If you’ve gone looking for Synergy workshop software lately, to renew a licence, find support, or check whether it still exists, you’ll have landed on a page that says the site has moved and sends you to Auxo Software. Here’s what that means, what to do if your workshop still runs on Synergy, and how to compare your options properly before you pick the next system.
What We’ll Cover
What Happened to Synergy Workshop Software?
What we can verify, re-checked 2 September 2026:
- The Synergy websites redirect to Auxo. Both synergy.net.nz and www.datasouth.co.nz serve a page titled "Synergy | AuxoSoftware: This site has been moved" and redirect to auxosoftware.com. The Wayback Machine capture from 27 January 2026 shows the same page, so this has been the case since at least the start of the year (links in Sources).
- Auxo Software is the MTA-owned company behind SAM. The Motor Trade Association bought the SAM and Systime businesses in December 2020 and rebranded them as Auxo Software in 2021. Auxo’s current products are desktop SAM, browser-based webSAM, and its newer cloud product Auxo Workshop.
- We couldn’t find a public announcement about what the move means for existing Synergy licences, support, or data. Auxo is the place to ask.
Put together: Synergy is no longer marketed as a standalone product, and its web presence now points at Auxo. That’s different from "the company vanished". If you’re a Synergy customer, your first call is Auxo, to find out what support you have and what they’re offering you as a path forward. Whether that path, or another vendor’s, is the right one for your workshop is the rest of this post.
Still Running Synergy?
Desktop software keeps running until something forces the issue: a dead hard drive, a Windows update, a licence that won’t renew. Do three things now, before that day.
Back up your data. If Synergy stores its data locally, your customer records, job history and invoices are sitting on one machine. Export everything you can to CSV (or whatever Synergy offers) and copy the whole data folder somewhere off that computer. Do it this week, not when the PC is making noises.
Ring Auxo. Ask what support is available for Synergy installs, whether there’s a migration offer to webSAM or Auxo Workshop, and what an export of your data looks like. You can’t compare options without that answer.
Plan to run in parallel. Whatever you move to, you don’t have to rip Synergy out overnight. Start new jobs in the new system and keep Synergy as a read-only reference for old history for a few weeks.
Comparing Your Options
Synergy’s feature set isn’t publicly documented any more, so we’re not going to score it, and we won’t claim it lacked things we can’t check. Auxo’s cloud products are a different matter: they publish a full feature list, so the table below uses it rather than sending you off to ask. Where they are ahead of us, or cheaper, it says so. The few cells still phrased as a question are the ones nobody publishes an answer to.
| Check | Hoist | Auxo (webSAM / Auxo Workshop), from their published material |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | In the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install; needs a connection | All three: desktop SAM is installed on a PC, webSAM runs in the browser, Auxo Workshop is cloud. Ask which one you are being quoted |
| Xero | Two-way sync of customers, invoices, payments and credit notes; invoices-as-drafts option; Xero optional | Both have Xero. Ask what syncs, in which direction, and whether it is a third-party connector |
| WoF, CoF and service reminders | Text and email, date based, auto-send per rule or send manually | Service and booking reminders by SMS and email; Auxo Workshop charges 10c a text, under our 12c |
| Rego lookup | From official NZ vehicle records, including WoF expiry. 5c cached, 24c live, published | 20c a lookup, though they do not publish the rate |
| Online booking | Yes; per service, auto-confirm or approve each booking | Yes on Auxo Workshop, but not on the entry Essentials tier |
| Backups and updates | Cloud-hosted; backups and updates are handled by us, not by you | webSAM and Auxo Workshop are theirs to run. Desktop SAM sits on your PC, so that one is on you |
| Data migration | Free, and we do it for you. Customer and vehicle records come across; job history case by case from your export | Exactly what moves from Synergy, and who does the work? |
| Pricing | $140 + GST a month, 3 users included, $10 a month per extra user. | Per user or flat? Auxo Workshop lists from $99 + GST a month for 2 users plus $19 per user; webSAM $99 for 1 user plus $19 per user (Auxo’s pages, September 2026). Their feature list has online bookings, stock, parts integrations, purchase orders, time clocking and the tech app all off on the $99 Essentials tier. Desktop SAM is quote-only |
| Trial | 14 days free, no card | Auxo Workshop offers a free trial on their own site; webSAM lists 7 days |
| Support | Live chat, phone and email, from a NZ team in Upper Hutt | Chat, per their feature list. Auckland HQ, staff in NZ and Australia |
One thing to weigh if you’re choosing between Auxo’s cloud products and anyone else’s: familiarity. If your team knows a SAM-style workflow, the smallest change might be webSAM or Auxo Workshop. Price the per-user model over a few years before deciding that’s what you’re buying, because any move off Synergy is a new system to learn either way.
How a Switch to Hoist Works
Export from Synergy
Customers, vehicles and whatever job history you can get out, as CSV. It’s your data; if you need Auxo’s help to get it, ask.
Trial Hoist with your real records in it
Send us the export and we load your customers and vehicles into the trial, so you’re testing with your own customers, not demo data. We’ll tell you what from your job history maps across before you commit.
Run a few real jobs through it
Book, job card, invoice, Xero, reminder. Rego lookup backfills WoF expiry on imported vehicles, so reminders keep flowing without a gap.
Pick a go-live date
A Monday at the start of a month keeps the Xero reconciliation clean. From then on, Synergy is read-only reference and all new work runs through Hoist.
Most of the elapsed time is getting a clean export and checking the imported data together; we don’t promise a number of weeks, because it depends on what comes out of Synergy.
Which Way to Go
Stay put, or stay with Auxo, if...
- Auxo confirms support for your install and you have no pain points
- You need software that runs without an internet connection (Hoist doesn’t)
- Your team knows the SAM workflow cold and the smallest change is what you want
Look at Hoist if...
- You want your workshop data on your phone as well as the front-desk PC
- You’re re-keying invoices into Xero
- You want WoF and service reminders going out without anyone remembering
- You’d rather one flat price than a per-user bill that grows every time you hire
Compare with your own records in it
14-day free trial, no card. Send us your Synergy export and we’ll load your customers and vehicles before you start.
Start Free TrialSources
- synergy.net.nz and www.datasouth.co.nz: "Synergy | AuxoSoftware: This site has been moved. Redirecting you to auxosoftware.com" (re-checked 2 September 2026; note synergy.net.nz answers over http, not https)
- Wayback Machine capture of synergy.net.nz, 27 January 2026 (same redirect page)
- Auxo Software: About
- Scoop: MTA buys SAM and SAS automotive IT businesses (December 2020)
- AutoTalk: SAM and Systime parent rebrands as Auxo Software
- Auxo: Workshop pricing and Auxo: webSAM (figures re-checked September 2026)
- Auxo Workshop: complete feature list and pricing (checked 2 September 2026)