Workshop scheduling, answered

Workshop bay scheduling software assigns repair jobs to specific service bays and technicians on a live calendar, so a workshop can see what every bay is doing right now. Unlike a whiteboard or spreadsheet, it tracks multi-step jobs, equipment requirements, and technician skills in real time — and updates the moment anything changes. BayWise is purpose-built for this: the floor, not the back office.

AI scheduling looks at every open job and finds the best bay and technician for each one — weighing skills, certifications, equipment, bay availability, and the order steps must happen in. At a body shop, that means panel work lands in a bay with a spray booth, assigned to a certified body tech, at a time that won't block the next car in the queue. BayWise surfaces the best option; you approve with one tap. Most scheduling today is done by memory and a marker pen — this replaces guesswork with a recommendation.

A whiteboard shows what someone wrote an hour ago; BayWise shows what is true right now. When a job runs long, a part is delayed, or a technician calls in sick, the whole schedule reshuffles itself and everyone sees it instantly. Spreadsheets can't track which bay has the alignment rack, which tech is certified for EV high-voltage work, or which step a job is on. This is the difference between a static photo and a live picture of your floor.

A DMS (like CDK, Reynolds, or Tekmetric) manages customer records, parts, and invoicing — the paperwork around a repair. Workshop scheduling software manages the repair itself: which bay, which technician, which step, and when. Most workshops have a DMS but still schedule the actual work on a whiteboard. BayWise fills that gap and runs alongside your DMS, not instead of it.

Most workshops run their bays at around 60% utilisation — every idle bay-hour is billable work that never happened. Tightening scheduling so bays stay productive, jobs flow without gaps, and promised times are hit turns that lost capacity into revenue without hiring a single extra technician. A typical 8-bay shop recovers tens of thousands per month simply by not leaving bays empty between jobs.

Collision repair is multi-step by nature — a single car moves through disassembly, body, paint, and reassembly, often across different bays and technicians. BayWise tracks each car as a phased job, gates each step so paint never starts before body is signed off, and routes work to bays with the right equipment. Santos Body Works in São Paulo runs every estimate this way, so the front desk always knows which stage a car is in.

Yes. Dealer groups and multi-location operators configure standard service menus, job phases, and operating rules once at head office, then push them to every location — while each site still schedules its own bays and technicians locally. Leadership sees utilisation and throughput across all locations from one dashboard. A 120-bay OEM dealer runs as fast as a 5-bay independent.

BayWise has a structured day close that carries every unfinished job into tomorrow with one click — nothing falls through the cracks or gets re-written on a fresh whiteboard each morning. The day close also captures what was completed, what's waiting on parts, and what's overdue, so the next morning starts with a true picture instead of a guess.

It works for both. A 3-bay independent gets the same live scheduling, AI assignment, and day close as a 500-bay dealer group — the free plan covers 3 bays and 8 technicians with no time limit. Small shops feel the benefit fastest because every recovered bay-hour matters more, and there's no IT team required to get started.

By scheduling jobs against real constraints instead of rough estimates, AI keeps bays full and gives customers promise times the shop can actually hit. Workshops using BayWise typically move bay utilisation from around 60% to 80% and promise-time accuracy from 65% to 87% — fewer idle bays, fewer broken promises, more cars out the door on time.