Most shop software assumes everything that comes through the door is a car. A lot of shops don't work that way. An engine builder is tracking blocks and heads. A turbo shop is tracking cores. A powersports shop has boats, side-by-sides, and dirt bikes sitting next to each other.
Project types let My Shop Assist track the work the way your shop actually runs, instead of forcing everything into a year, make, and model.
Vehicles are the default
Out of the box, MSA uses vehicles with Year, Make, Model, and Engine (YMME) as the project type. If cars and trucks are all you work on, you're already set and don't need to change anything.
Build your own with the Project Type builder
When you work on more than vehicles, the Project Type builder lets you create your own. Set up a project type for each kind of thing that comes through your shop, so every job is tied to the right kind of project instead of a vehicle record that doesn't fit.
What you can track
If your business works on it, you can make a project type for it. A few examples:
- Boats
- Side-by-sides and UTVs
- Motorcycles
- Engine blocks and cylinder heads
- Turbos and injectors
Those are just starting points. Machine shops, fuel system specialists, transmission builders, and anyone else who works on components rather than whole vehicles can set MSA up around the work they really do.
Why it matters
When a turbo has to be entered as a car, the record never quite makes sense. Searching gets harder, history gets messy, and your team ends up working around the software. Project types fix that at the source, so the thing on the job is the thing actually sitting on your bench.
Watch the walkthrough above to see the Project Type builder set up from start to finish.