Built for the fleet repair shop, by the fleet repair shop.
Umami is ERP and shop management software for fleet, service, manufacturing and repair facilities — written in a working shop, on the floor, by the people using it. It is the perfect balance of what your shop needs and how your shop needs it. It is the Umami of shop management software.
Umami is the fifth taste — the one you only get when everything is in balance.
Shop management
ERP done right.
“Hey Umami —
what am I working on
today?”
Built for the techs who dislike the computer. Battle‑hardened wizards who grew up on pencil and paper can tell Umami what they need, and Umami listens.
No retyping
Umami reads the paperwork.
Drop a vendor’s quote, order or invoice on a job, as a PDF or a photo. Umami reads the vendor, every part number, quantity and price, adds up the totals, and puts it all where it goes: on the job line, in the parts catalogue and on file.
You check it and press import. Your people do not have to be data entry clerks. Umami does the hard part for you.
The mobile app
On the phone and the tablet.
Clock on to a job, take the photographs and fill in the inspection sheet at the machine. The work is saved on the device and sent to the shop when there is signal.
iOSAndroid
Your database, in your building, on hardware you own.
Phones and tablets hold their work and sync when they are back.
Say “hey umami” and it answers from your own records.
An office desktop runs it. No graphics card.
The whole program, on this page
Pick a category, then an item. Each one links to the page that tells the rest.
Work orders
Every job, every line and every hour, in one place. Find any job by customer, machine, serial or work order number. The STATUS column shows where each job is, and FLAGS shows what it is waiting on, like parts on order.
Click a row and the QUICK LOOK panel shows the job: the quoted hours against the hours worked, the lines, the parts and the total.
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Inside a work order
The machine, its serial and hour meter, linked to the service database. Each line is one complaint with its own quote, labor and parts. Labor, parts, charges and hours are totalled as the job goes.
Each line keeps its story: cause, correction and complications, with the mechanic's write-up copied in. The model's manuals sit on the job, and the CHANGELOG records every change: when, who and what.
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Time clock
Clock in, pick the job, switch jobs, go to lunch or clock out. When you leave a job the write-up window opens: the hours, what you found, what you did, what got in the way, and the parts you need.
The office sees who is in and what has been booked today. The hours go to the job and to payroll. With no signal the clock keeps working and sends the day up when the signal is back.
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The schedule
Every task on one board for the week: the work order and the customer, the machine, who is on it, the day and the estimated hours. Late and high priority work stands out. Tasks with no day on them wait at the bottom.
Press START on a task and you are clocked in on that job. ON THE SHOP TV puts the board in a window of its own for the television in the shop.
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Inspections and task sheets
An inspection is a checklist the mechanic works through on a machine: PASS, ATTENTION, FAIL or N/A on each check, readings checked against a range, notes and photographs. A check can require a photograph, and the sign-off says what is still missing.
Findings become lines on the work order with their photographs. Task sheets are built from the jobs the shop has already done on that kind of machine, and a sheet can be kept as an inspection list.
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Inventory
Every part the shop has a part number for: the preferred vendor and lead time, the bin, how many are on hand, cost, price and the value on the shelf. A part running short shows LOW.
Book in a delivery, price a part from its cost and the shop's margin, and import a vendor's price list or a count sheet. When a vendor's paper raises a cost, the parts already quoted are listed for a decision.
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The parts counter
Start a ticket for a walk-in, add parts at that customer's price, and print an estimate or a sales order. Take payment by cash, card, check or on account. Parts come off the shelf when payment is taken.
A part typed without a part number bills as typed and goes to the parts desk's TASKS list to be given one.
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Purchase orders and receiving
Raise an order from a job, from a counter ticket or from the PO'S list, charged to a work order, a ticket, stock or a shop account. A part on order shows ON ORDER on the job, with the day it is expected.
When the parts and the vendor's invoice arrive, press CLOSE OUT. Each part bought for a job goes onto its line at the landed cost; the rest goes to the shelf. Drop the invoice or packing slip on the order and it stays on file.
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The service database
Each folder is one kind, make and model of machine. File the manuals, parts books, wiring diagrams, spec sheets, bulletins and software for that model in its folder, and every unit of that model has them.
A document can cover a range of serial numbers, so a revision only reaches the units it applies to. A generator's folder lists its engine's documents too.
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The manuals, on the job
A work order knows its machine and its model, so the FILES corner lists the model's manuals and drawings beside the job's own photos and papers. The tech has them without going to look.
Drop a manual on a job and file it in the service database from there. Drop a photo on a line and it stays with the line and the job.
