Privacy Policy

Who we are and how to contact us

Last updated: 1 November 2026

This policy explains how personal data is handled in Workshop Manager, our software for independent garages and MOT stations (jobs, approvals, parts, hours and pay, invoices, payments and QuickBooks Online sync), and on automanagesolutions.co.uk.

Workshop Manager is run by Callum Geary, a sole trader trading as AutoManage Solutions ("AutoManage", "we", "us"), based in the United Kingdom. Callum Geary is the controller of the personal data this policy says we are in charge of.

It covers garage owners and staff with a login, garages' customers, people who contact us, and website visitors. Where a part applies to one group only, its heading says so.

Contact us by email at [email protected] or through our contact form. Use either for questions, rights requests, legal notices or complaints. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer. If you need this policy in another format, ask us.

The testing period and where data is kept

Workshop Manager is in testing. Sign-up is free and needs an invite code. Our Terms of Service require testing garages to enter only made-up customers, vehicles, jobs, invoices, and staff hours and pay. Some data is real, though:

• the names, email addresses and sign-in records of people with a login (these names and emails also appear in the garage's staff list)
• the garage's own business name, address, phone, email, and VAT and company numbers (but not real bank details)
• messages and invite requests sent to us
• technical data every website receives, such as IP addresses

During testing, the service runs on a single server in Australia. We own and run the server ourselves, and no hosting company manages it. The database, server logs and backups are all on it. All traffic reaches it through Cloudflare.

During testing, only QuickBooks sandbox (test) companies, which Intuit provides for developers, can be connected. Real QuickBooks companies will connect only once live data for that garage's country is hosted as described below, and we will update this policy first.

Our commitment for live UK data: real data from UK garages (their records about customers, vehicles, staff and suppliers), including its backups and logs, will not be stored in Australia. Before any UK garage uses Workshop Manager with real data, we will host that data in the UK. We will update this policy first, to say where it is hosted, where UK logins and messages to us are kept, and how we reach the data for support. Until then, the real login details of UK users (names, emails and sign-in records) are held on the Australian server (see 'International transfers').

Our two roles

Where the garage is in charge (we are its processor). A garage decides what it records about its customers, vehicles, staff and suppliers. We process it only on the garage's instructions (see the data processing schedule in our Terms of Service), to provide, secure and support Workshop Manager for it. We never use it for our own purposes, except that the MOT result for a plate a garage looks up goes into a shared store that we control (see 'MOT check'). That store holds the plate and its public MOT history, not the customer's name or other details. QuickBooks sync error messages, which can include a customer's name, are kept for the garage only to fix sync problems. Each garage should give its own customers and staff its own privacy information.

Where we are in charge (we are the controller). This covers:

• logins, sign-in records and security records
• each garage's account record with us
• messages and invite requests sent to us
• visits to our website
• the public MOT check and the shared MOT store
• our own audit and server logs

If you are a garage's customer or staff member, contact the garage first; it decides what happens to your data, and we help it answer. If you contact us, we will pass your request on where we can tell which garage it is. For staff with a login, we are in charge of your sign-in details and your garage of its work records about you.

What we collect and why

People with a login (owners, office staff, mechanics, accountants)

• Name, email address, role and garage.
• Your password, stored only as a one-way argon2id hash. Nobody, including us, can turn it back into your password.
• Sign-in records: times, IP address, browser type, failed attempts, lock-outs and last sign-in.
• If you turn on an authenticator app: its secret (encrypted), and when you turned it on and last used it.
• The email address used with an invite code, and when it was used.

These come from you or the owner who set up your login. We use them to sign you in, block password guessing, control what you can see and do, and show the owner who has a login.

Garage staff (for the garage)

• Name, email, role, active status, and groups such as 'MOT testers'.
• Jobs you are assigned to, hours logged per job, and clock times.
• Hourly pay rate and pay basis. Only the owner sees everyone's pay; each person sees their own.
• Your name on replies to customers, and job history showing who logged hours or assigned work.

The garage uses these to assign work, record hours and work out pay. Our operators can see them when supporting the garage.

Garage customers and their vehicles (for the garage)

• Name, company, phone, email, notes and customer number.
• Vehicle make and model, number plate history, MOT due date and mileage readings.
• Jobs: work items, prices, notes, dates, and arrival and leaving times.
• Invoices (with a fixed copy of the customer's details as they were when the invoice was issued), credit notes, and payments with method and reference.
• Messages sent through the job link, and a full history of changes to the job.

