Track every warranty on every job. Parts, labor, vendor claims, expiration dates — all built into your repair orders. Stop guessing what's covered. Stop eating warranty jobs you should be filing. 100% free.
Here's what warranty management looks like at most independent shops: a sticky note on the RO folder. Maybe a note in the customer file. Maybe nothing at all. And when that customer comes back six months later with the same problem, nobody can find the original repair order, nobody knows if the part was still under warranty, and the shop eats the cost of the redo.
I've been there. I've watched a tech spend two hours replacing a water pump we installed nine months ago — under warranty — because nobody tracked the original warranty terms. That's labor, parts, and bay time we'll never get back. And the vendor warranty claim? Never filed, because by the time we realized it was covered, the paperwork was long gone.
The bigger shops have binders full of warranty policies from different parts suppliers. Different terms, different claim processes, different deadlines. The service writers are supposed to check every time a vehicle comes in, but in the middle of a busy Monday morning, that doesn't happen. So warranty coverage gets missed. Vendor claims don't get filed. And the shop loses money on work it already did right the first time.
Shop Commander fixes all of this. Every service line item can carry warranty terms — months and kilometers. The system tracks expiration automatically. When a vehicle comes back, active warranties are highlighted before anyone writes up new work. And when a warranty claim needs to be filed, the entire workflow is built in — from filing to tracking to reimbursement. No sticky notes. No binders. No guessing.
Set warranty months and kilometers on individual line items — not just the whole RO. Different services can carry different warranty terms, exactly like the real world works. Oil change gets 3 months. Transmission rebuild gets 24 months. Set it once, forget it.
Warranties auto-expire based on date or odometer — whichever comes first. No manual tracking, no spreadsheets, no calendar reminders. The system knows what's active, what's expiring soon, and what's already expired. Every vehicle, every service, every time.
When you create new work on a vehicle, active warranties are highlighted immediately. Before your service writer quotes a brake job, they'll see that the pads were replaced 8 months ago and are still under warranty. No digging through old files. The system tells you.
File warranty claims directly in Shop Commander. Track every claim from Pending through Approved, Denied, or Completed. Record vendor claim numbers, amounts, and coverage type (parts, labor, or both). Never lose track of a filed claim again.
Track claimed amount versus received amount on every warranty claim. Know exactly how much you filed for, how much you got back, and where the gaps are. Stop wondering if that vendor reimbursement ever came through.
Log part failures with brand, part number, vehicle, install date, failure date, and odometer data. Every failure links back to the original RO. Over time, you'll see exactly which brands fail more — and make better purchasing decisions because of it.
When you complete a repair order, set warranty terms on each service line item. Enter the warranty duration in months and/or kilometers. Different lines can have different terms — your oil change might be 3 months / 5,000 km while your engine work is 24 months / 40,000 km. The system calculates the exact expiration date and mileage from the vehicle's current odometer.
Once warranty terms are set, Shop Commander tracks them automatically. Every time the vehicle's odometer is updated — whether from a new RO check-in, an inspection, or a manual entry — the system checks it against active warranty limits. Warranties auto-expire when the date passes or the mileage limit is reached, whichever comes first.
When a customer brings their vehicle back and you start a new repair order, Shop Commander immediately highlights any active warranties on that vehicle. Your service writer sees exactly what's covered before they write up new work. No phone calls to parts suppliers, no digging through old invoices, no guessing. If the returning issue falls under an active warranty, you know it instantly — and you can file a vendor claim right from the system.
Most shops lose thousands of dollars every year on warranty claims they never file. The part fails, the customer comes back, the shop does the job again — and the vendor claim just never happens. Maybe the service writer forgot. Maybe the paperwork was too much of a hassle. Maybe nobody even realized the part was still under warranty.
Shop Commander's warranty claim system eliminates every one of those excuses.
When a warranty issue comes in, filing a claim takes seconds. The system already knows the original RO, the part number, the install date, the vendor, and the warranty terms. You create the claim, enter the vendor claim number, specify what's covered (parts, labor, or both), and set the claimed amount. The status tracks automatically from Pending to Approved to Completed — or Denied, if that happens.
The reconciliation tracking is where the real value is. You can see exactly how much you claimed versus how much you received. Over time, this gives you hard data on which vendors actually honor their warranties — and which ones make you jump through hoops for pennies on the dollar. That's information you can use in your next vendor negotiation.
