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Service Records
Complete guide to tracking vehicle maintenance, repairs, and service history in MyGarage.
- Maintenance Reminders - Never miss oil changes or inspections
- Resale Value - Documented service history increases vehicle value
- Warranty Claims - Proof of regular maintenance for warranty coverage
- Tax Deductions - Business vehicle expense tracking
- Pattern Recognition - Identify recurring issues or excessive repairs
- Cost Analysis - Understand true cost of ownership
MyGarage uses a Service Visit model that mirrors real-world shop invoices:
- Service Visit - A single trip to a shop (or DIY session)
- Line Items - Individual services, parts, and labor within a visit
- Tax & Fees - Separate tracking for tax, shop supplies, and misc fees
- Vendors - Track where you get work done
Date: 2026-01-15
Vendor: Jiffy Lube #1234
Mileage: 45,000
Line Items:
1. Oil Change (Maintenance) - $45.99
2. Air Filter Replacement (Maintenance) - $24.99
3. Cabin Air Filter (Maintenance) - $34.99
Subtotal: $105.97
Tax: $8.48
Shop Supplies: $3.50
Total: $117.95
- Open the vehicle and click Log Service, then Log Service Visit
- Fill in basic info:
- Date - When service was performed
- Mileage - Current odometer, in the vehicle's odometer unit (a vehicle tracked by engine hours shows Engine Hours instead)
- Vendor/Shop - Where service was done
- Under Services Performed, fill in the first line item:
- Enter description, category, cost
- Click Add Item for each further service performed
- Add tax and fees (optional), under Tax & Fees:
- Tax
- Shop Supplies
- Misc Fees
- Click Create
While adding a visit, tick Set a reminder for next service on a line item to create a reminder for it: Repeat after this service (an interval) or One-time, on a date. It appears on the calendar and dashboard. See Reminders below.
Each service visit contains one or more line items representing individual services.
- Description - What was done (e.g., "Replace brake pads")
- Category - Service category (Maintenance, Inspection, Collision, Upgrades, Detailing)
- Maintenance type - What the item counts as for reminders (see Maintenance types)
- Cost - Amount for this line item
- Notes - Additional details (part numbers, specifications)
The Description field suggests common services for the chosen category, and you can type anything:
- Maintenance - Oil Change, Tire Rotation, Brake Pad Replacement, Coolant Flush, Wiper Blades
- Inspection - Safety Inspection, Emissions Test, State/Annual Inspection, Pre-Trip Inspection
- Collision - Paint Repair, Bumper Replacement, Windshield Replacement
- Upgrades - Cold Air Intake, Window Tint, Audio Upgrade, Trailer Hitch, LED Lighting
- Detailing - Full Detail, Paint Correction, Ceramic Coating
Track where you get service done. In the Vendor/Shop field, search your vendors, or choose Create "…" as new vendor to add one by name. An Address Book entry with a business name also becomes a vendor, with its address and phone.
The vehicle's Analytics page has a Vendor Analysis section with, per vendor:
- Number of services
- Total amount spent
- Last visit date
This helps identify your most-used shops and spending patterns.
Real-world invoices include more than just parts and labor. MyGarage tracks:
Sales tax on parts and labor.
Environmental fees, shop materials, disposal charges.
Other fees (hazmat disposal, diagnostic fees, etc.)
- Subtotal = Sum of all line item costs
- Total = Subtotal + Tax + Shop Supplies + Misc Fees + Parts/Supplies (the cost of supplies used)
Both values display in the service visit list:
- Collapsed view shows Total (matches your receipt)
- Expanded view shows the Cost Breakdown when the visit has tax or fees
Attach receipts, invoices, and photos to service visits.
- Documents: PDF
- Images: JPG, PNG, GIF
- Up to 10MB per file
- Save the visit, then edit it (attachments can only be added to a saved visit)
- Scroll to the Attachments section
- Click Upload Attachment, choose the file, and click Upload
- Files are associated with the visit
- Thumbnails appear in the expanded visit, under Attachments
- Click a thumbnail to open it in a new browser tab
- Download original files from the attachment list when editing the visit
Proactive maintenance is tracked with Reminders. Reminders live under the vehicle's Tracking → Reminders sub-tab and drive the calendar and dashboard.
Since v3.5.0 a reminder can repeat. The model has three parts:
- A maintenance rule says how often something is due: a distance, a number of months, or engine hours, on one vehicle. Rules come from a reminder pack, from the reminder form (switch on Repeat this maintenance), or from a service line item (Repeat after this service).
- A service record says when the work was actually done.
- The reminder is what is due next, counted from the most recent matching service: its date and its odometer or hours reading, never the vehicle's latest reading. A rule of 7,500 mi or 6 months after an oil change on June 13 at 88,896 mi is due at 96,396 mi or on December 13, whichever comes first. The projected date you reach the mileage at your current driving rate is shown separately and moves as you drive; the calendar threshold does not.
A reminder you make by hand, with no service behind it, counts from the odometer and hours on file when you create it, shown as Counting from.
Each pending reminder has a status, and the list shows its progress as a bar with what's left: "1,200 mi left", "14 hr over", "3 days overdue".
- Overdue (red) - the due date has come, or the odometer or hour meter has reached the target.
- Due soon (amber) - it is expected within 30 days. The expected date is the due date or, when sooner, the day your average use over the last 90 days reaches the target ("At your current usage rate you reach the target around ..."). A distance or hours reminder with too little history to project is due soon once it is 90% of the way to its target.
- Otherwise it is on track. A snoozed reminder shows as snoozed.
