About Real-Time Labor Guide
Real-time Labor Guide is an auto repair software designed to help businesses calculate labor costs and create job estimates. Mechanics can utilize the platform to quickly access labor charges for domestic and foreign cars, SUVs, and heavy-duty trucks according to the condition of vehicles and availability of specialty tools.
Using Real-time Labor Guide, auto repair businesses can create customizable estimates and invoices with details including ticket type, issue date, payment method, rate type, contact information, and other additional notes. Managers can create repair orders for various categories such as basic maintenance, heating and air conditioners, exhaust and emissions, gasket and seals, transmission and trans-axle, vehicle diagnosis, and more. Users can access the built-in vehicle database to determine the manufacturing year, make type, model, and engine details of clients’ cars.
Mechanics can use Real-time Labor Guide to access ticket summaries and sort jobs based on parts, labor, and miscellaneous charges. The platform also helps administrators create and add custom working hours to calculate labor charges accordingly.
Pricing starting from:
US$12.50/month
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Real-Time Labor Guide
Key benefits of Real-Time Labor Guide
• Access information on labor times for both domestic and foreign vehicles, as well as historical data on each vehicle. This data is collected from real repair artists working in the field, in order to ensure it's accurate in real-life conditions.
• Provide customers with branded documents such as invoices and estimates and print them from within the Real-Time Labor Guide platform.
• Gain full control over all labor costs by configuring multiple custom labor rates. Real-Time Labor Guide allows users to input custom prices for individual jobs or complete packages.
• Access Real-Time Labor Guide from anywhere using a Windows, Mac, or Linux device, as well as any browser type.
• Create custom manufacturer lists within Real-Time Labor Guide. Mechanics can define which types of vehicle they work with and hide all others from the system.
Typical Customers
- Freelancers
- Small Businesses (2-50)
- Mid-size Companies (51-500)
- Large enterprises (500 and more)
Deployment
- Cloud-based
- On-premise
Markets
United States
Supported Languages
English
Pricing starting from:
US$12.50/month
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Real-Time Labor Guide
Images
Features
Total features of Real-Time Labor Guide: 13
Alternatives
ALLDATA
Mitchell RepairCenter
ERA-IGNITE
JobBOSS²
Reviews
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- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Best Bang for your buck available
Reviewed on 2020-06-08
Pros
I have used this software for years and love the features and ease of use! This has cut my service ticket time considerably and is quite accurate with the labor times posted. If you are a small shop then you must have this software to compete with the big boys and show a big time appearance to the customer, it reinforces professionalism and integrity of your shop,I.e. letterhead and breakdown of ticket with an appealing look. I would recommend it to all repair shops no matter the size or location. This software has definitely made me a lot of money and helped ensure to not leave any on the table.
Cons
Wish it had older model cars I work on some older cars and a lot are not on the software and I understand I’m probably in the minority on this
Reasons for Switching to Real-Time Labor Guide
Simplicity and cost of use- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Great pic for small shops
Reviewed on 2020-09-16
Needs more features in an additional tier or al a cart add ons.
I use this daily, incredibly easy...
Needs more features in an additional tier or al a cart add ons.
I use this daily, incredibly easy to generate accurate quotes, but a POS system its not...yet.
Pros
Overall the product is very useful. The are very few products for small guys to get away from paper & get access to labor guides. Ive tried all of the $20-$50 monthly options as I wanted a cloud based system that I could work with from anywhere regardless of platform. I really think this has helped me attract more business & close more sales due to accurate quoting. Lets face it people want professional & accurate quotes up front...and when they come back to pickup they dont want surprises either- this gains trust. In this regard RT has actually made me more money & makes things more efficient. How can a small shop justify $100-250 per month for Shop Management? Well theres not much out there that will get you running for sub 100 much less the $25/month I promise ya!
Cons
Now for the downsides...Im anxiously awaiting some upgrades- another tier for those of us wanting AR & Inventory, regardless of the info page here there is no inventory- nada. This needs to be fixed. The Customer owed balance needs to me on the main page so you know what folk are due/overdue at a glance instead of drilling into each work order & clicking thru to the end- its ridiculous to have to do that. Multiple tech assignment would be super helpful as well- each labor line should have ability to assign more than one all of the techs- not just one. Adding part vendors on the fly would be nice too but thats nit pickin. We need inventory Customer AR (and report) as well as Quickbooks online integration. I should be able to use this software to see what oil & filters I have on hand at least! All that said, they promise more soon & are adding payment processing- I really hope its soon!
Reasons for Choosing Real-Time Labor Guide
To get the features from Workshop it gets pretty expensive...when you pay that kid on money you expect it to be stable & not glitchy. Had my request & complaints not went ignored for days I may have stayed longer & dealt with it, as there is alot of promise for Workshop. Though when I tried RT & actually saved a ton of time & money & wasnt bogged down with glitches I was sold on RT. WS had many half baked feature sets that were there but didnt work fully only to get aholt of some one and be prodded into spending more $$...then when had to sort out billing errors with overseas CS, thats it Im done!Switched From
Workshop SoftwareReasons for Switching to Real-Time Labor Guide
Ease of use, price & stability- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 2.0 /10
Was great, now it's terrible!!
