Data Backups - Off site backups are important!
This article provides info on Backing up, backup locations, Restoring a backup and Clean-Up of old backups. Garage Assistant data is held locally to the PC its installed on, so backups are critical.

Configure User Accounts
We highly recommend setting up your user accounts for each employee so that you can benefit from being able give the correct amount of access to the relevant areas within GA4, and to track and view who has performed certain tasks.

Printer Set Up
Printer set up within GA4 is very simple but you do have to understand that GA4 stores your own printer settings within Garage Assistant independently regardless of what you have set up by default with your PC/MAC.

Customising Document Templates
You can add your own letterhead within Garage Assistant very easily, please have a read through the following information for different types of letterheads which can be setup to make sure that you get the best out of your GA4 system

Technicians & Employees
Setting up your technicians / employees information is straight forward and an easy way to get their information straight from Garage Assistant without having to leave the program.

Technicians
Setting up technicians is very straight forward and easy to do. The main benefit of setting up each technician is that it allows you to select work against each specific technician for the work that they complete in each document.

MOT Pricing
Entering MOT rates is easy and the best thing about GA4 is you can add as many as you like, categorising them more appropriately, such as Class IV MOT.

Payment Methods
Setting up your payment methods could not be simpler and the best part is that you can add as many payment methods as you like.

Email & SMS Settings
Setting up and configuring your email and SMS settings within the system.

Pre Defined Job Manager
An introduction to the Pre defined Labour / Job Manager

Work Description Templates
By adding work descriptions you can make adding descriptions to documents so much quicker. You can add all your most common descriptions here and add them to to your document in a matter of seconds.

Sales & Expense Nominals
Where to go to set your nominals codes to be used when exporting to Sage.

Reminder Templates
You can add as many reminder templates as you like and they can all be sent via different methods.

Correspondence Templates
You can add as many correspondence templates as you like and they can all be sent via different methods.

Creating Email Templates with images and more
Creating Email Templates with images and more

Custom Status Options
Setting up your custom status options is a good way to have a visual representation on screen to prioritise your documents in your own way.

Pre-Defined Advisory Templates
Adding pre-defined advisories can help when trying to enter data that is a common entry, it can save you time when adding to documents.

Required Fields
Allows you to set the required fields that MUST be entered in documents before issuing.

Vehicle Makes & Models
This list is where all your vehicle makes and models are listed. The list can be amended / added and removed where needed.

User Preferences
User preferences are used to set your own individual choices on how some things are when you the user logs in. These preferences are for the person logged in only and do not effect any other users, so you could all have your own preferences set.

Customising Documents to have Tyre Depth output
Customising Documents to have Tyre Depth output

Departments Lists
Department lists are useful to determine where the documents have come from and to record profits per department.

Referrals
Adding referrals is a great way to monitor how your customers are hearing about your business. You can see what methods of advertising are working best for you so that you can see where your money is best spent.

Setting up, and changing the VAT and Labour Rate
This section will allow you to set-up, and change the VAT Tax and Labour Rate

GA3 can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer
How to get passed the following error: "Garage Assistant can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer"

Appointment Bays
You can alter various elements of the Calendar, this section allows you to add as many appointment bays as you require, or rename those pre-set when installing Garage Assistant

Email Server Settings
Using the inbuilt email system in GA3 does not require any setting up, other than perhaps configuring your firewall to allow Garage Assistant accesss to the internet.

Setting up Departments
If you intend on categorising invoices against particular departments, for instance you could categorise by : Mechanical Recovery Internal

Setting up Referrals
If you intend on keeping track of how your customers came to find you you can use this function.

Setting up Technicians
If you intend on recording technicians against labour items on your documents for reporting purposes, you will need to set them up first.

SMS Message Templates
If you wish to send your customers SMS messages for reminders, or just to let them know their vehicle is ready for collection, you can edit the message which is sent to suit your needs.

Mailshot Letter Templates
In Garage Assistant you can edit and create new letters for use with mail shots, and emails, you can also add font styles & colours to make your letters stand out, however using such features may take a while to get used to as they do not follow the conventional method as most word processors.

Terms and Conditions Templates
Some invoices may require you to add special terms and conditions such as changing a vehicles engine with one supplied by the customer.

Work Description Templates
Work description templates allow you to quickly select from your own templates to save time typing and keep consistency

Setup Wizard - Advanced Settings
Because of the way GA3 now resizes to fit any screen width, we have put a limit on the labour and parts description fields to prevent you entering more information than can be printed per line.

Setup Wizard - Stock Control Settings
If you intend on using stock control and tracking item quantities, GA3 includes an easy to use order management system which generates supplier orders as you create invoices, this helps you keep track of what items you have ordered and what items you are waiting for.

Setup Wizard - Miscellaneous Options

Setup Wizard - MOT Prices
This step allows you to configure Garage Assistants Quick MOT prices

Set up wizard - Estimate storage
GA2/3 allows you to choose whether you want estimates to remain on your system after converting to an invoice or if you want them removed.

Setup Wizard - Estimate Layout
Setup Wizard - Step 5 gives you the opportunity to select from different layout for Estimates, we currently have a portrait layout and landscape layout.

Setup Wizard - Worksheet Layout
Set up Wizard - Step 4 gives you the opportunity to select from different style and layout for your worksheets, Style 3 is the most flexible allowing more items to be listed, whereas Style 2 is a fixed size.

Setup Wizard - Invoice Layout
Set up wizard - Step 3 gives you the opportunity to select from different style and layout invoices, we currently have a selection of portrait layouts and a landscape layout with further options for each.

Setup Wizard - Company details
This page will allow you to enter your company details, this information will be printed on your documents created within Garage Assistant.

Set up wizard - Software Activation
When you first run Garage Assistant it will be in Demonstration Mode, you will be presented with the following box on the welcome screen allowing you to start in Demo Mode or Enter your Licence information.

Can I setup individual staff accounts for GA3 (user accounts)
You can define your own user accounts and privileges for use by your staff, this allows you to restrict certain operations and areas of GA3

GA3 Invoice Layout Information
Step 3 of the setup wizard gives you the opportunity to select from different style and layout invoices, we currently have a selection of portrait layouts and a landscape layout with further options for each.

Can I import my own customer database into GA2 / GA3
GA3 allows you to import your own customer and vehicle database as long as they are in a common format such as CSV

Changing the VAT Rate in GA2 / GA3
To change the VAT rate you will need to perform the following steps....

How or Where can I insert logos or letter heads ?
GA2/GA3 allows you to insert a letter head or left & right logos for use on the documents produced.

Changing custom field names, such as post code to zip
If you need to make some field name changes due to not being in the uk or for any other reason, you can do this directly in GA2/GA3.

Customise your documents with ease
Customise your documents in GA3 with ease... See how to insert logos, full letter head images, customise text styles and colours and more.

Creating Watermark Images for GA3
Watch how easy it is to create a great looking watermark image which can be used in GA3 for printing on documents. For the purpose of this demonstration, we used a free image manipulation programme.