Every warranty claim follows a clear status path:
Every customer in Shop Commander gets a secure online portal — a unique link they can access from any device without logging in. On that portal, they can see all their vehicles, their full service history, their inspection reports, and — critically — their active warranty coverage.
This is a game-changer for customer trust. Instead of calling your shop to ask "Is my water pump still under warranty?", the customer can check themselves. They see the warranty terms, the expiration date, and what's covered. No phone tag. No digging through emails. It's right there.
This also reduces disputes. When a customer insists their brake job was "lifetime warranty" and you know it was 12 months / 20,000 km, the portal shows exactly what was agreed. Both sides can see the same information. No arguments, no he-said-she-said.
The portal also shows recommended services — work that was previously declined. So when a customer checks their warranty status, they also see the suspension work you recommended last time. It's a passive upsell opportunity that works around the clock without your service writer picking up the phone.
Every shop owner has opinions about which parts brands are reliable and which ones are junk. But opinions aren't data. Shop Commander's part failure tracking gives you actual data — hard numbers on which brands fail, how quickly they fail, and at what mileage.
When a part fails, you log it in Shop Commander with the brand, part number, vehicle, install date, failure date, and odometer at both installation and failure. The system links it back to the original repair order automatically, so you have complete traceability.
Over time, patterns emerge. Maybe Brand X water pumps fail at twice the rate of Brand Y. Maybe that "premium" brake pad line has a 15% failure rate within warranty. Maybe your cheapest option for alternators actually has the lowest comeback rate. You won't know until you track it — and Shop Commander makes tracking it effortless.
This data also strengthens your vendor relationships. When you can walk into a meeting with your parts supplier and show them hard failure data, you negotiate from a position of strength. "Your brand had 12 warranty failures this year. Your competitor had 3. Let's talk about pricing." That's a conversation that saves your shop real money.
Shop Commander automatically flags a repair order when the same vehicle returns within 30 days. That's your comeback detection system. Before your service writer even starts the write-up, the system alerts them that this vehicle was here recently — and shows exactly what was done last time.
This is critical for warranty management because comebacks are where warranty issues surface. If a customer had their alternator replaced two weeks ago and they're back with the same charging complaint, that's a warranty situation — and your team needs to know it immediately, not after they've already quoted the customer for a brand new alternator.
The comeback flag connects directly to the warranty system. Your service writer can see the previous work, check the active warranty, and handle the situation correctly from the start. No awkward phone calls after the fact. No eating the cost because nobody checked.
Combined with the post-service feedback system, you can catch potential comeback issues before the customer even drives back to your shop. If they report a problem through the automated feedback survey, your team gets an alert immediately — giving you a chance to resolve it proactively.
Some shop management platforms charge extra for warranty tracking. Others don't offer it at all. And the ones that include it usually bury it three menus deep where nobody uses it.
Shop Commander includes full warranty management in every account — $0/mo. No add-on fees. No tier restrictions. No per-user charges. It's built directly into the repair order workflow, so your team uses it naturally as part of their existing process.
How? Shop Commander was built by a shop owner who got tired of paying $400+ per month for software that should be a basic cost of doing business. We make a small commission from our integrated payment processor when shops run credit card transactions. You pay standard processing rates — we get a small referral cut from the processor. The software itself, including warranty management, is free forever.
That includes everything else too: VIN decoding, digital inspections, two-way SMS, Google review management, canned jobs, AI-powered features, marketing campaigns, tire storage, loaner vehicle management, and more. One platform. Every feature. No monthly bill.
See all warranty claims by status, vendor, and time period. Track claim volume, approval rates, and total reimbursement. Export to CSV for your accountant. Know exactly how much money your warranty program is recovering.
Monitor your comeback rate over time. See which services and which techs have the highest comeback rates. Use the data to improve quality, target training, and reduce warranty exposure. A lower comeback rate means more profit and happier customers.
Identify failure patterns by brand, part type, and vehicle. See install-to-failure timelines and odometer ranges. Make data-driven purchasing decisions instead of relying on hunches. Stop buying parts that keep coming back.
Track every warranty. File every claim. Know which parts actually hold up. Shop Commander's warranty management is built into every repair order — and it's 100% free.
Free setup. Free migration. No credit card. No catch.