Workshop management software, built for New Zealand

Workshop management software is the system that runs the shop: bookings, job cards, parts, labour, invoicing and the customer history behind all of it. Hoist does that job for New Zealand workshops, with rego lookups from official vehicle records, WoF and CoF reminders, and two-way Xero sync. One plan, every feature switched on, three users included.

What running the shop on scattered tools actually costs

The job lives in four places

A booking in the diary, a card on the bench, parts in a spreadsheet and the invoice in the accounting package. Every handover is a chance to lose a line, and the margin goes out with it.

Nobody can answer the phone properly

A customer rings about the noise you fixed last year and the answer is in a box, a text thread on somebody’s personal phone, or nowhere at all.

Declined work is never seen again

The brakes the customer put off in March are the job you should be quoting in September. If that only lives in a technician’s memory, it is revenue you already found and then threw away.

What Hoist does

1

The vehicle fills itself in

Type a rego and make, model, year, VIN and the WoF expiry come back from official NZ vehicle records, and Hoist tracks WoF and CoF due dates from there. Cached lookups are 5c and live ones 24c, so you are not typing a vehicle in or paying much to avoid it.

2

One job card from booking to invoice

The card carries the reported fault, the agreed work, photos and inspection findings, parts and labour. When the job is done the card becomes a GST invoice in one click and syncs to Xero, so nothing is typed twice.

3

Talk to the customer from inside the job

Send a text about the extra work and their reply comes back threaded against the customer, not to somebody’s personal phone. Connect a mailbox and the email about a job sits beside the job too.

4

Work they declined comes back around

Anything a customer says no to stays on the vehicle as deferred work. Next time it is in the bay, the job you already priced is waiting there instead of being forgotten.

#1042In progress

J. Wilson · Hilux

Labour · 2.0h$180.00
Front brake pads$142.00
Oil & filter$73.00
Total$704.90 +GST
42% margin, live

What you get

  • One system for bookings, job cards, parts, labour and invoicing
  • Rego lookups and WoF dates from official NZ vehicle records
  • Two-way customer texting threaded against the customer
  • Deferred work tracked so declined jobs come back as revenue
  • Two-way Xero sync, so the books keep themselves
  • Live chat and phone support from New Zealand, and free data migration

Frequently Asked Questions

What is workshop management software?
It is the system an automotive workshop runs on. It holds the booking diary, the job cards, the customer and vehicle records, parts and stock, technician time, and the invoicing that comes out the other end. The point of it is that those things talk to each other, so a job booked on Monday becomes a card on Tuesday and an invoice on Wednesday without anyone re-typing it.
How much does workshop management software cost in New Zealand?
Hoist is $140/month + GST, with three users included and $10/month for each extra user. Every feature is switched on at that price, so there is no tier to upgrade into. Others in the New Zealand market sell in tiers from roughly $85 to $299/month, usually with fewer users included and features held back for higher plans, so compare on the plan and user count you would actually need rather than the entry price.
What does Hoist include that costs extra elsewhere?
Two-way customer texting, a connected mailbox, deferred work tracking, two-way Xero sync, digital inspections, purchase orders and supplier bills, time clock and labour billing, and reporting. All of it is in the one price. On top of the plan you pay only for what you use and who uses it: texts at 12c each, rego lookups at 5c cached or 24c live, $10/month per user past the three included, and $10/month for each connected mailbox past the first. Every one of those rates is published here rather than quoted on request.
Does it work on a phone or tablet in the workshop?
Yes. Hoist runs in any phone or tablet browser, so a technician can add photos, readings and inspection findings from the pit without walking back to the office. A native mobile app releases in September 2026.
How hard is it to move off what we use now?
We do the migration for you and it costs nothing. Customers, vehicles and service history come across, and we help you get set up. Get in touch before you cancel anything so there is time to take a clean export from your current system.

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