garage-erp/FEATURE_GAP_PLAN.md

Garage ERP — Feature Gap Plan vs. Industry Leaders

Comparison of the current Reparee Garage ERP against established automotive workshop management platforms (GarageBox, Tekmetric, Shopmonkey, AutoLeap, Garage Hive, Mitchell 1 Manager SE, MaxxTraxx, Workshop Software).

Goal: list what does not yet exist in this codebase, group it by impact, and give each gap an implementation hint so it can be picked up later.

---

1. What Reparee already has (baseline)

Captured from the current backend (reparee_backend/) controllers/models and dashboard navigation (apps/dashboard/config/navGroups.tsx):

Sales & service workflow

• Customers (with notes, types, referral sources, import/export)
• Vehicles (owners, makes/models, body types, fuel, transmission, colors, documents, mileage history, import/export)
• Inspections + Inspection Templates (categories, checkpoints, labels)
• Public share link for inspections (token-based, rate-limited)
• Estimates → Job Cards → Invoices (services, parts, expense items, internal notes, labels, document attachments)
• Credit Notes
• Payments Received
• Appointments (calendar)

Purchases

• Vendors (addresses, status, credits)
• Expenses & Expense Items
• Purchase Orders (with internal notes, labels)
• Bills
• Payments Made
• Vendor Credits

Items / inventory

• Services and Service Groups (with includes/pricing/parts)
• Parts (with categories, unit types)
• Inventory Adjustments
• Labor Rates, Taxes

HR / productivity

• Employees (with documents, certifications, avatar, performance, permissions)
• Departments, Roles (with permission.check middleware on every route)
• Leave Requests + Leave Balance
• Payroll Runs + Entries + Slips
• Tasks, Task Sections, Task Types, TimeSheet
• Shop Calendar, Shop Timing, Holidays

Platform

• PDF generation via DocumentPrintController + Blade templates
• Document share tokens
• Settings (company, including logo + Terms & Conditions in privacy_policy)
• i18n EN/AR with RTL
• OpenAPI client (packages/api/) regenerated from backend spec

Sidebar shows planned-but-disabled groups (commented out in navGroups.tsx): CRM (leads/calls/tasks), Marketing (service reminders, ratings/reviews, Google reviews), Accountants (manual journals, chart of accounts), Reports, Payroll, Integrations, Templates.

---

2. Priority matrix

Tier	Meaning
P0	Table-stakes for a modern garage SaaS — competitors all ship it, customers ask first
P1	Significant value-add, expected by mid-market shops
P2	Differentiators / nice-to-haves
P3	Long-tail integrations and advanced workflows

---

3. P0 — Table-stakes gaps

3.1 Reporting & Analytics dashboard

Status: No /reports route exists; sidebar entry is commented out. A / dashboard page exists but is not analytics-rich.

What competitors ship:

• Revenue by day/week/month, by service category, by technician
• Open jobs / WIP value, ARO (Average Repair Order), gross profit %
• Aging receivables (already implicit in invoices, no view)
• Parts margin, labor margin
• Technician productivity (billed hours vs. clocked hours)
• Inventory turnover, stock-outs
• Customer retention / first-visit vs. repeat

Plan:

• New backend controllers: ReportController exposing aggregations (revenue, AR aging, technician utilization, inventory turnover).
• New dashboard area: apps/dashboard/app/(authenticated)/reports/ with sub-routes per report.
• Re-use TanStack Query + a chart lib already approved (or ask before adding recharts / visx). KPIs on home page should pull from the same endpoints.

3.2 Service Reminders (mileage- and time-based)

Status: Vehicle has mileage logs (VehicleMileAndKm) and documents have expiry dates, but no reminder engine. Sidebar Marketing group is commented out.

What competitors ship:

• "Next service in 5,000 km" rules per vehicle/service
• Insurance / registration / inspection expiry reminders
• Auto-send via email/SMS X days before due
• Customer can click to book

Plan:

• New model: ServiceReminderRule (per vehicle or template per make/model: due_at_date, due_at_mileage, service_group_id, channel).
• Scheduled job (Laravel scheduler) that scans daily and queues notifications.
• Channel adapters wired to the notification stack from §3.3.
• UI under productivity or new marketing/ area.

3.3 Customer notifications (Email / SMS / WhatsApp)

Status: No notification channels found beyond document share links. No Notification or messaging tables in models.