Overdue reminders come first, then due soon, then on track, each soonest first. Vehicle cards and the dashboard use the same status for their badges. The notification bell lists reminders that are overdue or expected within 14 days.
Mark done asks for the completion date and reading and records the work as a new service visit (default), links an existing visit, or just closes the reminder. A repeating reminder's next cycle is created from what you enter.
Logging a service visit works the other way round too: a line item whose maintenance type matches an active rule completes that rule's pending reminder and creates the next one.
Something due that you cannot get to yet can be snoozed from the reminder's clock button: 1 week, 1 month, or a date you pick. While a reminder is snoozed it is hidden from the overdue and upcoming counts, the notification inbox and scheduled notifications, and the row shows Snoozed until that date.
Snoozing changes nothing about when the work is actually due. The due date and the mileage target stay exactly as they were, the reminder still appears in the list and on the calendar, and on the chosen date it comes back with its real status - so a reminder that was overdue returns overdue. Unsnooze clears it early, and completing the reminder clears it too.
Every service line item and reminder carries a maintenance type (engine oil and filter, tire rotation, brake fluid, and so on). MyGarage classifies a description when you leave the type blank, but only when it is sure: "Oil Change" and "Oil & Filter Change" are the same type, "Tire Replacement" is not a tire rotation, and "Rotate and replace tires" is left for you to type. Pick the type on the line item when the description is ambiguous.
A pack is a set of maintenance rules you can apply in one click. MyGarage ships a catalog of them: oil and filter, tire rotation, seasonal ATV and UTV service, snowmobile pre-season, boat winterization, and so on. The list filters itself by vehicle type.
Applying a pack shows a preview first. Each item reports the rule it creates or reuses, the service it will count from ("Existing maintenance history found"), and any reminder of the same type it adopts instead of duplicating. You can point an item at a service the classifier left untyped, or treat the work as done today, before you apply. Applying the same pack twice changes nothing.
Any interval in the preview can be typed over before you apply: a pack that says 5,000 miles becomes 7,500 on this vehicle if that is what you run. The preview re-reads as you type, so the due date and odometer you see are the ones you will get.
An interval you type is YOUR instruction and wins, including over a rule the vehicle already has. That is the one exception to the line below: left alone, a pack never overwrites intervals you have already tuned on a vehicle.
Since v3.6.0 you can save a vehicle's own recurring reminders as a named pack and apply it to your other vehicles. Get one vehicle's schedule right with the tools you already use, then open its Tracking → Reminders sub-tab and choose Save as pack.
There is no separate pack editor, by design: the vehicle IS the editor. To change a saved pack, adjust the vehicle and save over the pack again.
The dialog lists that vehicle's repeating reminders with everything ticked. Untick anything you do not want to carry over, name the pack, and choose which vehicle types it suits. Leave them all unticked to offer it on every vehicle.
Two kinds of reminder cannot go in a pack, and both are shown greyed out with the reason rather than quietly dropped:
- one with no maintenance type, because a pack finds its rule by type and a typeless reminder would come back typed and start matching services it should not, and
- the second reminder of a type you have already ticked, because both would resolve to the same rule and one would vanish.
Saved packs appear in the same list as the shipped ones, marked as saved, and are visible to everyone who uses your MyGarage. The person who saved a pack, and any admin, can rename it, delete it, or save a vehicle over it. A pack saved before you turned authentication on has no owner recorded, so only an admin can change it.
Renaming a pack keeps its identity, so reminders already created from it stay linked to it.
Installations upgraded from earlier versions may hold two pending reminders for one maintenance item (one from a pack, one linked to a service). They are flagged as possible duplicates with a Review action: keep one, and the others are marked superseded, never deleted.
Services display as collapsible cards:
- Most recent at top
- Shows date, vendor, total cost
- Click to expand for full details
- All line items with descriptions
- Cost breakdown (subtotal, tax, fees, total)
- Attached files (thumbnails)
- Visit notes
The Search services... box searches across:
- Vendor names
- Service categories
- Line item descriptions
- Visit notes
- Go to the vehicle's Maintenance → Service
- Click Edit (the pencil) on the visit
- Modify any fields:
- Add/remove line items
- Update costs
- Change vendor
- Add attachments
- Click Update
Warning: Deletion is permanent!
- Click Delete (the bin) on the visit
- Confirm deletion
- The visit and all its line items are removed
- Always record odometer reading
- Enter all line items from your receipt
- Include tax and fees for accurate totals
- Attach receipts for major services
Basic: "Oil change" Better: "Oil change - Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W-30 (6 quarts), Fram Ultra XG10575 filter"
Create reminders for:
- Oil changes (every 5,000 mi / 6 months)
- Tire rotations (every 7,500 mi)
- Inspections (annual)
- Fluid flushes (per manufacturer schedule)
Create vendor entries for:
- Your regular shop
- Dealership service department
- Tire shop
- Oil change locations
- "DIY" for home maintenance
Exports live on the vehicle's Tracking → Reports tab (Reports & Export).
- Under Date Range Selection, set a Start Date and End Date (e.g., the 2025 tax year)
- Download the Service History Report (Download PDF) or Service History (CSV) (Export CSV)
- The Tax Deduction Report lists potentially deductible expenses for a chosen year
- Provide to accountant
Download Sale history (sanitized): a buyer-safe PDF of the service history without costs, vendors, or plate numbers.
- Set the date range to the warranty period and download the Service History Report
- Exports do not include attachments, so add the receipts separately
- Submit to manufacturer/dealer
- Attachment Issues - See Troubleshooting Guide
- Reminder Problems - See FAQ
- Community - GitHub Discussions
Next: Explore Fuel Tracking or learn about Document Management.