Guides
Getting your list out of the software you already use.
Your customer list is yours. Every one of these systems will give it to you, and none of them make it obvious. Here is where the button is, per system, with the registrations kept in.
- TechManTechMan GMS, NorthamptonReports download as CSV; that much is documented. Which report holds your whole book is not, and the fastest route may be to ring them.
- MAM Autowork OnlineMAM Software, part of Kerridge Commercial SystemsA documented self-serve CSV export, hidden in the CRM report screen. Leave the dates blank. Do it before you ever think about leaving.
- Garage HiveGarage Hive, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralDocumented by Garage Hive themselves, start to finish. Personalise the columns, then Share, then Open in Excel.
- Any other systemEverything else, including a spreadsheet and a card indexFor every system we have not written up yet — where exports hide, what to ask for, and the shortcut that works regardless.
What we need in the file
The same five columns whichever system it comes out of, and only the first one is required.
- RegistrationRequired
- The only column we cannot work without. It is what the MOT and vehicle records are looked up on. A column called reg, vrm, plate, registration or vehicle no. is recognised automatically.
- Customer nameOptional
- Puts a name on the row so you know who to ring, and lets a message open with it rather than with nothing.
- Mobile numberOptional
- Without it we can find and price the work but cannot send the text. A landline in this column is worse than an empty one — if your export has both, send the mobile.
- Email addressOptional
- The alternative to a mobile for customers who never answer a text.
- Your own referenceOptional
- Customer or account number, if your system has one. It is carried through untouched so a row you look at here can be found again in your own system.
Why we wrote these
We can only do anything for a garage that has its own customer list in a file. Most of the owners we speak to have never had a reason to export one, and the systems do not go out of their way to explain it — so the honest thing was to work it out once and publish it, rather than answer the same question by email forty times.
The three systems are not equally well documented and the pages say so rather than hiding it. Garage Hive publishes the whole procedure themselves. MAM publish enough of it, in a user guide about something else, that the mechanics are clear. TechMan publish nothing at all — no help centre, no manual, no export article — so that page describes what to look for and who to ring, and stops there.
Every step on every page is labelled with how far we could check it: against the vendor’s own documentation, strongly indicated but not confirmed, or not verified at all. We would rather hand you an honest gap than a click path that does not match your screen. A wrong instruction is worse than no instruction, because it also costs you the twenty minutes you spent believing it.
If you get stuck, send a screenshot of whatever is in front of you. We will work it out with you and then correct the page, which is how the next person gets a better one.