What competitors ship:

• Twilio/Vonage SMS, WhatsApp Business API
• Two-way SMS thread per customer/job (Tekmetric, Shopmonkey)
• Templated estimate-ready / job-ready / pickup-ready messages
• Inbox view of all customer conversations

Plan:

• Add notification_channels config + adapter interface (App\Services\Notifications\Channel).
• Provider drivers behind feature flags (SMS via Twilio/MessageBird, email via existing Laravel mail, WhatsApp via Meta Cloud API).
• Tables: customer_messages (inbound + outbound), notification_templates (subject/body, locale, type).
• Dashboard inbox under /sales/customers/[id]/messages + global /inbox.

3.4 Customer-facing portal (estimate approval, history)

Status: Only PublicInspectionController exists for public viewing. Estimates and invoices have no customer-side approval flow.

What competitors ship:

• Customer logs in (or magic-link) and sees: vehicles, history, estimates, invoices, upcoming appointments.
• One-click approve / decline / partial-approve on estimate line items (digital authorization with audit trail).
• Pay invoice via portal.

Plan:

• Reuse DocumentShare token pattern, broaden into a customer_portal_token.
• New PublicEstimateController mirroring PublicInspectionController, with POST endpoints for approve/decline per line item.
• Persist signature/IP/timestamp on EstimateAuthorisationHistory (model already exists — confirm fields cover approvals from portal).
• Frontend: new public route group app/portal/ (no auth, token-scoped).

3.5 Online payments

Status: PaymentMode table exists, payments are recorded manually. No gateway integration.

What competitors ship:

• Stripe / Square / regional gateway integration
• "Pay invoice" link inside email/SMS
• Saved cards, partial payments, tips
• Reconciliation back to PaymentRecieved

Plan:

• Pluggable gateway driver under App\Services\Payments\.
• New endpoint POST /api/invoices/{id}/payment-link returns hosted URL.
• Webhook handler that creates PaymentRecieved rows on capture.
• Frontend pay/[token] page bundled with the portal in §3.4.

3.6 Audit log

Status: No audit/activity table found.

What competitors ship: Who changed what, when, on every business record. Required for shops with multiple staff.

Plan:

• Adopt spatie/laravel-activitylog (request before adding the dep) or hand-roll a polymorphic activity_log table.
• Log on estimate/job-card/invoice state transitions, permission changes, payment events.
• Read-only view at /settings/activity-log.

3.7 Workflow / Kanban board for Job Cards

Status: Job Cards live in a list view. No status pipeline UI.

What competitors ship: Drag-and-drop columns ("Checked-in", "Awaiting Parts", "In Progress", "QC", "Ready for Pickup"). Drives the shop's day.

Plan:

• Add job_card_status (enum or FK to job_card_statuses table editable in settings).
• Backend: status transition endpoint with allowed-transition guard.
• Frontend: new /sales/job-cards/board route using dnd-kit (already in the React ecosystem; confirm dep). Cards link to existing detail page.

3.8 Vehicle service history (per VIN, cross-customer)

Status: History is currently scoped via the vehicle's job cards, but there is no consolidated "vehicle history" tab summarizing services, inspections, mileage, and recommendations together.

Plan:

• New endpoint GET /api/vehicles/{id}/timeline merging job cards, inspections, recommendations, document expiries, mileage events into a single chronological feed.
• Tab on the vehicle detail page rendering the timeline.

3.9 Recommended / deferred work tracking

Status: FastShopRecommendation and ShopRecommendation models exist but there is no "deferred services" view that follows the vehicle across visits.

Plan:

• Extend recommendations with status (open/accepted/declined/expired) and next_followup_at.
• Surface on vehicle detail, estimate creation ("pull deferred items"), and in service-reminder logic (§3.2).

---

4. P1 — Significant value-add

4.1 Technician time tracking on job cards (clock in/out per labor line)

Status: Generic TimeSheet exists but is not bound to job-card lines. The sidebar already shows "Time Clocks" — confirm whether implemented or stubbed.

Plan:

• New table job_card_labor_time (job_card_service_id, employee_id, started_at, stopped_at).
• Mobile-friendly start/stop UI on the job-card page (tap-and-go).
• Feed billed-vs-clocked into the productivity report (§3.1).

4.2 Estimate templates / service packages with menus

Status: Service Groups exist (ServiceGroup, ServiceGroupService, ServiceGroupPart, ServiceGroupPricing). Gap: no canned "menus" UI (e.g., "30k-mile service" preset that drops services + parts + labor onto an estimate in one click).

