Project Car build living in Shop Manager Lite: a 2010 GTI, planned to a $10,000 street goal, with every part, price and estimated gain the app tracks as the build comes together.
2010 Volkswagen GTI · EA888 · street build
Dream-build mode
Factory power200 hp
Budget$10,000
On the car$3,150
Left to spend$6,850
$3,150 of $10,000 committed — 31% of budget, five parts on the car.
Part
Cost
Est. gain
Status
Stage 1 tune (APR / Unitronic / Revo)
$625
+40–60 whp
Installed
Cold-air intake + high-flow filter
$400
+5–15 whp
Installed
Cat-back / axle-back exhaust
$900
+5–15 whp
Installed
Lightweight crank pulley
$275
+3–8 whp
Installed
200TW performance tires (RE-71RS / AD09 class)
$950
grip & braking
Installed
Total on the car
$3,150
5 parts
🎯 Stretch goal: the app benchmarks this build against a legendary 9-second GTI — a north star to chase over years, not a promise for a $10k street car. Seeing the gap honestly is the point.
Honest numbers. Those gains are the app's estimates, and they don't simply add up — a Stage 1 tune does the heavy lifting and the bolt-ons layer on smaller wins. Shop Manager Lite says so on the build sheet and points you at a dyno for the real curve. That's the point: Project Car is a planning tool with a conscience, not a horsepower slot machine.
Eleven working views — click through what a day looks like inside the app.
Command — the home screen: live bays, today's money, the job pipeline and monthly target, all ticking in real time. It's the demo at the top of this page.
BAY 2 · Marc TremblayOn the liftbrakes · 1.4 h
BAY 1 · Sophie GagnonReadyoil change · $89
TODAY$2.4K in$3.3K owed4 bays live
New Job — describe the job in plain words and AI fills the form: vehicle, labor, parts, prices. VIN decode, year-accurate engines and real vehicle photos included.
"2014 Golf TDI, front pads and rotors, customer waiting"
Rack C-2 · FortinCall for swapsummers stored since Nov
Dyno Lab — import a pull CSV (Virtual Dyno, Dynojet…) and get the real HP & torque curves, peaks marked, plus shop-wide gains over time.
HP (solid) · TQ (dashed) — before/after saved with the job
Project Car — plan a build by budget: power mods staged 1/2/3 by what they actually need, handling parts grouped grip-first, projected horsepower and a live budget bar. One click turns it into a customer estimate.
2015 Camaro SS · LS3318 → 543 whp$8.9K of $15K
Stage 1Cold-air intake + tune+15 whp
Stage 2Long-tube headers + tune+25 whp
Stage 3Bolt-on supercharger+200 whp
🏁 Chassis — grip before powertires · brakes · suspension
Inspection — a full digital vehicle inspection: rate each point green/yellow/red with measurements and photos, print a branded report, and reopen or reprint any past inspection from the log.
Founders pricing ends August 16, 2026 — for the first shops on board. You help shape the product; your price stays yours for good. Standard MSRP applies after that.
One-time purchase — no mandatory subscription, and the app never stops working. Prices in CAD; applicable taxes extra. Your license key unlocks the download and registers your copy: activate once, then fully offline.
License questions, answered straight
What exactly does a license cover?
One license per shop, installed on up to 3 PCs (Base) or 10 PCs (Pro). Desktops and laptops both count as PCs. The app also runs unregistered so you can try everything before you buy — the key registers your copy and its tier.
Can I move it to a replacement computer?
Yes. Email us and we reset the activation for the dead or replaced PC — no repurchase. Your records travel with you through the app's built-in backup and restore.
Do my PCs share one live dataset?
Each PC keeps its own local records — there is no cloud database. Two PCs on the same network stay matched automatically with shared-folder live sync, and USB/file sync covers machines that never meet. Seat counts are about how many machines you can install on, not a hosted multi-user server.
What happens when Release 1 updates end?
Updates within Release 1 are included. A future major release may be a paid upgrade — but your app and your data keep working as-is, forever. Nothing expires.
How do I get my key?
Email us from the card above — you get your key and download link by email, usually the same day. Activate once per PC; after that the app runs fully offline.
Same app in all three — every feature, fully offline, your data on your machine. The only difference is how it arrives and whether the AI engine is pre-installed.
No. Shop Manager Lite is a one-time purchase — pay once and it's yours. No monthly fee, no per-user pricing, no contract to cancel.
Do I need internet to use it?
No — the app runs fully offline. Jobs, invoices, scheduling, inventory, analytics and (on the AI edition) the AI estimates all work with the internet unplugged. Internet is only used for optional extras: VIN decode, pulling vehicle photos, and Google Calendar send.
Where does my shop's data live? Is it safe?
On your machine — nothing is uploaded to a cloud we control. There's no account and no server holding your customer list. You can back it up to a USB stick and carry it between computers, and it makes automatic daily backups on its own.
What happens if you stop updating it or disappear?
It keeps working. Because the app and your data already live on your PC, nothing switches off — unlike cloud software, there's no server to go dark. You bought it; you keep it.
Which edition should I get?
Most shops want the Standard Installer. Grab the Portable Zip if you can't install software or want it on a USB stick, or the AI Edition if you want AI estimates working day one with no setup. Not sure? Take the 5-question quiz →
Does it run on Mac?
The desktop app is Windows. On Mac or phone you can use the browser/PWA version for the core workflow.
Two PCs, one shop: point both computers at a shared network folder and they stay matched live — no USB run, no restart. Plus everything in Version 8 · The Trackday Update: 42 tuning platforms, 33 legend builds, Garage Chat and four new themes.
