Getting started

What Pitlane is, and what it isn't

Pitlane is the customer-facing system for an independent auto shop: repair orders, text approvals, payments, reviews, and follow-up. Here's how it fits with the shop management system you already run.

How the 30-day free trial works

30 days free, no credit card, full product unlocked. Write real repair orders and run inspections. Texting activates after carrier registration, usually a few business days; we handle the registration. Here's what the trial includes and where the one limit is.

Set up your shop on day one

The four things that make Pitlane useful on your first day: shop profile, customer import, Stripe, and your Google review link. Plus the one-click guided tour of the dashboard.

Take opening day, your guided first run

Opening day runs your shop's first real car all the way through in about ten minutes: set your details, add the car on your lift, write it up, get the yes by text, take the payment, and turn on the follow-up.

Try the demo shop before you sign up

The demo is a fully loaded sample shop, real cars, jobs, and history, that you click around without signing up or adding a card. Nothing you do there touches a real shop.

Scan a VIN with your phone camera

Point your phone at the VIN barcode in the door jamb and Pitlane reads the 17 characters for you, then decodes the year, make, and model. No typing a VIN by hand.

Choose which emails Pitlane sends you

The monthly shop report and the low-rating alert each have a switch under Settings then Notifications. Turn off what you don't read.

Work faster: bulk actions, undo, duplicate, and the command palette

Move ten jobs at once, export customers to CSV, duplicate a ticket, undo a delete, and jump anywhere from the keyboard. The small tools that add up.