Plan:

• Repurpose Service Groups as menus; add a "Add menu" picker on the estimate editor that expands the group into individual lines (so they can still be edited).

4.3 Customer digital signature on documents

Status: Documents print to PDF; no signature capture.

Plan:

• Add a signature pad component (svg path → PNG) on the customer portal approval screen (§3.4) and in-shop tablet flow.
• Persist as a document_signatures row (signer name, type, timestamp, IP/UA, image blob in storage).
• Embed signature in printed PDF.

4.4 Parts barcode / QR scanning

Status: Parts have SKUs but no barcode field or scan UI.

Plan:

• Add barcode column to parts.
• Use the device camera (BarcodeDetector API) on the inventory adjustment and job-card "Add part" dialogs.

4.5 Tablet / shop-floor UI

Status: UI is desktop-first.

Plan:

• Audit job-card detail, inspection editor, and time-clock screens for touch targets and one-hand portrait use.
• Optional dedicated route /floor/[job-card] with a stripped-down layout.

4.6 Photos & videos on inspections (with public share)

Status: InspectionCheckPointAttachment and InspectionAttachment models exist — confirm whether the share link renders attachments.

Plan:

• Verify the public inspection view (PublicInspectionController@show) exposes media URLs with signed access.
• Add front-camera capture in the inspection editor for fast photo-taking.

4.7 Multi-location / branch support

Status: Settings is single-tenant; no branch_id scoping on business records.

Plan: This is a bigger lift. Phased:

1. Add branches table and branch_id FK on the major aggregates (job_cards, invoices, vehicles, parts, employees).
2. Default to a single seeded branch for existing deployments.
3. Add branch selector in header and scope queries via global scope.

4.8 Custom fields

Status: No custom-field infrastructure.

Plan:

• New custom_field_definitions (entity_type, key, label, type, options) and custom_field_values (polymorphic).
• Render dynamically on customer/vehicle/job-card forms.

4.9 Marketing campaigns

Status: Sidebar has the group commented out.

Plan:

• Reuse §3.3 channels.
• New marketing_campaigns (name, audience filter, template_id, schedule) and marketing_sends (per-recipient log).
• Audience builder uses the customer/vehicle filters already in the table views.

4.10 Ratings & reviews capture

Plan:

• Post-pickup auto-message asking for a rating (1–5) and free text.
• If 4–5, deep-link to Google review URL (configurable in settings).
• Internal review wall + ability to publish to a public testimonials endpoint.

4.11 Accounting export (QuickBooks / Xero / Zoho)

Status: No GL / chart of accounts (sidebar group is disabled).

Plan (lightweight first):

• CSV export of invoices, payments, bills, payments-made tagged with configurable account codes.
• Later: OAuth integration with QuickBooks Online / Xero APIs.

4.12 Tire & wheel module (heavy in GarageBox, Tekmetric)

Plan: Tire size lookup, DOT tracking, storage racks (off-season tire storage is a common revenue line in cold-climate markets). Skip unless target market needs it.

4.13 Warranty tracking on parts and services

Plan:

• Add warranty_months / warranty_km on parts and services.
• Show "under warranty" badge when re-invoicing the same VIN within the window. Block billing or flag for review.

4.14 Fleet customer accounts

Plan:

• Allow a customer to own many vehicles already supported, but add a "fleet" customer type with: bulk PO upload, monthly statement instead of per-invoice billing, optional driver/vehicle list.

4.15 Online appointment booking widget

Plan:

• Public route /book that surfaces shop services + free calendar slots (derived from ShopTiming and existing appointments).
• Creates a draft Appointment + customer/vehicle if new.
• Embed snippet for the shop's marketing site.

---

5. P2 — Differentiators

5.1 VIN decoder integration (NHTSA free API + paid Carfax)

• NHTSA vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api/ is free, no auth — wire it into the vehicle create form to auto-fill make/model/year/engine from VIN.
• Carfax/AutoCheck for paid history reports (US/CA).

5.2 OEM repair info integration (Mitchell 1, AllData, Identifix, Haynes)

• Big lift, paid feeds. Out of scope for v1; design the parts/services data model so labor times can be imported.

5.3 Parts catalog integrations (WorldPac, NAPA PROLink, PartsTech)

• Real-time pricing + availability + ordering from inside a job card.
• Phase 1: PartsTech (aggregator) since it covers the most vendors.

