Work order software
Work order software for electric motor repair shops
KATS is work order software built for electric motor repair shops — the kind where units come in, sit on a bench, move through testing, and ship back out. It tracks every job from intake to invoice on one live board, so nobody has to walk the floor to find out where something stands.
Book a 15-minute walkthrough →You already have a system. It’s just made of whiteboards and memory.
Most motor shops aren’t running on nothing. They’re running on a whiteboard, a shared inbox, a clipboard by the intake door, and one person who knows where everything is.
That works until it doesn’t.
“Where’s that job at?”
A customer calls. You put them on hold and walk the floor. Three minutes, five interruptions, and you still gave them a maybe.
“Did we ever invoice that?”
The unit’s been repaired, tested, and boxed for nine days. It’s sitting on the shipping shelf. The work is done. The cash isn’t.
“What if it’s all in one head?”
Your most valuable person is also your biggest liability. Pull them out for a week and the shop slows to a crawl. That’s not a staffing problem — it’s a business-value problem. A shop that only runs when one specific person shows up is a shop that’s hard to sell.
None of these are software problems on their own. Together, they’re the reason your shop is slower and worth less than it should be.
Every unit, live, from the second it hits the bench
One real-time board for the whole shop. Owners see everything. Techs see their queue, not the whole shop’s.
A job moves through stages you’d actually recognize:
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Intake | Unit logged and tagged. Nameplate data, customer, fault description, photos. |
| Assigned | Routed to a tech and a bench. |
| Diagnosed | Fault found and documented. |
| Estimated | Quote out the door, waiting on approval. |
| Repaired | Work done, QA passed. |
| Invoiced | Billed same day. |
That last row is where the cash usually gets stuck. The moment a repair clears QA, it shows up as ready to bill — so nothing sits finished-but-uninvoiced just because nobody knew it was done.
What you can actually track
Built for how motor work really moves:
- Multi-stage testing as a first-class thing. Incoming test, post-repair test, final run. A unit isn’t “in progress” for three weeks — it’s at a specific, named stage you can point to.
- Nameplate and unit data at intake. HP, frame, voltage, RPM, serial, manufacturer. Attached to the job, searchable later.
- Parts and materials against the job. Bearings, windings, boards, whatever it took — so you know what the job actually cost, not what you guessed it cost.
- Photos from the floor. Techs shoot the damage; customers shoot the unit before it ships. Details arrive with the job instead of showing up as a phone call later.
- Repeat and warranty work. Pull up what you did last time on the same unit, for the same customer.
- Customer-facing status. Clients track their own repair in real time and message the shop directly — so the “just checking in” call has already been answered before they pick up the phone.
- Owner view vs. tech view. Owners get the money picture — estimates pending, invoices outstanding, where every dollar sits. Techs get a clean queue of what’s on their bench and what’s next.
Motor repair, drive repair, or both
Shops in this trade don’t sort neatly into one category, and KATS doesn’t assume they do.
Electromechanical work — rewinds, bearings, stators, rotors, balancing, machining. Long bench times, staged testing, real parts consumption.
Industrial electronics work — servo motors and drives, VFDs, PLCs, HMIs, controls. Board-level diagnosis, test fixtures, firmware notes.
Plenty of shops do both, and the ones that do usually end up running two systems or none. KATS handles them on the same board, because both are the same fundamental shape: equipment arrives, gets diagnosed, moves through stages, ships back.
Why generic field-service software doesn’t fit a bench
Most “service” software is built to dispatch trucks. That’s a genuinely different business.
| Field service software assumes | Your shop actually does |
|---|---|
| A tech drives to a customer site | The equipment comes to you |
| A job is one visit, closed same day | A job is weeks on a bench, across stages |
| Scheduling means routing and drive time | Scheduling means bench capacity and test equipment |
| Job status is "scheduled / done" | Job status is "waiting on parts / in final test / QA hold" |
| You bend your shop to fit the software | The software should bend to fit your shop |
Nothing here is a knock on field-service tools. Dispatch software is good at dispatch. It’s just that forcing bench work into it is why the fit never feels right — you end up with a “job” that’s been open for three weeks and a status field that doesn’t have a word for what’s actually happening.
We wrote about this in more depth: bench repair vs. field service software
Built on a real bench, not in a boardroom
KATS is made by KAIN Labs and runs every day inside KAIN Automation — a working repair shop that fixes servo drives, VFDs, PLCs, and controls.
Every feature was earned on real jobs by people who’ve felt the chaos firsthand. If it didn’t make the shop run better, it didn’t make the software. That’s not a marketing line — it’s the reason there’s a “waiting on customer approval” stage and not just an “in progress” flag.
Is your shop a fit?
We only succeed when you do, so we’d rather be straight about this.
Good fit
- Industrial automation or electric motor repair shops
- 5–50 employees
- Servo motor, VFD, PLC, HMI, or electromechanical repair
- 20+ repairs a month
- Currently running on nothing, on Excel, or on software never built for this
- Authorized service centers for major brands
Not a fit yet
- Under 5 employees — come back when you’ve grown, we’ll be here
- Under 20 repairs a month — the ROI won’t work yet, and we’d rather tell you that now
- Primarily field service (HVAC, plumbing) — we’re built for bench work
- Already running an enterprise ERP successfully — if it works, keep it
Frequently asked questions
What is work order software for an electric motor repair shop?
It's software that tracks each unit through your shop as a job — intake, diagnosis, estimate, repair, testing, invoice — so status lives in one place instead of on a whiteboard or in someone's memory. Unlike general field-service software, it's built around equipment that stays on a bench for days or weeks, not a technician who drives to a site.
How is this different from field service management software?
Field service tools are built for dispatching technicians to customer locations. KATS is built for the opposite flow: the equipment comes to you and stays. That changes what a job is, how long it stays open, and what statuses mean. Multi-stage testing is a first-class concept in KATS; in dispatch software it usually does not exist at all.
Will this work for a shop that does both rewinds and drive repair?
Yes. Both follow the same shape — intake, diagnose, stage, test, ship — and both live on the same board. Shops doing both are usually the ones feeling the most pain from spreadsheets, because neither half fits.
Do my technicians need to be computer people?
No. Techs see a queue of what is on their bench and what is next — not a full system. The detailed views are for whoever needs them.
What does it cost?
Bring it up on the walkthrough. We’d rather talk about whether it fits your shop before we talk about a number.