A live lane for the day
45 minute slots from your opening hours, one to three lanes, a Monday to Saturday strip with counts. Mark each car Arrived, Done, Missed or Cancel. Running late? Shift the afternoon by 10, 20 or 40 minutes with one press.
Free trial. Windows app and browser.
Garage software by Pythonic Industrial Systems
Lanebook. The MOT lane, booked.
One screen for the front desk of a small MOT and repair garage. Who is in the lane, who is due, what the customer said yes to, and a numbered bill at the end. It runs on your own computer and your data never leaves the building.
No account, no card, no contract.
The trial has every feature with a small "Trial copy" line on printed bills. A licence removes it: £179 once or £19 a month.
Today7 cars, 1 waiting on a yes
DVSA slots31 left
StorageThis computer only
01Live lane, chosen times
02Bills with MOT no VAT
03Reminders set themselves
04Data stays on your PC
What it does
The desk work, without the monthly bill.
Garage systems charge £30 to £145 a month for diaries, job cards and invoices. Lanebook does the part a one or two lane garage actually uses every day, and you can own it outright.
Phone bookings in ten seconds
Registration, name, mobile, car, mileage, type of work, pick a time. Returning customers are recognised by plate, even if they typed it with or without spaces.
Extra work, with a yes or no
Found worn pads during the test? Add it with a price. It sits in "Waiting on a yes" until the customer answers. Only the yeses go on the bill.
Numbered bills that add up
MOT at the £54.85 cap with no VAT, extras with 20% VAT, car and mileage, advisories, your address and VAT number. Print it. Mark cash, card or transfer. Copy the lot to a spreadsheet for your accountant.
MOT reminders that set themselves
Every MOT bill creates next year's reminder. The Due list shows the next 45 days with a ready-made text message to copy into your phone, including last year's advisories.
DVSA slots and no-shows
A running count of your test slots with a warning when tomorrow's bookings outnumber them. Missed appointments can carry a £20 no-show record. A customer screen for a tablet on the counter lets people pick their own time.
Inside Lanebook
Six screens. That is the whole thing.
Real screens from the trial with a sample day loaded. Names and registrations are made up.
Walkthrough
Click through a Thursday at Sample Lane Garage.
Everything you see is one HTML page. No server, no login, no sync. Close the lid and it is still there in the morning.
01 / 06
Lane
Who is here, who is next, who did not turn up.
The day at a glance with the week strip above it. Panic switch freezes public bookings. The right column holds extra work waiting on a yes, your garage details, backup and licence.
01
From the phone to the bill
Book it, do it, bill it. Once.
The job card follows the car through the day. When it is done, Make bill writes the invoice, uses one DVSA slot if it was an MOT, sets next year's reminder, and then greys itself out so nobody bills the same car twice.
- Plate, name, mobile, car, mileage, type of work, chosen time
- Extra work with a price; only the yeses are charged
- Notes and advisories carry to the bill and next year's text
02
Money
Bills your accountant will not phone you about.
MOT at the £54.85 cap with no VAT. Extras with 20% VAT shown separately. Sequential numbers with no gaps. Cash, card or transfer marked per bill. One button copies the whole list as a spreadsheet.
- Your garage name, address and VAT number on every bill
- £20 no-show fee as a local record when someone does not turn up
- Unpaid total always visible on the Bills screen
03
Yours, not rented
Runs on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.
No login, no cloud, no subscription you have to keep paying to see your own customers. Save backup writes one file you keep on a USB stick. Load backup brings it back on a new machine. We never see your bookings.
- Windows app or any modern browser, offline
- Backup and restore to a single file
- Stop paying monthly and it keeps working; only the trial line returns
How to use it
Set up in five minutes. Then it is just the day.
Open it on the desk PC, do the three set-up steps once, and leave it open. Here is a normal day.
Get it on the screen
Either open pythonic.co.uk/lanebook in Chrome or Edge and bookmark it, or download the Windows zip, unzip it, and double-click Lanebook. Windows may say "unrecognised app" the first time: choose More info, then Run anyway.
Put your name on it
On the Lane screen, right column, type your garage name and your address, phone and VAT number, then Save details. They appear on the customer screen and on every printed bill.
Set your hours and lanes
Left column: opening and closing time, and 1, 2 or 3 lanes. Set hours for new days. Today keeps its current slots; tomorrow onwards uses the new ones. Set your DVSA slot count with Buy 25 or Buy 100 to match what you actually hold.
Take a booking
Jobs → Phone booking. Registration, name, mobile, car and mileage if you have them, the type of work, and a time from the list. Book that time. If they have been before, it tells you and shows the old mobile if it changed.
Run the lane
As cars come in press Arrived. If the tester finds something, Jobs → Extra work: pick the car, what was found, price before VAT. It appears under "Waiting on a yes". Press Yes or No when the customer answers. Add notes like "rear tyres 3mm" on the job card.
Bill it
On the job card press Make bill. It uses one DVSA slot for an MOT, sets next year's reminder, and marks the car done. Bills → Print, then set Cash, Card or Transfer when they pay. Someone did not turn up? Missed, then Charge £20 if that is your policy.
Close the day
Close day moves to tomorrow. It will not let you close while a car is still due, in, or missed without a decision, so nothing gets forgotten. Sundays are skipped.
Send reminders
Once a week open Due. For each car press Copy text and paste it into a text message from your phone. Press Book next open time on the Book screen when they ring back. Booked ones drop off the list on their own.
Back it up
Friday afternoon: Save backup. Put the file on a USB stick or in your email. If the PC dies, install Lanebook on the new one and Load backup. That is the whole disaster plan.
Prices
Try it free. Pay once, or pay monthly.
No per-user fee, no contract, no account. Prices in pounds. A licence is a small file we email you; it loads in one click and works offline.
Browser or Windows app. No time limit.
- Every feature
- "Trial copy" line on printed bills
- Data stays on that computer
Per garage. Cancel any time.
- Removes the trial line
- Licence file each month
- Updates and email support
- Extra computer £4 a month
Per garage. Yours for good.
- Removes the trial line
- One licence file, never expires
- 12 months of updates and support
- Extra computer £49
Essex and East London. Licence included.
- We set it up on your desk PC
- Details, hours, lanes, backup stick
- 20 minute walk-through for staff
What it does not do
- It does not record the MOT test. You still use the DVSA MOT testing service for that.
- It does not send texts. It gives you the message to send from your phone.
- It does not take card payments from customers.
- It does not share between computers. One desk, one PC, plus backups.
Want more than that?
- Texts that send themselves, DVSA history on the job card, two computers in sync, parts lookups, a second site.
- Pythonic builds software to order. Lanebook is the standard, not the ceiling.
- Tell us what your garage needs →
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