The catalog

The Parts and stock section of the menu gathers what the garage sells and what it buys: parts, supplier items, fixed-price services, labor and service templates, but also the stock, the stock counts, the parts to order, the orders and the committed purchases. Each area has its own menu entry (Catalog, Stock, Orders, Suppliers, Prices to review); the catalog, stock and purchasing pages keep the common tab bar at the top. Amounts are entered excluding VAT, in euros (for example “12.50”).

The entry is visible with the permission to view the catalog, to view the stock or to order from suppliers.

The tabs

Each menu entry has its own tab bar, which shows only the tabs of that entry. To go from the catalog to the stock or to orders, use the menu on the left.

• Catalog: Search, Garage parts, Fixed-price services, Service templates and Labor (permission to view the catalog);
• Stock: Stock and Stock counts (permission to view the stock);
• Orders: To order and Orders (permission to order from suppliers).

Committed purchases is a report: it opens from the Analysis section of the menu, with no tab bar. The Price alerts and part matching pages, and the part sheet, have no catalog tab bar either: a ← Garage parts link (or the breadcrumb) takes you back to the catalog.

Search is the tab that opens by default with the permission to view the catalog.

What is each tab for? Under the page title, a sentence says what the open tab is for; the same sentence appears when hovering over each tab. The Help link in the page header leads to the section of this documentation for the open tab. In short: Items searches everything you can sell (your parts and your suppliers’ catalogs); Garage parts is your own parts catalog; Stock shows the quantities on hand of the tracked parts; To order, Orders and Committed purchases cover buying from suppliers.

Search

The Search tab is a single search: the Search the catalog field looks at the same time, from the first letters, in the garage parts, the items of the synchronized supplier catalogs, the fixed-price services, the labor and the service templates. Type several words: each one must appear. With nothing typed, the tab shows the garage catalog.

The filters All, Garage parts, To reorder, From suppliers, Fixed-price services, Labor and Service templates form a single set: only one is active at a time. Each limits the search to one kind of item; To reorder keeps only the stocked parts below their alert threshold or with negative stock (same rule as Stock). The Supplier list keeps only the parts linked to that supplier and its items; it only appears with All, Garage parts, To reorder or From suppliers, the only filters where a supplier makes sense.

Results are grouped by kind (Garage parts, From suppliers, Fixed-price services, Labor, Service templates), twenty per group; Show more displays the rest of the group.

• A garage part shows Stock 3 · Available 1, the badges To reorder, Out of stock or Not stocked, and its default supplier (see below). Available is the stock minus what open jobs ask for (planned, in progress or on hold). It is a calculation made when the screen is displayed: nothing is reserved.
• A supplier item shows the supplier, the sale price the part would have once created, and the supplier’s stock. That price comes from the price rule of the supplier’s category mapping; failing that, the recommended retail price, otherwise the purchase price with the garage’s default margin, otherwise the purchase price. With no known price, the item says so.
• An item already linked to a garage part appears only once, under the part. Search for it by the reference the supplier gives it: you find the part.

Reorder and order

With the Order from suppliers permission, each line offers an action:

• Reorder, on a garage part: the dialog suggests a quantity: what the open jobs ask for, plus the alert threshold, minus the stock, minus what is already ordered (drafts included), rounded to the supplier’s multiple. A part with no threshold that an open job asks for therefore gets a suggested quantity; once the part is ordered the suggestion drops, and the dialog suggests 1 when there is nothing left to reorder. You can change it. The default supplier is the part’s preferred supplier, otherwise its only supplier. If the part has several suppliers and none is preferred, Mekaplus does not choose for you: the dialog asks you to set a preferred supplier from the part sheet. With no linked supplier, a message invites you to link one (Open the part sheet).
• Order, on a supplier item: Mekaplus creates the garage part, then the order line. The Manage the catalog permission is also required.

In both cases the quantity is added to the supplier’s draft order (a draft is created if there is none). The View the order link opens it; the order is checked and sent as usual (see Supplier orders). Unlike Create the orders in the parts to order, the quantity is not capped by the need: it is an order you choose.

What each person sees

• Supplier items: Manage the catalog or Order from suppliers permission.
• Quantities (stock, available, stock badges): View the stock permission.
• Purchase prices: Manage the catalog or Order from suppliers permission.