The garage uses these to book work in, quote, get approval, order parts, invoice and take payment.

People who approve work through a job link (for the garage)

A garage can send its customer a link to their job, with no login and no cookies. It shows the garage's name and phone number, your first name, your vehicle, and the work and prices. When you approve, decline or put off work, we record for the garage the name you type, your decision and price for each item, any 'start work now' or safety-warning ticks, the time, and your IP address and browser type. We also record when the link was created, how often it was opened, and when it was first and last opened. This is the garage's evidence of what you agreed to. A link stops working after 30 days, when the job is cancelled, or while the garage's account is suspended.

Website visitors

We use no analytics, advertising or tracking of any kind. Our scripts, fonts and photos are served from our own server, so apart from Cloudflare, which carries all traffic, no other company sees your visit. To stop abuse of the sign-in, sign-up, contact and MOT check forms, the server keeps your IP address, and any email typed at sign-in that does not match a login with a count of failures, in working memory (not the database) until it next restarts.

Our own audit and server logs

When our operators act in the admin panel, we record who did what and when, which can include the email address of a login they changed, or the name and email of someone given an invite. Our server logs record sign-ins and failed sign-ins (email entered and IP address), sign-ups (email, garage name and IP address), which page or action was used (which can include a job number, but not what was typed or shown), and QuickBooks connections and sync errors.

Contact form, emails and invite requests

From the contact form we keep your name, email, phone, garage name, message, IP address and when you sent it; if you email us, we keep the email and our reply. We also keep our private notes, whether we have dealt with it, and any invite code we gave you. If we approve an invite, your name, garage and email are noted against the invite code. We reply by hand. The app does not send email.

MOT check

We send only the registration number to our MOT history lookup service (see 'Who we share data with'). We keep the answer against the plate: make, model, colour, test dates, results, expiry, mileage readings, defects and advisories. One answer per plate is kept and reused when anyone, including a garage, looks up that plate. It is not linked to you or to any garage customer, and your IP address is not stored with it.

Suppliers and the garage's own details (for the garage)

We keep supplier names, phone numbers and account references, and the name a delivery driver types at the parts counter. A garage's invoices show its trading and legal name, address, VAT and company numbers, phone, email and bank details. Its job links show its name and phone number. For a sole trader, these are personal data. For our own records, we also keep each garage's name, country, status and owner, to run the account.

Our lawful bases (where we are in charge)

This section covers only the data we are in charge of. 'Legitimate interests' means we have a fair business reason to use the data, and it does not override your own rights and interests.

You need an email address and password to have a login, and we need an email address to reply to you. Without them, we cannot set up a login or reply. Everything else is up to you.

QuickBooks Online

Connecting QuickBooks Online is optional. Only a login with the owner role can connect or disconnect it. Once connected, owner, office and accountant logins can run the sync and the review screen. Our operators can do the same, or run a QuickBooks import or review, when they open your garage as its owner, but only when you ask. We ask Intuit only for accounting access, not your Intuit profile or sign-in details. Workshop Manager is made by AutoManage and is not made, endorsed or supported by Intuit. QuickBooks and Intuit are trademarks of Intuit Inc.

What we send to QuickBooks: customers' names, companies, phone numbers and emails; issued invoices (number, dates, line descriptions, quantities, prices, VAT codes and a private note such as 'Workshop job J-123 AB12 CDE'); payments (amount, date, reference and method); and credit notes. If missing, we also create the items (products and services) Labour, Parts, MOT test fee and Adjustment, and any payment methods you use.

What we read from QuickBooks: active customers (name, company, phone, email), payment methods, tax codes, one income account, the items above, and invoice and credit note numbers and balances, so that nothing is posted twice.

What we keep:

• the access keys Intuit gives us, stored encrypted, and your QuickBooks company ID, which is not encrypted
• which of our records match which QuickBooks records
• a copy of customer details from both sides, so you can review differences
• a sync history, including any error messages QuickBooks sends back. These can include a customer's name, and also appear in our server logs.
• any customers you import, which become your garage's own customers

While connected, the app checks every 30 seconds for anything waiting to go to QuickBooks. It also sends straight away when you issue an invoice or record a payment or credit, unless the owner has turned on review mode. In that case, items go once someone approves them in the review screen.

