Tire storage tracking. Seasonal swap campaigns. Tread depth monitoring. QR code labels. Automated SMS reminders. Everything a tire shop needs — built into Shop Commander for $0/mo.
Most shop management software was built for general auto repair. Oil changes, brake jobs, diagnostics — that's what they optimize for. Tire shops? Tire storage? Seasonal changeovers? Those are afterthoughts. If they exist at all, they're a $39-99/month add-on that barely works.
Go look at the big-name platforms. Tekmetric? Tire management is a paid add-on. Shopmonkey? No tire storage tracking. Shop-Ware? No seasonal swap management. Mitchell 1? Nothing. These platforms treat tire work like a niche edge case when, for thousands of shops across Canada and the northern United States, tires are a core revenue stream.
If you run a tire shop — or any shop that does seasonal tire swaps — you know the pain. Handwritten labels on tire bags. Spreadsheets tracking who has tires stored where. Phone calls in October to every customer who needs their winter tires swapped. Sticky notes reminding you that Mrs. Johnson's tires are bald and need to be replaced before you mount them.
That's how I managed tires at my shop before I built Shop Commander. Spreadsheets and sticky notes. And every fall changeover season was chaos. Couldn't find tires, couldn't remember who had what, couldn't keep up with the phone calls. So I built the tire management system I actually needed — and included it in Shop Commander for free.
Auto-numbered storage records (TS-0001, TS-0002, etc.). Set labels, tire specs, brand, model, size, type, quantity. Track physical storage locations. Know exactly where every set of tires is in your warehouse. Search by customer, vehicle, tire info, location, or TS number.
Individual measurements for LF, RF, LR, RR with color-coded health: green above 6mm, yellow 3–6mm, red below 3mm. Visual SVG tire diagram shows status at a glance. Know which tires need replacement before the customer arrives for their swap.
Generate and print QR code labels for every tire set. Your warehouse team scans the QR code and instantly sees the customer, vehicle, tire specs, storage location, and condition. No more squinting at handwritten labels or guessing which tires belong to whom.
Schedule tire changeover appointments directly from storage records. The appointment view shows a mini day timeline with existing appointments so you find open slots fast. Storage records link to appointments for one-click navigation.
Three types of automatic SMS: seasonal campaigns (Oct 1 winter, Apr 1 summer), individual swap date reminders (2 weeks before), and low tread alerts (below 4mm with replacement recommendation). Your customers get reminded. You get the bookings.
Generate a print-ready tire pull list sorted by storage location for efficient warehouse walking. Color-coded rows for overdue and due-soon sets. Hand it to your warehouse guy and he pulls the right tires in the right order. Simple.
If you store tires for customers, you know the nightmare. 200, 500, maybe 1,000 sets of tires in your warehouse. Some on racks, some on shelves, some stacked in the corner. A customer calls and wants their tires swapped tomorrow. Which rack are they on? Are they still good or do they need replacing? Did the customer already pick them up last spring?
Shop Commander gives every set of tires a record. Here's what it tracks:
The search is powerful. Type a customer name, vehicle make, tire brand, tire size, storage location, or TS number and find what you're looking for instantly. Sort by any column. Filter by status. During changeover season, this is the difference between organized and chaos.
When tires are checked in for storage, the customer automatically receives an SMS confirmation. No phone call. No paper receipt they'll lose. Just a text that says their tires are safely stored at your shop. Small touch. Big trust builder.
Every October, the same fire drill. Call every customer with stored winter tires. Try to spread the bookings across 3-4 weeks. Handle the customers who wait until the first snowfall and want same-day service. Repeat in April with summer tires.
Shop Commander automates the entire seasonal campaign.
On October 1, every customer with stored winter tires gets an SMS: "Time to book your winter tire changeover." On April 1, every customer with stored summer tires gets the same message for summer. These go out automatically. No spreadsheet. No phone calls. No "did we forget anyone?"
Beyond the seasonal blasts, Shop Commander sends individual reminders 2 weeks before each customer's expected swap date. If Mrs. Johnson set her winter swap for October 15, she gets a reminder text on October 1. If Mr. Davis set his for November 1, he gets his reminder on October 18. Personalized timing. Automated delivery.
Here's the revenue play. When a stored tire set has an average tread depth below 4mm, Shop Commander automatically sends the customer an SMS alert recommending replacement. They're coming in for a swap anyway — this is the perfect time to sell new tires. The alert goes out before the appointment, giving the customer time to make a decision and giving your shop time to order the tires.