Garage parts

Each part has a reference, unique within the garage: “AB-123”, “ab 123” and “AB123” designate the same part, because hyphens, spaces and capital letters are ignored. You also enter the description, the brand (optional; once you have typed two characters, the brands already used by your garage are suggested) and the unit: piece, liter, centiliter, milliliter, meter, centimeter, kilogram, gram, pair or set.

The unit is printed after the quantity on quotes, invoices and workshop documents (“400 g”, “2 pr” for two pairs, “1 set”, “2 sets”, “50 cl”). Mekaplus never converts one unit into another: a grease sold by the gram is counted in grams everywhere (stock, lines, documents). Choose the unit in which you buy and sell the part: once a part has been used (stock movement or work order line), its unit can no longer be changed; create another part to sell in another unit. Each unit also carries a standard code (UN/ECE) that the electronic invoice will use.

The purchase price is optional; the sale price excl. VAT is required. The VAT is chosen from the rates defined in the garage settings.

You can also enter the part’s barcode (EAN) (8 to 14 digits, spaces are removed) and its manufacturer reference (the reference of the part’s manufacturer, for example “FA196HH”). Both are used by search and to find the part in a supplier catalog.

A non-stock part is ordered on demand or supplied by the customer: it is not tracked by stock.

A reused part is a second-hand or refurbished part: tick the Reused part (second-hand or refurbished) box. The list shows it with the Reused badge, and the flag is copied onto the work order line when you add the part (on its own, in a fixed-price service or through a service template).

A tracked part whose stock is not zero cannot be marked non-stock: first adjust its stock to zero. A part that has stock movements cannot be deleted: disable it.

Search finds a part by its reference, description, brand, barcode or manufacturer reference (with or without hyphens and spaces). A part that has already been used cannot be deleted: disable it, it will no longer be offered but remains readable in the history.

Filters and paging

The list is filtered on the server by the search (reference, description, brand, barcode or manufacturer reference), the brand, the family (one family, or No family), the supplier linked to the part and the status (Active by default, Disabled or All). The search applies as you type; the Filters button opens the status, family, brand and supplier, and the active filters appear as removable chips under the bar. With the permission to see stock, the To reorder button (next to All) keeps only the stocked parts to reorder, by the rule of Stock (negative balance or strictly below the alert threshold): it has the same name and shows the same list as the To reorder button in Stock. A line above the list says so, with the Manage in Stock link, which opens Stock filtered on To reorder to record a receipt, adjust a quantity or change a threshold. With the permission to see purchase prices, the Margin below the threshold button (next to All) keeps only the parts whose margin has fallen below the alert threshold in Settings › Preferences (those of Prices to review). Filters are kept in the page address: you can bookmark it or send it to a colleague. The list is read in pages of 25; the page is also in the address, and changing a filter goes back to page 1.

Each row shows the reference, the description, the family, the stock (with the permission to view stock, for a tracked part), the purchase price excl. VAT and the rate (with the permission to see purchase prices) and the sale price excl. VAT. The list is paged by 50 parts; below the table, Previous and Next change page and the total number of parts of the filter is shown.

Selection and bulk actions

Tick parts, or the header box Select all on this page. When the whole page is ticked and the filter contains more parts, Select the N parts of the filter extends the selection to all of them (2,000 parts at most: beyond that, narrow the filter). Changing page or filter clears the selection.

An action bar appears at the bottom of the screen with the number of selected parts and Clear selection:

• Family… puts the parts in a family (or removes them from any family: No family). Also tick the family values you want to apply to the parts (VAT, unit, stock tracking, price rule); what is not ticked stays as it is. The result says how many parts changed and names the parts that were refused with the reason: a part that has already been used keeps its unit, a part whose stock is not zero stays tracked in stock. The other parts are processed.
• Margin… changes the sale price of all the selected parts (see the next section).
• Deactivate (or Reactivate, depending on the state shown) removes the parts from the catalog suggestions without deleting them.
• Export downloads a CSV file of the selected parts: reference, description, brand, family, unit, VAT, purchase price (with the permission to see it), sale price, price rule, stock (with the permission to view stock), status, barcode and manufacturer reference. The export is not available in a support session.