How we use it: only to provide Workshop Manager to your garage: keeping customers, invoices, payments and credit notes in step, letting you import QuickBooks customers, and supporting you if something goes wrong. We never sell it, share it with another garage, or use it for advertising, profiling, training AI models or anything else. Apart from providers that carry it to run the service, such as Cloudflare, and authorities where the law requires, nobody else may access, export or store it.

We do not work for Intuit or process data for it. Intuit is responsible for what it does with QuickBooks data (see Intuit's privacy statement); we are responsible for what Workshop Manager does with it, on your garage's instructions.

If you disconnect in Workshop Manager, we ask Intuit to cancel our access, delete the stored keys and stop syncing. The record matches, customer copies and sync history stay with your garage's records, but are no longer used. Imported customers stay as your garage's own customers. Nothing in QuickBooks is deleted. Ask us and we will delete the data we got from QuickBooks within 30 days, unless the law requires it to be kept. It then drops out of our backups within about two weeks.

If you disconnect from inside QuickBooks, Intuit cancels our access straight away, and Workshop Manager shows the connection as needing to be reconnected the next time it has something to send. The cancelled keys stay stored, encrypted and unusable, until you click "Remove the old connection" on the page QuickBooks sends you to after disconnecting (/integrations/qbo/disconnected), or ask us to remove them.

If your garage closes its account, we will cancel our access with Intuit, delete the stored keys, and delete the data we got from QuickBooks with the rest of your garage's data (see 'How long we keep things'), unless the law requires us to keep it.

Who we share data with

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data, or give it out in return for any benefit. No garage can see another garage's data. We share data only with:

• Cloudflare, which carries all traffic to and from our site. It decrypts the connection before passing it to our server, so it handles the content of pages and forms on the way through. It may process data in the United States and elsewhere.
• Intuit (QuickBooks Online), only when a garage connects QuickBooks. During testing, only Intuit sandbox test companies can be connected (see 'QuickBooks Online').
• Albion Test Centre Ltd, a UK MOT test centre that runs the MOT history lookup service we use, based on DVSA MOT history data. It receives only the registration number looked up.
• Our email provider, which carries emails to and from [email protected] and the emails we write by hand: replies to enquiries, notices to garage owners under our Terms of Service, breach notices, and any copies of garage data we send when asked.
• Authorities, if the law requires us to share data.

International transfers

During testing, all data is stored on our own server in Australia. The server is our own equipment, and we do not pass the data to any other organisation there, so keeping data on it is not a 'restricted transfer' under UK data protection law. UK data protection law still applies to it in full, and we protect it as described under 'Security'.

Cloudflare, Inc. and Intuit Inc. may handle data in the United States and elsewhere. Both are certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the 'UK-US data bridge'), and transfers to them in the United States rely on it. Where Cloudflare handles data outside the United States, or if either provider's certification lapses, transfers rely on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to that provider's standard contractual clauses. If our email provider handles data outside the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to its standard contractual clauses.

Live UK garage data will be hosted in the UK, as set out under 'The testing period and where data is kept'. To ask for a copy of the safeguards we rely on, email [email protected] or use our contact form.

Cookies and device storage

Our public pages and customer job links set no cookies or browser storage. Cloudflare sets no cookies on our pages today. If it ever adds a security cookie, we will list it here.

Why there is no cookie banner: everything in the table is strictly necessary to provide the service you asked for. None of it is used for analytics, advertising or tracking, so the law does not require consent. wm-theme holds only your display choice and nothing about you. If you clear it, the app goes back to its default look.

Security

What we have in place:

• Passwords are stored only as one-way argon2id hashes. Sign-in is rate-limited per account and per IP address, and repeated wrong passwords lock sign-in for up to five minutes.
• Optional authenticator-app codes at sign-in, required for AutoManage operators. Authenticator secrets and QuickBooks access keys are stored encrypted (AES-GCM).
• HTTPS everywhere with HSTS, and protection against other websites acting on your account. Page scripts cannot read sign-in cookies (they are HttpOnly), only hashed copies of sign-in and job-link codes are stored, and job links are hidden from search engines and not cached by browsers.
• Each garage's data is in its own section of the database, and every screen and action checks your role.
• Approvals, job history, credit notes and issued invoices cannot be changed or deleted in the app.
• Rate limits on the contact, sign-up and MOT check forms, and invite-only sign-up.
• Our database tool has read-only access, the server's services run with restricted permissions, and the Cloudflare connection is locked down.
• Operator access to garage data is logged (see 'Operator access').
• Nightly database backups with restricted file permissions. We keep the last 14 (about two weeks). They are on the same server, and there is no off-site copy yet.