This single feature can drive thousands of dollars in new tire sales during changeover season. And it happens automatically — your team doesn't have to remember to check tread depths or make upsell calls. The system does it.
During October and April, a proactive "Swap Season" banner appears on the main dashboard. It shows how many customers have stored tires, how many swaps are scheduled, and how many customers still need to book. Your team sees the status at a glance without running a report.
Shop Commander isn't just a tire management tool bolted onto a basic system. It's a complete auto shop management platform — 82,650+ lines of code — with tire management as a first-class feature. Everything connects.
Your tire storage records link to customer profiles, vehicle records, appointments, and repair orders. When a customer books a tire swap, your service writer sees their complete history: last oil change, declined maintenance items, active warranties, inspection findings. The tire swap becomes an opportunity to catch deferred work, not just a standalone transaction.
Here's what else comes with Shop Commander — all free:
Full RO lifecycle with digital estimates, line-by-line authorization, canned jobs, parts tracking, and payment processing. Professional shareable estimate links customers can approve from their phone.
Three-color condition ratings, photo and video capture, photo annotation, health scores, and shareable inspection reports. Customers see exactly what's happening with their vehicle. Full DVI system included.
Built-in two-way SMS messaging with automated notifications for vehicle received, estimate ready, inspection ready, awaiting parts, vehicle ready, and review requests. Chat-style conversation view.
Day, week, and month calendar views with drag-and-drop scheduling, bay assignment, color-coded service types, and online booking. Tire swap appointments integrate directly with storage records.
Free NHTSA VIN decoding populates year, make, model, engine, and more automatically. Complete service history per vehicle with odometer tracking and predicted next service.
Automated post-service feedback surveys with smart Google review requests. Qualification filters protect your rating. Unhappy customers get intercepted before they hit Google.
Shop Commander's canned job system lets you create service templates for every type of tire work your shop does. Seasonal changeover, tire rotation, flat repair, TPMS reset, wheel balance, alignment — build the template once with labor time, parts, and pricing, then apply it to any RO with one click.
For tire shops, this is especially valuable during changeover season when you're processing dozens of swaps per day. Your service writers aren't building ROs from scratch for every tire swap. They pull up the customer, select the "Seasonal Tire Changeover" canned job, and the RO is ready in seconds. Consistent pricing. Professional description. Warranty terms set automatically.
Vehicle tire sizes are stored in the vehicle profile (front and rear), so your team always knows what size tires to pull. No calling the customer to ask, no guessing, no pulling the wrong set.
If you sell tires, Shop Commander's inventory system handles tire stock management alongside your regular parts inventory. Track tire brand, model, size, quantity on hand, reorder points, vendor information, and pricing. Low stock alerts notify you when popular sizes need reordering. Purchase orders link directly to vendors with receiving workflows and cost reconciliation.
Parts kits work for tire packages too. Bundle a set of 4 tires with mounting hardware, valve stems, and balancing weights. One click adds the entire package to the RO with current pricing. Your customer sees one professional line item with a clear price.
Tekmetric charges a monthly add-on fee for tire management on top of their $199-439/mo base subscription. Other platforms either don't offer tire management at all or build a half-baked version that doesn't actually solve the storage tracking problem.
Shop Commander includes the complete tire management system in every account for $0/mo. No add-on. No tier upgrade. No "tire module" sold separately. Storage tracking, seasonal campaigns, tread depth monitoring, QR labels, automated SMS reminders — all included.
I built the tire management system because I needed it at my own shop. We store 400+ sets of tires and do 200+ changeovers every spring and fall. The commercial software options either didn't have tire storage at all or charged $40-100/month for something that barely worked. So I built my own — and made it part of Shop Commander from day one.
Shop Commander is free because 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 every tire management feature, is free forever.
Tire shops have a unique advantage: your customers have to come back. Seasonal swaps, rotations, replacements, alignments — tire work is inherently recurring. The question is whether they come back to you or go somewhere else.
Shop Commander's CRM system keeps your tire customers engaged between visits:
All of this runs automatically. Your team focuses on mounting tires and aligning cars. The CRM handles the customer communication in the background. No extra software. No $300/month add-on. Just more customers coming back, more often.
Storage tracking. Seasonal campaigns. Tread depth monitoring. QR labels. Automated reminders. All built into Shop Commander — the shop management platform that costs $0/mo. Forever.
Free setup. Free migration. No credit card. No catch.