Reviewed on 2018-10-24
I LIKED the reports and the fact it was easy to use and WAS very user friendly, the new "upgrade"...
I LIKED the reports and the fact it was easy to use and WAS very user friendly, the new "upgrade" makes it take longer to create tickets, find previous customers, find previous tickets, etc. Overall the new system has convinced me to begin a new search for a reasonably priced mechanical software system, very frustrating as I was EXTREMELY pleased with it until the "upgrade". All my guys that use it have asked me if we can switch back, I have contacted Real-Time but have yet to receive a response. If we can't, I will be switching software again, and that is very frustrating.
Pros
It WAS extremely user friendly and easy to learn and use, now they have released an update and forced all users to use the "upgraded" version, which is actually a HUGE downgrade from a user-friendly perspective. It is cheap, that is the only current Pro I can think of for the current system. If they would let us revert back to the previous version, I would give it a 5 star in all categories.
Cons
Not user-friendly any more, complicated to navigate, requires extra steps to perform tasks that used to be simple. The new upgrade they introduced is a massive downgrade from the original program, I will be looking for a new system.
Response from Real-Time Labor Guide
Ron -
It's never easy to hear a potential let down from a customer but I do appreciate your honest feedback. We went to great lengths to make sure the ticket process is exactly the same with the same number of steps and clicks - the only thing that changed was the look and feel and the search. I'm hoping you'll give us a chance over the next couple days because for the customers who have been using it for the last couple months in beta - they swear they would never go back.
Nobody likes change and we wouldn't have made this serious investment unless it was absolutely necessary. Specifically - our previous version was released 6 years ago and performance/security technology has made huge advancements that we needed to include in our system. The new site is now more secure, will allow for future expansion in features and all the new tickets you all are making, and more mobile friendly.
Thanks for being our customer all these years and I hope you'll give the new site a chance.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Auto repair invoicing and labor
Reviewed on 2020-05-26
The customer service has always been extremely friendly and helpful. For us as a small business the...
The customer service has always been extremely friendly and helpful. For us as a small business the software works perfect. It allows us to customize our invoices and track our customers repairs. Customer service is very helpful with finding labor on old cars or very new cars that may not be in a labor system.
Pros
Ease of use, great customer service, pricing, does pretty much everything we want. We’ve stayed with this software for several years.
Cons
In progress tickets drop from system after 14 days. There are times when we are waiting for special order parts that arrive past that period and we have to rekey what we’ve entered already.
Response from Real-Time Labor Guide
Darren - Thank you so much for your glowing review! I will make sure we look at the in-progress time frame, but the best way to make sure those tickets are never dropped is to complete them as estimates. Estimates don't show up on sales reports and can be edited and changed into invoices at any time. The in-progress was meant more like an auto-save feature so you wouldn't lose your partially completed ticket if you had a customer walk in and need immediate assistance.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10
JASONS AUTO BODY
Reviewed on 2020-05-27
I just use it because of cost is so low.
I just use it because of cost is so low.
Pros
It is easy to use and navigate just have to play with the system to learn its uses.
Cons
I wish it had repair help on some jobs like Mitchell has and like for me I wished they would offer a crash -labor estimator like this. Even tech to tech talk for help would be nice.
Alternatives Considered
JobBOSS²Reasons for Choosing Real-Time Labor Guide
The cost between them made the choice for meSwitched From
Mitchell RepairCenterReasons for Switching to Real-Time Labor Guide
costResponse from Real-Time Labor Guide
Jason - Thank you for your glowing review! We do try to offer just what a shop needs at the lowest price possible. We appreciate the feedback and are happy to have you as a customer!
Real-Time Labor Guide FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Real-Time Labor Guide.Q. What type of pricing plans does Real-Time Labor Guide offer?
Real-Time Labor Guide offers the following pricing plans:
- Starting from: US$12.50/month
- Pricing model: Subscription
- Free Trial: Available
Real-time Labor Guide offers a free trial of 21 days, after which the software is available for $12.50/month per user.
Q. Who are the typical users of Real-Time Labor Guide?
Real-Time Labor Guide has the following typical customers:
Self Employed, 2-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1,000, 1,001-5,000
Q. What languages does Real-Time Labor Guide support?
Real-Time Labor Guide supports the following languages:
English
Q. Does Real-Time Labor Guide support mobile devices?
Real-Time Labor Guide supports the following devices:
Q. What other apps does Real-Time Labor Guide integrate with?
We do not have any information about what integrations Real-Time Labor Guide has
Q. What level of support does Real-Time Labor Guide offer?
Real-Time Labor Guide offers the following support options:
Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Phone Support, Chat
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