Garage Management Software vs Accounting Software: What MekanikMitra Is (and Is Not)
Workshop owners in Nepal often ask the same question before signing up: "Is this accounting software?" The honest answer is no. MekanikMitra is garage and workshop management software — it runs the work that happens on your floor, from the moment a vehicle arrives to the moment it drives out. Your accountant's books are a different job, and we'd rather be clear about that than oversell.
Two different jobs
Accounting software answers "what does the business own, owe and earn, and what do we file?" Workshop management software answers "what is happening in the garage right now, and who needs to do what next?" They touch at the invoice, but they're built around different questions.
| Question | Workshop management software | Accounting software |
|---|---|---|
| Which vehicles are in the shop and what stage are they at? | Yes — job cards from Draft to Delivered | No |
| Which mechanic is on which job? | Yes — assignment and skill matrix | No |
| Is that part in stock before the job starts? | Yes — SKU stock, auto-decremented | Usually only as a ledger value |
| Can this vehicle leave the gate? | Yes — gate pass only when fully paid | No |
| What did this job actually earn? | Yes — profit margin per job card | Only at ledger level |
| General ledger, payroll, bank reconciliation, statutory filing | No — not what it is for | Yes |
What MekanikMitra runs for you
- Digital job cards with an assigned mechanic, parts used and profit per job
- Invoices generated from the job card, with 13% VAT calculated automatically and payments recorded as Cash, eSewa, Khalti or Bank Transfer
- Stock and inventory by SKU, purchase orders and GRN vouchers, with transfers between branches
- Gate passes, AMC memberships, staff roles and a customer portal with live job status and estimate approval
What it deliberately leaves to your accountant
MekanikMitra will produce a monthly IRD VAT summary as CSV, and you can log expenses to see a real profit figure instead of just revenue. That's a head start for your accountant, not a replacement for one. Double-entry books, payroll, bank reconciliation and actually filing your returns stay with your accounting package or your accountant — and you should always confirm your filing obligations with them or the IRD directly.
How the two fit together
The simplest setup is the one most workshops land on: MekanikMitra handles everything operational and generates clean, itemised invoices and a VAT summary; your accountant takes that CSV into their own books once a month. Nobody re-types invoices, and nobody calculates 13% by hand — see our 13% VAT billing guide for how that export fits into month-end.
Who this is a good fit for
If your pain is lost job cards, stock that never matches the shelf, customers phoning to ask "is it ready?" and unpaid vehicles leaving, that's workshop management, and it's what MekanikMitra is built for. If you're comparing options, our checklist for choosing a workshop management system covers what to look for, and the Free Forever plan lets you test it on real jobs without a card. For where we'd like to take the finance side over time, see what AI could do for a workshop next.
Run your workshop on MekanikMitra — Free Forever plan, no card needed.