Without the Manage the catalog permission, only Export remains available.

Bulk margin

Margin… offers two modes:

• Follow the purchase price: the parts switch to the “purchase price × coefficient” rule with the chosen coefficient and rounding; their sale price will from then on follow their purchase price (that of the preferred supplier if known).
• Set the price: choose a target rate (margin on sale price or margin on cost) and a rounding; the sale price is calculated once from each part’s recorded purchase price, then the parts switch to an entered price.

The Preview button shows, part by part, the purchase price, the sale price before and after and the rate before and after, and says how many parts change price. The parts set aside are named with the reason: no purchase price, or a calculated price above €999,999.99. Apply is only available after the preview of the displayed settings: changing a setting clears the preview. Each price change leaves a trace in the part’s price history.

Margin on sale price or margin on cost

Two rates are often confused. The margin on sale price is the share of the sale price that is margin: (sale − purchase) / sale (for a purchase at €60 sold at €100: 40%). The margin on cost is calculated on the purchase price: (sale − purchase) / purchase (same example: 66.67%). Mekaplus’s calculation does not change: only the display does. Choose it in Settings › Preferences, in the Rate shown in the catalog field: Margin on sale price, the default, or Margin on cost. The choice applies to the list column, a part’s sheet and the Margin… preview.

The part sheet

A part has one sheet only, the same from the catalog list, the stock list, an item, a work order or a stock count: click the row (or the reference). New part, in the header of the Garage parts tab, only opens the creation form, in a panel to the right of the list; Delete is in the ⋯ menu of the row or of the sheet.

The sheet header shows the reference, the description, the status badges (Deactivated, Non-stock, To reorder, Negative stock), a line of facts (brand, family, quantity, location) and, with the right to receive stock, the main Receive button; the other stock actions (Return to supplier, Adjust, Location and threshold, Initial stock) and Delete are in the ⋯ menu. In a support session no write action is offered.

Four underlined tabs share the sheet:

• Sheet: three cards, General, Price and Stock. Each card is read first; Edit (top of the card, with the right to manage the catalog) opens it in place, Save and Cancel are at the bottom (Ctrl+Enter saves, Esc cancels). Only one card is open at a time; leaving a modified card asks for confirmation.
  • General: reference, description, brand, family, long description, weight in grams, unit, barcode, manufacturer reference, VAT, reused flag and the Active box.
  • Price: purchase price excl. VAT (with the permission to see purchase prices), price rule, sale price excl. VAT and sale price incl. VAT (entering one calculates the other with the part’s VAT) and the rate.
  • Stock: Non-stock part box, balance, location, alert threshold, average cost and value (with the permission to view stock).
• Movements: the stock movement log, for a tracked part, with the right to view stock.
• Suppliers: part suppliers.
• Prices: price history.

A role that only views stock sees the Movements tab alone. When creating a part, choosing a family pre-fills the VAT, unit, stock tracking and price rule with those of the family; you can change them.

Price rule

The price rule sets how the part’s sale price excl. VAT is calculated:

• Price entered (default): the sale price is the one you enter; Mekaplus never changes it. When creating a part, entering the purchase price suggests the sale price with the garage’s default margin (€70 cost at 30%: €100 excl. VAT, rounded to 10 cents); you can change it, and once changed it no longer follows the purchase price.
• Recommended retail price: the sale price is the recommended retail price excl. VAT of the item at the part’s preferred supplier.
• Purchase price × coefficient: the sale price is the purchase price multiplied by the chosen coefficient (from 1 to 10, for example “1.8”).

For the last two rules, choose the rounding of the calculated price: to the cent, to 10 cents, to the euro, or up to “.90” (€34.08 becomes €34.90). The page shows the resulting price (“Computed selling price: €34.08 excl. VAT”) and the sale price field becomes read-only. If the data is missing (no recommended retail price, no purchase price), the current sale price is kept.

Part suppliers

The Suppliers tab of the part sheet lists the suppliers you buy it from: the supplier reference, the order multiple (pack quantity, 1 when sold individually) and the last purchase price excl. VAT. Click Add a supplier: a drawer opens on the right, where you choose from the declared suppliers then enter the reference, the order multiple, the last purchase price and, if needed, Preferred supplier. The ⋯ menu of each row offers Edit (same drawer) and Remove (a short dialog asks you to confirm). Cancelling or closing the drawer changes nothing; if it holds unsaved changes, a confirmation asks whether to discard them.