If something goes wrong: if a breach affects data we hold for a garage, we will tell the garage without undue delay (within 48 hours where we can), give it the facts it needs and help it assess the breach. The garage then decides whether to report it. If a breach of data we are in charge of is likely to put people at risk, we will report it to the Information Commission, the UK regulator, within 72 hours of finding out, and if the risk is high we will also tell the people affected without undue delay. For Australian data we are in charge of, we will follow the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme where it applies, notifying the OAIC and the people affected as soon as practicable. If a breach involves data from QuickBooks, we will also tell Intuit within 24 hours of finding it. We keep a record of every breach.

Operator access (AutoManage's own people)

A small number of AutoManage people ('operators') can reach garage data. Operator accounts can only be created on the server itself, and operators must use an authenticator code to sign in. Everyone at AutoManage who can reach garage data is bound to keep it confidential. Operators use garage data only to support the garage, fix problems or keep the service secure. They can:

• use an admin panel that shows garages, logins, recent sign-ins (with IP address and browser type), enquiries and invite codes
• use a read-only data browser that hides passwords, keys and secrets but shows names, contact details and other records
• open a garage as its owner for up to 12 hours, with full owner access, including staff pay and the QuickBooks connection
• use a read-only database tool (pgAdmin)

What we log: operator actions in the admin panel, such as suspending a garage, resetting or switching off a login, issuing invite codes and changing an enquiry's status. We also log each time an operator opens a garage as its owner or starts a pgAdmin session, and when they view a garage table in the data browser (its first page).

What we do not log yet: what an operator views or changes after opening a garage as its owner; each pgAdmin query; later pages or searches in the data browser; views of login, sign-in or enquiry records; edits to our private enquiry notes; and access by operators who sign in to the server itself.

How long we keep things

A nightly clean-up deletes data automatically when its time is up. We delete garage records by hand.

Where the law requires us to keep something for longer, we will.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you can ask us for a copy of your data, and to correct it, delete it, limit how we use it, or give it to you in a format a computer can read. Some of these rights apply only in certain situations, and we will tell you if one does not apply.

Your right to object: where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object at any time. We will stop unless we have strong legitimate reasons that override your interests, such as keeping the service secure.

To use your rights, email [email protected] or use our contact form. It is free. We may ask you to confirm who you are. We will reply within one month, or up to two months more for complex requests, and we will tell you if so. We deal with each request by hand. If your request is about data a garage holds, we will pass it to the garage and help it answer.

We make no decisions about people by automated means alone.

If you are in Australia

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles. To see or correct your personal information, email [email protected] or use our contact form. We will answer within 30 days. If we cannot help, we will explain why and tell you how to complain.

In plain words, your garage decides what it records about you, and stays responsible for it. We store and use it only to provide the service to the garage.

During testing, data is stored in Australia. Cloudflare, and Intuit if a garage connects QuickBooks, may handle data overseas, including in the United States. If we move Australian garages' data to another country, we will name that country here first.

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will follow the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, working with your garage where it holds the data.

We do not use computer programs to make decisions about you that significantly affect your rights or interests.

How to complain

Please complain to us first: email [email protected] or use our contact form. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it, keep you updated and tell you the outcome.

In the UK, you can also complain to the Information Commission, the UK data protection regulator (still known as the ICO, and formerly the Information Commissioner's Office), at ico.org.uk.

In Australia, if you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Children

Workshop Manager is a business tool, and our website is not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect children's data for our own purposes. A garage may record younger staff, such as apprentices, and that is the garage's responsibility.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page and its date whenever we change how we handle personal data, including before live UK data moves to UK hosting, and before real QuickBooks companies can connect. For significant changes, we will email each garage owner, at the address they sign in with, at least 30 days before the change takes effect. If a change affects data from QuickBooks, we will also tell Intuit, as our agreement with Intuit requires.