Auto repair, towing and detailing
Repair authorization in writing, before the wrench turns.
The noise turns out to be four hundred dollars more than the estimate, the customer is at work, and the chargeback hangs on whether they said yes somewhere you can find.
Where it goes wrong
Not a feature list. These are the three moments this exists for.
The verbal yes on a phone call
The service writer remembers the customer approving the extra work. The customer remembers no such thing. Neither of them can prove it, and the card processor has already decided whose problem that is.
Approval that takes half a day
The customer is in a meeting, the technician is standing at a lift, and the bay is worth money. Waiting for a callback is the most expensive thing that happens in the shop all week.
The car that nobody comes back for
Storage runs, calls go unanswered, and the paperwork you need to do something about it is the paperwork nobody filled in at drop-off.
What happens instead
Texted, with the number in it
The authorization goes to their phone with the work and the amount already written in. They read it at a desk, sign it in thirty seconds, and the technician carries on.
Each supplemental is its own approval
Not a verbal on top of a verbal. A new amount is a new document with its own signature, its own timestamp and its own record of what was shown.
Drop-off and release, both on the record
Condition and photographs at intake, and a release signed by whoever actually collects the vehicle — which is not always the person who left it.
Two documents, in your account the moment you name your trade
Setup asks what you do. Answer "auto repair, towing and detailing" and these are waiting as drafts, in your words, with the blanks marked and the points a lawyer settles flagged for one. Edit them, or paste what you already use.
Repair Authorization and Estimate Approval
A starter, not legal advice: the wording is yours to change and your attorney's to check. A note left in the text holds the document at send until somebody has.
Towing and Vehicle Release Authorization
A starter, not legal advice: the wording is yours to change and your attorney's to check. A note left in the text holds the document at send until somebody has.
Documents this trade sends
Written from the document's side rather than the trade's, for when you know the form you are short of.
Condition and damage acknowledgments
condition report · check-out form · walkaround · pre-existing damage form
Signing by text message
text to sign · SMS signature link · text message waiver · mobile signing link
Signing a PDF you already have
upload a PDF to sign · PDF signature fields · fillable PDF · sign an existing document
State rules decide what an estimate must say
Written estimates, overage limits, the notice a supplemental needs and whether an oral approval counts at all are set by statute and differ everywhere, and so do mechanic lien and uncollected vehicle procedures. The starter documents mark those places for an attorney rather than inventing a number that happens to be wrong in your state.
Who this is for
If you are on this list, the words above are your words.
Independent repair shops
Collision and body shops
Tyre, brake and quick service shops
Towing and recovery operators
Mobile mechanics
Detailing and ceramic coating studios
Fleet and commercial vehicle service
Powersports, RV and marine service
Questions
Is a texted approval good enough?
A signature captured this way carries what the person was shown, when, from what device and network, and that they meant to approve it — which is considerably more than a note in a work order saying the customer agreed. Whether your state requires something specific in an estimate is a separate question, and the starter marks it.
Can the estimate amount come from our shop system?
Yes, through the API. The document is built with the repair order, the vehicle and the amount already in it, so the customer reads their own car and their own number rather than a blank form.
What about an insurer paying directly?
The authorization records who authorised the work and on what basis — owner, insurer or a third party — which is the question that gets asked when the payment does not arrive.
Does this help with an abandoned vehicle?
It gives you the signed record of the terms, the notice period and the storage rate, which is where the statutory process starts. The process itself is set by your state and the starter says so rather than pretending a signature short-circuits it.
Ready when the next guest is.
Free for the first 25 agreements a month. No card to start.