Only one supplier is preferred: the first one added is preferred automatically, and ticking another one replaces the previous one. The part’s purchase price follows its preferred supplier: for an item of the Bihr catalog, the Bihr price of your account; otherwise, the last purchase price entered on the link. Removing a supplier does not change the part’s purchase price.

Price history

The Prices tab of the sheet lists the price history: each change of the purchase price or sale price, most recent first: date, origin (Entered: price changed by hand; Price rule: rule changed, or price recalculated by the rule when a supplier is linked to the part or becomes its preferred one; Synchronization with the supplier), old and new price. No price changes without leaving a trace. Without the permission to see purchase prices, only sale price changes are listed.

Prices to review

Prices to review (⋯ menu in the header of the Garage parts tab; the Margin below threshold button of the list shows the same parts) lists the active parts:

• whose margin is below the garage threshold (20% by default), when their purchase price is known. The margin is the margin on sale price: (sale price − purchase price) / sale price;
• or whose purchase price rose by more than the threshold (15% by default) in one go over the last 30 days, whatever the price rule.

Each row shows the prices, the margin, the rise and the reason; the reference leads to the part. The dashboard shows “N parts to review” when the list is not empty. Both thresholds are set in Settings › Preferences.

Below the parts, the Fixed-price services below the margin threshold section lists the active fixed-price services whose cost is known and whose margin is below the same threshold (see Cost and margin of a fixed-price service): price excl. VAT, cost, margin. Adjust price opens a field on the row: enter the new price excl. VAT then Save; only the price of the service changes (not its duration nor its parts), and work orders already entered keep their prices.

Match with a supplier catalog

Your existing parts are not linked automatically to the catalog of a connected supplier (Bihr): the nightly synchronization creates no link. The Matching tab of the connected supplier’s page (permission to manage the catalog) (the ⋯ menu of the parts list, Match with a catalogue, also leads there; without the permission to manage suppliers, only this tab opens, with the choice of supplier) suggests, for each active part not yet linked to that supplier, the item that resembles it most, with the reason:

1. Same EAN: the part’s barcode is the item’s;
2. Same manufacturer reference and brand: same manufacturer reference (ignoring spaces, hyphens and capital letters) and same brand;
3. Same reference: the part’s reference is the item’s supplier reference (same simplified spelling).

Only one suggestion per part, the best in this order; items withdrawn from the catalog are never suggested. Choose the supplier, check each pair, tick the right ones (or Tick all on this page), then Link selection (200 parts at most at a time). Nothing is linked without this approval.

For each approved pair, the part is linked to the item (see Part suppliers): this supplier becomes the preferred one if the part had none, and its purchase price then follows the item’s (the change is recorded in the price history); the part’s price rule does not change. If a pair is no longer valid when linking (item withdrawn in the meantime, part already linked by someone else…), nothing is linked and a message says so: reload the page and start again.

Part created from a supplier item

In a work order, choosing an item of a connected supplier in the part search (“From Bihr” section) adds the part to the catalog. Mekaplus first checks that it is not already there, in this order:

1. a part already linked to this item;
2. a part with the same EAN;
3. a part with the same manufacturer reference and the same brand (ignoring spaces, hyphens and capital letters).

If a part matches, that part is placed on the line, and it is linked to the item if it was not already (as preferred supplier if it had none). A disabled part is not reused: re-enable it first.

Otherwise, the part is created with the item’s description, brand, EAN and manufacturer reference. Its reference is the manufacturer reference if no part already has it, otherwise the supplier reference. The VAT, stock tracking, unit and price rule come from the supplier’s category mapping (supplier settings): the mapping of the item’s most precise category (segment, then family, then group), otherwise the default mapping (recommended retail price, part tracked in stock, garage default VAT). A mapping VAT that is no longer one of the garage’s rates is replaced by the default rate. The purchase price is the supplier’s price for your account; the sale price follows the price rule. An item with no recommended retail price whose rule is the retail price gets the garage’s default margin (Purchase price × coefficient rule); with no default margin, the purchase price. The supplier becomes the part’s preferred supplier.