5.4 Two-way calendar sync (Google / Microsoft)

• iCal feed for read-only first.
• Full two-way sync via Google Calendar API later.

5.5 AI-assisted estimate writer

• "Customer says: knocking noise on left front when braking" → suggested service lines + parts list from history of similar jobs. Useful and novel; defer until enough invoice data exists.

5.6 Mobile apps (technician + customer)

• React Native (or PWA first) sharing @garage/api.
• Technician: today's jobs, start/stop labor, take photos, mark complete.
• Customer: portal features (§3.4) packaged as an app.

5.7 OBD-II / telematics integration

• Long tail. Plan only the data model now (vehicle_telemetry_events).

5.8 Loyalty / gift cards / membership plans

• "Service plan: 2 oil changes/year + 10% off for $X/mo".
• Recurring billing on top of §3.5.

5.9 Discounts and promo codes at line-item or document level

• Currently no promo entity. Add discounts (code, type, %/amount, scope, expiry, usage cap) with hook in estimate/invoice totals.

5.10 Multi-currency

• Settings is implicitly single-currency. Add currency on documents and a daily rates table if shops need cross-border invoicing.

---

6. P3 — Long-tail / future

• Insurance claim workflow (estimator → adjuster handoff, photos packet, EMS export).
• Inventory replenishment automation (min/max → auto PO draft).
• Bay / lift management (assign job card to a bay; show bay utilization).
• AI photo damage assessment for inspections.
• Recall lookup (NHTSA recall API by VIN).
• TPMS / tire pressure history per vehicle.
• Public price-list / "instant quote" widget.
• Webhook system for third-party integrators.
• Bring-your-own-domain customer portal branding.
• Backup export of entire tenant data (GDPR-friendly).

---

7. Cross-cutting platform work

These aren't a single feature, but unlock many of the above:

1. Background job runner — Laravel Horizon + Redis if not already set up; required for §3.2, §3.3, §4.9.
2. Storage policy — confirm S3-compatible storage so signatures, media, and PDFs scale.
3. Feature flag system — many of the above are tenant-gated; even a simple tenant_features table beats hard-coded toggles.
4. OpenAPI coverage — every new backend endpoint must add an annotation so packages/api stays in sync (already a project convention).
5. Permission seeds — every new route requires a matching permission (project rule: routes are gated by permission.check).
6. Lang pairs — every lang/en/*.php key must have a matching lang/ar/*.php key (project rule).
7. PDF template — every new printable type needs an entry in DocumentPrintController::TYPES plus a Blade template under resources/views/pdf/.

---

8. Suggested phased roadmap

A pragmatic build order that maximizes early customer value and reuses infrastructure:

Phase 1 — "Looks competitive" (P0 core)

• Reporting dashboard (§3.1)
• Workflow board for job cards (§3.7)
• Audit log (§3.6)
• Vehicle timeline (§3.8)
• Recommended / deferred work tracking (§3.9)

Phase 2 — "Talks to the customer"

• Notifications channel (§3.3) — SMS + email first
• Customer portal w/ estimate approval (§3.4)
• Online payments (§3.5)
• Service reminders (§3.2)
• Ratings & reviews capture (§4.10)

Phase 3 — "Runs the shop floor"

• Technician time tracking on labor (§4.1)
• Estimate menus / service packages UI (§4.2)
• Photos on inspections, end-to-end (§4.6)
• Customer digital signature (§4.3)
• Tablet / shop-floor UI polish (§4.5)

Phase 4 — "Scales the business"

• Multi-location (§4.7)
• Custom fields (§4.8)
• Marketing campaigns (§4.9)
• Online booking widget (§4.15)
• Accounting exports (§4.11)

Phase 5 — "Differentiators"

• VIN decoder (§5.1)
• Parts catalog integrations (§5.3)
• Calendar sync (§5.4)
• Loyalty / memberships (§5.8)
• Mobile apps (§5.6)

---

9. Open questions to confirm before starting

1. Target market geography — drives gateway choice (Stripe vs. local), SMS provider, accounting integration (QuickBooks vs. Zoho vs. Tally), and whether tire/snow modules matter.
2. Is multi-tenancy single-DB (current) or DB-per-tenant?
3. Are Horizon + Redis available in production today?
4. Is there an approved chart library, or does adding one need a green light? (CLAUDE.md says no new deps without approval.)
5. Should the customer portal share auth with the dashboard (Sanctum) or use a token-only public route like inspections do today?