Garages: scheduling several mechanics and bays online

A garage with several mechanics and bays can take every booking on one Book page. Unlike a salon, most jobs don't need a particular mechanic, so organise services by job, such as "Oil and filter change" or "Brake pads, front", and give each slot as many places as bays you can free for that job at that time. Keep longer jobs as morning drop-offs, give specialist work to the mechanic who does it, and match places to the rota. The whole garage pays €5/month.

Book gives one booking page per business. Each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on the page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own number of places. There's no staff field and no bay field: places are how you tell Book how many cars a slot can take, and the service name is how you mark work that needs a particular person.

Durations, places and prices are examples, labour only where parts vary: set your own.

Count the bays and lifts you can give each kind of job at each hour, and set the slot's places to that number. Two lifts free for quick jobs at 9:00 means two places on the oil change slot; when both are booked, the slot leaves your page and the next driver picks another time. Book doesn't know which job needs a lift and which can be done on the floor, and slots of different services can overlap, so open quick lift jobs and long lift jobs at times that don't compete for the same lifts.

For a full service or a job that takes most of the day, a drop-off slot works better than an exact time: the car arrives in the morning and is collected in the afternoon. Make one daily slot from opening to closing, with as many places as cars you can handle that day, and say in the description when to drop off and when to call for collection. Ask in the note for the registration, mileage and what the driver has noticed.

Diagnostics, electrics, hybrids or a particular make may only be done by one or two people. Put the mechanic's name in those services and open their slots on the days they work. Everything else stays shared, so the page stays short.

Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so a standard week of quick jobs and drop-offs takes a few minutes to set up. On days with fewer mechanics in, lower the places on those slots, or delete some, so you don't take more cars than hands. When the rota changes, delete the remaining slots of the old series and create a new one.

Drivers who call are booked from the calendar into the right job's slot; first and last name are required, email and phone optional, and with an email the driver gets a confirmation with a calendar file. Book sends no reminders, so that calendar entry is what brings the car in. Every booking syncs with the garage's Google, iPhone or Mac calendar, so the counter and the workshop see the same list.

Drivers can't move or cancel online; the garage does it from the bookings list. Rescheduling works across services, so an oil change that turns into a brake job can move to a longer slot, and cars booked for a specialist who is off can move to the next day they're in. Book doesn't email drivers about changes, so call or text each one. Book doesn't take payments; drivers pay at collection. Book costs €5/month for the garage, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.