Labor types

The Labor tab lists the labor types. A labor type combines a standard category (maintenance, mechanics, diagnosis, bodywork…), a label specific to your garage and an hourly rate excl. VAT. The rate is copied onto each labor line, where it can still be edited: changing the catalog rate therefore never alters an existing work order.

The optional internal hourly cost (excl. VAT) is what one workshop hour costs you (wages, charges, overheads). It never appears on a quote or an invoice: it is used to compute the cost and margin of fixed-price services. Left empty, it is unknown.

The Labor and Fixed-price services tabs only show active rows by default: on the right of the bar, the “N inactive hidden” link shows the others, as does the Filters menu (status: active, inactive or all). Click a row to edit it; Edit, Duplicate (services) and Delete are also in its ⋯ menu.

Fixed-price services

A fixed-price service is a service at a fixed price (for example “Oil change”). Its planned duration is used by the schedule to book the right slot. The included parts are placed on the work order at zero price, since the price of the service already covers them. The labor type of the service is chosen from a list that you filter by typing a few letters of its name.

To create a service close to another one, open the ⋯ menu of its row then Duplicate: the copy takes the labor type, price, VAT, duration and included parts, under the name “Oil change (copie)”; then edit it.

Cost and margin of a fixed-price service

The tab shows the cost, margin and margin % of each fixed-price service:

• cost = sum of the included parts (quantity × purchase price) + planned duration × internal hourly cost of the labor type;
• margin = price excl. VAT − cost; margin % = margin / price excl. VAT (margin on sale price, as for parts).

If the purchase price of an included part or the internal hourly cost of the labor type is missing, the cost is unknown and the three columns show “—” (never 0). A service without parts only depends on the hourly cost; a service with a zero duration counts no labor. A Below threshold badge flags a margin below the garage threshold (the same as for prices to review).

In the service form, each included part shows its unit cost (purchase price excl. VAT), and a line gives the cost and margin as you type. Nothing is stored: the cost follows the current purchase prices and hourly cost.

Service templates

With the Service templates feature (off by default).

A service template groups, in an order you choose, fixed-price services, parts and text lines (200 characters at most, for example “Free 20-point check”): for example “12,000 km service”. Move up and Move down set the order of each item. You can restrict it to a vehicle type. Its duration is the sum of the durations of the fixed-price services it contains.

Add automatically

The Add automatically choice applies the template to every new file, without any action on your part:

• To new repair orders: when a repair order is created (including from the schedule);
• To new quotes: when a quote is created.

The added lines carry the Default badge (see Lines added automatically) and can be deleted like any other. Nothing is added when a vehicle is checked in, nor when a quote becomes a repair order (it keeps its lines). One template per choice: if another template is already added automatically at the same stage, the form says so (“Will replace …”) and saving sets it back to No. The list flags the chosen template with the Automatic: repair order or Automatic: quote badge.

Who can do what

• View the catalog: permission View the catalog (parts, fixed-price services, service templates, labor types). View stock (quantities, locations, movement log, alerts, export) opens the Stock menu entry, and Order from suppliers (parts to order, purchase orders, committed purchases) the Orders and Committed purchases entries (only the permitted tabs appear).
• Reorder and Order from the Items tab: permission Order from suppliers (parts to order, purchase orders, committed purchases) (and Manage the catalog and hourly rates for a supplier item).
• Create or edit a family, change the family, margin or status of several parts (bulk actions): permission Manage the catalog and hourly rates. Export a selection of parts: permission View the catalog (parts, fixed-price services, service templates, labor types) (purchase prices and stock appear in it only with their permissions).
• Edit the catalog and a part’s suppliers, see Prices to review, match with a supplier catalog and create a part from a supplier item: permission Manage the catalog and hourly rates. Without it, the create, edit and delete buttons do not appear (View opens the part sheet read-only).
• See purchase prices (parts, part suppliers, price history) and the cost and margin of fixed-price services: permission Manage the catalog and hourly rates or Order from suppliers (parts to order, purchase orders, committed purchases). Without one of them, they are not shown.
• Duplicate a fixed-price service, adjust the price of a service below the margin threshold, edit the internal hourly cost: permission Manage the catalog and hourly rates.