Most specialty shops do more general repair than they'd like to admit. A customer's car is already in the bay for a build, it needs struts or a water pump, and suddenly you're paying for a separate labor guide, flipping between two tabs, and typing the job in twice.
Without book times, those quotes turn into guesses. Guess low and you eat the hours. Guess high and the customer goes down the street.
MOTOR puts factory labor times and OE part numbers inside My Shop Assist. You match the vehicle once, pick the operation, and it lands on the job with the book time already filled in, priced at your labor rate, right alongside your specialty work.
Match the vehicle once
MOTOR needs to know exactly which vehicle it's looking at. The first time, confirm the year, make, and model, then pick the engine and the configuration that matches the customer's car. If it came with more than one transmission, you pick that too.
The match is saved with the vehicle, so every job on it after that goes straight to the right labor times. You can match a vehicle when you add it, when you create a job, or the first time you click MOTOR Task on a job. Matched vehicles show a green MOTOR Matched pill.
Find the labor operation
Click MOTOR Task on the job, next to + Task and + Part. The MOTOR Labor Guide opens beside the job. Search for what you're doing, like "strut" or "water pump", or browse by category.
Each operation card shows what it covers, what's included in the time, and the book hours, for example one side or both sides. Operations for other engines are hidden so you only see the ones that fit this vehicle.
Add it to the job
Click the time you want and the task editor opens with the operation already filled in. Check it over and save. Nothing goes on the job until you do.
How MOTOR tasks are priced
MOTOR operations always come in as Book Hours tasks. The customer pays your labor rate times MOTOR's book time, no matter how long the work actually takes. If the job has its own hourly rate, that's used instead, and you can change the rate in the task editor before you save.
Each operation also gets its own "Labor -" task on your shop task list, like "Labor - Strut Assembly - Replace". That way MOTOR work exports to QuickBooks or Xero as the real service, not one catch-all item, and the next time someone adds the same operation it links to the same task.
Bring along related operations
Some work only makes sense alongside another job, like an alignment after struts. Open Related Operations on the card to see them. Anything you pick comes along as a subtask with its own MOTOR time, so nothing gets left off the estimate.
Add OE parts
Click Show OEM Parts on an operation to see the OE part numbers it calls for, with quantity, MSRP, and fitment. Pick the ones you want and they go on the task with the labor.
- If the part is already on your parts list, MSA uses your part and your retail price, and shows MSRP so you can compare.
- If it's new, MSA adds it to your parts list at MOTOR's MSRP. Change the price any time.
- Need a part without a labor operation? Use Advanced Search on a job part and pick OEM Parts (MOTOR) as the source.
Open the Repair Guide
When the vehicle is matched, the book button in the job's info bar turns MOTOR blue. Click it to open MOTOR repair information for that vehicle in a new tab, so procedures and diagrams are a click away from the job.
Turn MOTOR on
MOTOR is a paid add-on to your MSA subscription, billed monthly or yearly. Open your shop settings, choose Subscription under Billing, and add the MOTOR add-on. There's nothing else to set up. Labor rate and tax come from your normal shop settings.
MOTOR data covers cars and trucks, so only the Automobile project type can be matched. If you ever cancel, the MOTOR buttons go away, but the MOTOR tasks and parts already on your jobs stay put.
Watch the walkthrough above to see MOTOR take a job from vehicle match to a priced estimate.