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Who may see a file
Every file has one of four levels. PUBLIC is readable by anyone who scans the machine's plate, without signing in. The next level is everyone signed in to the shop. ENGINEERING is for drawings not yet released, and ADMIN for financial papers, titles and receipts.
You only see files on a level your account has the right for. Umami asks before a file is made PUBLIC.
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The fleet
Every machine the shop works on: the customers' machines and the shop's own. Filter by owner, state, kind and rental. WHO HAS IT shows the yard, the owner or the renter, JOBS counts the work orders, and EARNED is what a machine has been billed out for on rent.
The cost column depends on your rights: what the shop has in the machine, or what the owner has been billed.
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The machine's record
Kind, make, model, year, serial, unit number, owner and state. The hour meter, with every reading written down. The components fitted to it, each with its own serial, documents and log.
The log lists every hour meter reading, transfer, rental and work order for the machine. Double-click a line to open the job behind it.
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Rentals
On the shop's own machines, RENT OUT… takes the customer, the agreement number, the hours on the gauge, the fuel level, the due-back date, the deposit, the job site and the insurance, and prints the contract on the shop's letterhead.
A machine rents by the hour or by the day, at the customer's agreed price, the machine's own rate or the shop's rate. Press RETURNED when it comes back. The log keeps every rental.
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QR plates
Mint a code for any machine and export the plate for the laser as a PLATE, a TAG or a STICKER. Anybody who scans it gets a web page about that machine with the documents the shop has marked public, and no sign-in.
The plate scans to a web address the shop owns. It stays good when the machine changes owner, and a lost plate is taken out of use with one press.
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The mobile app
Clock on to a job, take the photographs and fill in the inspection sheet at the machine, on iOS and Android. The work is saved on the device and sent to the shop when there is signal.
Techs can use their own phones. The shop approves each device on ADMIN > DEVICES and takes it off again from the same screen.
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On your own server
The database sits on a box in your building. Nobody else's shop is in it and nobody else's login reaches it. The shop keeps working when the line outside does not, and the phones go on working out of range and catch up.
Documents are rows in the same database, so one dump takes the lot. Your data comes out with any SQL client, pg_dump, or the export on the reports board. Updates come from your own box when you take them.
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Straight into QuickBooks
Pick a finished job and the invoice rows show in QuickBooks' own columns: labor, parts, then each charge, or one total. COPY FOR QUICKBOOKS puts the rows on the clipboard and files a copy on the job. Paste them into the invoice and press MARK INVOICED.
With QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop connected, SEND TO QUICKBOOKS sends the invoice itself, and the job is marked INVOICED.
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Payroll
Everybody who worked in the pay period: hourly, salary, 1099 or commission, hours worked against hours billed, gross pay, extra pay, deductions and net pay. Open a timesheet to fix an entry, take off a lunch or move hours onto a job.
CLOSE THIS WEEK records it and marks the period PAID. Closed weeks are listed with who closed them.
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Reports and the budget
Reports show what the shop quoted, billed and spent, and the hours worked, for a period you choose, with the shop's cost and the revenue beside each figure. Click a tile to see the jobs behind the number. Build your own report, export it, print it, or save it onto a job.
BUDGET shows what goes out on people, parts, bills and standing costs, against what came in.
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People and rights
Everybody in the shop with their sign-in, job title, how they are paid and their rate. A job title is a set of rights. Tick or untick a right for one person and it is saved at once.
Rights are set per person and enforced in the database. A mechanic's login reaches the time clock and their own work on a job.
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Installing it
A box: your own server or a machine in the office, with PostgreSQL and the small service the phones talk to. The desktop: an installer for Windows or Linux that talks straight to your database. Phones and tablets: point them at your box once.
Your history: machines, customers, parts and the jobs behind them come across. We do the import with you. No graphics card, on the desk or the server.
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Questions shop owners ask
Do I need an internet connection? No. What happens if my server dies? It is PostgreSQL: your backup, your schedule, your off-site copy, set up with you at installation, and the server backs up the whole database every night. Can I get my data out? Any SQL client, pg_dump, or the export on the reports board.
Does it replace my accounting software? No. It integrates with the finance software you already run. What hardware do I need? An office desktop running Windows 10, Windows 11 or Linux, and a small box for the server.
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Book a walkthrough
Tell us what your shop runs on now, what goes wrong with it, and what you want to see. We show you the program and reply to the address you give us. No account and no newsletter.
Write to hello@umami-work.com, or send the form on the contact page.
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