Integration
Mechanica and Shopmonkey
The Shopmonkey connector is in build. Here is the workflow it follows and what setup asks of a shop before it goes live.
Shopmonkey at a glance
- Connection
- In build
- Vendor
- Shopmonkey
The Shopmonkey connector is in build. This page covers the workflow it follows and what setup asks of a shop, so a shop running Shopmonkey can tell whether the shape fits before the connection lands.
Key takeaways
- Status is in build. Tekmetric is the connection running today.
- The workflow is the same on every system: inspection complete, draft, human review.
- Setup is mostly a pass over how the shop already quotes.
- Nothing reaches a customer without a person sending it.
What workflow does every connector follow?
A technician finishes the inspection and marks it complete. The findings are read and scoped into jobs. Labor comes from the shop's own canned jobs where one matches, and from published book time where none does. Parts are quoted at the shop's own suppliers and marked up the shop's way. The draft lands on the repair order and waits for an advisor.
Where does an estimate get built in Shopmonkey today?
On the estimate screen, with the lookups pulled in beside it. Shopmonkey's estimates page describes "built-in parts & labor lookups" and tells shops to "use pre-built jobs and pricing for quick estimate creation." Vehicle identification comes off a plate or VIN scan in the mobile app.
So the walking has already been taken out. What has not been taken out is the sequence underneath: read the findings, decide which jobs they call for, look up the time, price the parts, apply the markup, key every line. Six steps, one screen, one person. That person is your advisor and the phone is ringing while they do it.
What happens on the inspection side?
Shopmonkey's own material describes sending detailed vehicle inspections to customers by email or text from its app. That inspection is the input every connector is waiting on.
The trigger is the technician marking it complete. Nothing changes in the bay: same checklist, same photos, same notes. Cleaner findings produce better drafts, because there is less to interpret, and that is true whether a person or a piece of software is doing the reading. What a clean note looks like is covered in the write-up on inspection notes.
What does the profitability view change?
Shopmonkey shows "projected profitability in real-time as you create estimates." Useful number. It is also only as honest as the parts prices sitting under it, which on a half-built estimate means it is a guess wearing a percentage sign.
A draft that arrives already priced from the shop's own suppliers makes that figure worth reading the moment the ticket opens. An advisor sees the margin before they have typed anything, which changes what they do with the phone call rather than changing what they type. The gross profit entry covers what the figure is measuring.
How does the customer approval step fit?
It stays where it is. Shopmonkey supports customers authorising an estimate with an e-signature and sends the shop an approval notification.
Mechanica writes a draft onto the ticket and stops there. The advisor reads it, changes what they want and sends it through Shopmonkey's own approval flow. Nothing about that step moves, and nothing reaches a customer without somebody at the shop deciding to send it. Verbal authorization covers why the record of who approved what is worth protecting.
What does setup ask of a shop?
Two things. Access to the shop management system, and a conversation about how the shop quotes: labor rate, parts markups, canned job library, preferred brands. The second one is the work. Running the canned job audit worksheet first makes that conversation shorter.
On Shopmonkey specifically, the pre-built job library is the piece worth preparing. Shopmonkey leans on those jobs for speed and Mechanica matches a shop's own jobs before it looks anything up, so the library is doing double duty. A current library means more of the draft comes out of your own pricing and less of it comes out of a lookup. The canned job entry covers what makes one worth matching, and auditing your canned jobs is the afternoon that fixes it.
What does this page deliberately not say?
Anything about how the connector behaves on an unusual ticket. Named failure modes come from running a connector against real repair orders, and inventing them for a system nobody has run yet would be vendor marketing with our name on it. The Tekmetric page lists real ones, because that connection has real history.
Where to read next
The integrations hub has the rest of the roster with its current status. The pricing workflow is in how an estimate gets priced, and the vocabulary is in the glossary.
Where should you read next?
The same shortlist usually carries Shop-Ware and Tekmetric. The integrations hub carries the rest of the roster.
Sources
Questions shops ask
- Is the Shopmonkey connection live today?
- No. It is in build. The status line on this page is rendered from the connector roster itself, so it changes the day the connector does. Tekmetric is the connection running today.
- Will the estimate be written onto the existing repair order?
- That is the design, and it is the same design every connector follows. Drafted jobs belong on the ticket the technician was already working. Put them somewhere else and you have added a copy step between two systems, which is where prices drift.
- Will anything be sent to customers automatically?
- No. That rule does not vary by system. Mechanica writes the draft and a person at the shop reviews it and sends it.
- Will our own canned jobs and markups be used?
- Yes. Matching the shop's own pricing setup is what makes a draft read like the shop wrote it, and it is the first thing the setup pass covers on any system.
- How do we get told when it is ready?
- Book a demo and say which system you run. Shops on a connector still in build get told when it lands rather than being quoted a date nobody can hold.
- Do we have to stop using Shopmonkey's own parts and labor lookups?
- No. Shopmonkey describes built-in parts and labor lookups inside any estimate and those stay exactly where they are. An advisor who wants to check a number, add a line by hand or override something the draft got wrong uses the same screen they use today. A draft that cannot be edited in the system that holds it would be worse than no draft.
- Our pre-built jobs are out of date. Does that matter?
- It matters a lot, and it is the highest-value thing a shop can fix before any connector lands. Shopmonkey tells shops to use pre-built jobs and pricing for quick estimate creation, and Mechanica matches a shop's own jobs before it looks anything up. A library priced under a labor rate you stopped charging two years ago will produce drafts priced under a labor rate you stopped charging two years ago.
- Does the projected profitability figure still work?
- It works better on a priced draft than on a half-built one. Shopmonkey shows projected profitability in real time as an estimate is created, and that number is only as good as the parts prices sitting under it. A draft that arrives with live supplier prices on every line means the profitability figure is worth reading the moment the ticket opens instead of after somebody finishes typing.
- Does the customer approval flow change?
- No. Shopmonkey lets customers authorise an estimate with an e-signature and notifies the shop on approval. That stays. Mechanica writes a draft and stops; an advisor reads it, edits what they want and sends it through Shopmonkey's own flow. Nothing reaches a customer without a person at the shop deciding to send it.