One system for the whole shop.
Scheduling, inspections, texting, repair orders, parts, the tech
tablet, loaners, the time clock, training and coaching — and the books. In one
place, talking to each other, with one login.
Built from the ground up inside a working shop, by the person
who owns it. Every screen has to survive a Monday.
Mustard Seed is auto repair shop
management software — scheduling, digital vehicle inspections, repair
orders, parts, invoicing and the accounting — for a single shop, or a group of
a hundred and up.
Built by a shop owner, in the shop.
Not by a software company guessing what a Monday looks like. The
person building it runs the shops it runs on. If a screen makes an advisor's
day harder, he hears about it that afternoon — and it changes.
01
The day, in hours
Every number on the schedule is hours, not car counts. Booked, promised,
carried over from yesterday, and free.
02
A list per person
Each teammate has an ordered list. Split a job, put something urgent in
front of it, and the rest still adds up.
03
Nothing gets dropped
Unfinished work moves itself to today. A promised callback stays on the
list until somebody actually makes it.
No add-ons to make it work.
Most shops end up paying for the system, then paying again for
the parts that make it usable. Inspections. Texting. The scheduler. A bridge
to the accounting software. A second app for the techs. Here they are just
part of it.
✓Digital inspectionsPhotos and video from the tech's tablet, straight to the client's phone.
✓The tech tabletIts own app, made for a tablet in a bay — not a website squeezed onto one.
✓Texting with clientsTwo-way, tied to the ticket, with a record of who agreed to what.
✓Phones and callbacksMissed calls surface. A promise made on the phone shows up as work.
✓Scheduling and the boardThe calendar and the production board, in hours, per teammate.
✓Repair orders and estimatesLabor and parts, split across more than one person on the same job.
✓Parts on the ticketThe tech checks parts off. Used something else? Production knows before it ships.
✓Client historyFollows the car and the person, not the invoice number.
✓Talking to each otherMessaging built in, on the same screen as the car you are talking about.
✓Time clock and hoursWho is clocked in, what they worked on, and what it added up to.
✓Loaner carsWho has what, since when, and what it is costing you.
✓The booksReal double-entry accounting inside the system — see below.
✓One shop or two hundredEvery shop from one login, each with its own settings, rolled up by region and for the whole group.
And the people who fix the cars.
A shop is not a building full of tickets. Most of what decides
whether next year is better than this one happens to the people — who is
getting better, who is stuck, and who nobody has spoken to in a month. That
side is in here too, and nowhere else puts it in the same system.
✓ASE test prepPractice questions, scores over time, and who is actually ready to sit it.
✓Continuing educationHours done, hours needed, and what runs out this year.
✓CertificationsWhat each teammate holds and the date it lapses — before it lapses.
✓CoachingWhat was said, what was agreed, and whether it changed. Not a form nobody reads.
✓Call review for advisorsDid the car come in? Was the whole job sold, or just the broken part?
✓Teammate recordsRoster, position, time off, reviews, hours — one place, not five.
✓Special toolsWho has it, who owns it, and a proper way to ask for a new one.
✓FacilitiesWhat is broken in the building, who was told, and whether it got fixed.
✓Oil stickersPrinted off the ticket with the right mileage. No handwriting, no guessing.
✓Client follow-upDeclined work and due services come back around on their own.
Every phone call, looked at.
The two questions nobody can answer at the end of a week: did the
cars we were called about actually come in, and did we sell the whole job or
just the part that broke? Calls are reviewed against both — and a promise made
on the phone becomes a job on somebody's list until it is kept.
Built to go from one shop to a hundred.
Most shop software is written for one location and grows a
"multi-shop" screen later, which is why group operators end up running four
logins, a spreadsheet and a monthly export. This was multi-shop from the
first table: every record carries its company and its shop, so scale is not
a feature that gets bolted on — it is how the data is shaped.
✓One login, every shopSwitch shops, or look at all of them at once. Nobody keeps four tabs open.
✓Regions and groupsRoll shops up however your business is actually run, not however the software was written.
✓Its own settings per shopHours, labor rates, teammates, sheets and pay — a group standard that any one shop can be given its own version of.
✓Who sees whatA manager sees their shop. A regional sees their region. Nobody sees more than they should.
✓Books that consolidateA P&L per shop, per region and for the group — from one ledger, not four exports stitched together.
✓Compare shops honestlyThe same numbers measured the same way everywhere, so a league table means something.
✓Add a shop without a projectA new location is a record, not an install, a migration and a week of somebody's life.
✓No ceiling in the designNothing in here assumes a small number of shops. There is no tier where it stops.
The books are not a bolt-on.
Nearly every shop system hands your numbers to accounting
software and stops there. So the P&L tells you parts profit was 44% and
cannot tell you which lines made it 44%.
What that means day to day
- Real double-entry books — chart of accounts, journal, post and lock a period.
- Invoices, payments, money owed to you and money you owe.
- Bank and credit card reconciling that has to balance before it closes.
- P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, with last year beside this year.
And every number opens. Click a figure on the P&L and
you land on the repair orders and the lines that made it. Not a report — the
actual work.
Nothing is edited quietly.
Once an invoice is posted it cannot be changed — a correction is
its own document. Every money change is stamped with who did it, when, and
what it came from, in a record that would survive somebody checking. That is
built into the foundation, not added later when it matters.
“Every tech is different. Some you can load up, some you can’t. You have to
learn what their taste is.”
The idea the whole thing is built around.
Straight answers.
?What is it?A shop
management system for an independent auto repair shop — the software your
counter, your bays and your office all work in. Scheduling, client and vehicle
history, estimates, repair orders, parts, invoicing and the books.
?Does it do digital vehicle inspections?Yes,
and they are not an add-on. Photos and video off a technician's tablet, marked
up, in a report the client reads on their phone. No extra product, no second
login, no separate bill.
?Does it do accounting, or hand off to accounting software?It
does the accounting. Real double-entry books — chart of accounts, journal,
posting, period close, payables, receivables, bank and card reconciling, P&L,
balance sheet and cash flow. No monthly bridge copying your numbers somewhere else.
?Will it work for a group, not just one shop?It
was built multi-shop from the first table — every record carries its company and
its shop. One login across the group, each shop with its own hours, teammates and
settings, roll-ups by region and for the whole group, and access scoped so a
manager sees their shop and a regional sees their region. There is no tier where
it stops.
?Is it for sale yet?No.
It runs a real shop every day, and it is not open to other shops until the
accounting side is finished and proven. Leave your details and we will come find
you when it is.
Want to see it when it opens up?
It is being used every day in a real shop right now. It is not
for sale yet. Leave us a way to reach you and we will come find you when it is.