Management software for a workshop: tailoring, repairs, garage

A tailor, a phone repairer, a garage owner do not only sell items: they sell their work, and they keep their customers' belongings on site. It is a trade most till software ignores: it knows how to sell a product off a shelf, not how to track a wrapper cloth dropped off on Monday, promised for Friday, with fabric to supply and labour to invoice. Here is what software must know how to do for a workshop, and how Kimbea does it.

Updated 13 September 2026 · 6-minute read · Written by the Kimbea team

1. The problem is not the till, it is the drop-off notebook

In most workshops, the day's till more or less holds. What gets lost is the rest: which customer dropped off what, in what condition, for what work, at what agreed price, and for when. That tracking lives in a notebook, in the owner's memory, or on labels sewn to the garments. When the notebook is wrong, it is a customer leaving angry, a phone that cannot be found, an alteration invoiced at the wrong price.

The right tool for a workshop therefore starts with something classic tills do not have: the work order.

2. The work order: taken in, tracked, handed back

In Kimbea, the customer's item enters through an intake: the customer, the object, the condition noted on reception, the work requested. The work order then follows the progress, step by step, up to the hand-back. At any moment, the workshop knows what is waiting, what is in progress and what is ready to be returned.

• The intake writes down what the customer entrusted and in what condition. It is the document that protects both sides: the screen was already cracked, the zip already broken.
• The tracking shows the jobs in progress, who they are assigned to and where they stand. The customer who calls gets their answer in ten seconds.
• The hand-back closes the work order and takes payment in one gesture: the parts fitted and the labour, on the same invoice.

3. A service sells like an item

Altering a pair of trousers, replacing a screen, an oil change: in Kimbea, a service is a line in the catalogue, with its price and its tax. It sells at the till, alone or on the same receipt as items. A hair salon or a dry cleaner, which sell services at the counter without keeping the customer's belongings for long, therefore work straight at the till; the workshop that keeps the object goes through the work order. Both gestures lead to the same place: an invoice, a payment, an accounting entry.

4. Parts and labour on the same invoice

The repairer who fits a screen sells two things: the part, which leaves the stock, and the work, which does not. Mixing them in a scribbled total means never knowing what the workshop earns and what the parts business earns. Kimbea keeps them distinct on the same invoice: the stock updates for the part, the service carries its own line, and each one's margin reads separately in the analytics.

5. The standardised invoice applies to services too

In Benin, the standardised invoice is not only about selling goods: services are subject to it under the same conditions, according to the business's tax regime. Kimbea prepares and confirms the invoice with the DGI's e-MECeF system, services and items together, with the code and the QR attached to the document. The detailed mechanics are explained in the standardised invoice guide.

6. The books follow, with no re-keying

The paid hand-back posts its accounting entry like any sale: service revenue and sales of goods stay distinct in the accounts, under SYSCOHADA or IFRS. The mechanics are the same as for a shop, described in keeping a shop's books without re-keying. The workshop that also sells at the counter (accessories, fabrics, products) keeps everything in the same base: one stock, one till, one general ledger.

7. What it changes day to day

• A customer's item is found by their name, their phone number or the work order, never from memory again.
• "Is it ready?" has an exact answer, even when the owner is out.
• The price agreed at the intake is the price on the invoice: no negotiation starting over at the hand-back.
• The till works offline, on an Android phone or an iPhone as at the counter: an internet cut stops neither an intake nor a payment.
• At month end, the services figure and the parts figure read separately, and the books are already kept.

I am a tailor, not an IT person. Is it complicated?

No: the intake fits in a few fields (the customer, the object, the work, the agreed price), on a phone. The 30-day trial comes with support: we set up your services catalogue with you.

I also sell items (fabrics, accessories, parts). Is one tool enough?

Yes, and that is the whole point: the items in the catalogue with their stock, the services in the catalogue with their price, and both sell on the same receipt. The stock, the invoice and the books remain a single base.

Can the customer know where their repair stands?

The workshop sees it at a glance on the tracking screen and answers the customer immediately, by phone or WhatsApp. The workshop does the telling, with exact information rather than from memory.

Does it work without internet?

The till takes payment offline and syncs when the network returns, with no duplicates. The mobile application cold-starts without a connection. Only the confirmation of the standardised invoice with the DGI needs the network, as it does for everyone.