AMS Protractor

RATING:

4.6

(36)

About AMS Protractor

Protractor is an overall shop management tool that helps end users inspect vehicles and educate vehicle owners on the status of their cars. It is designed to streamline the automotive business and automate daily administrative tasks. Protractor’s scheduling module allows users to view appointment details by technician and resources. The solution also allows the shop to schedule technicians and provide accurate and timely estimates using a catalog wizard and a parts and labor matrix. Protractor is a customizable tool that can fit the needs of small shops or nationwide chains.

AMS Protractor Pricing

Contact Protractor Software for pricing details.

Starting price: 

$249.00 per month

Free trial: 

Not Available

Free version: 

Not Available

Estimate work order
Slide 1 of 6

AMS Protractor Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4.5

Customer Support

4.5

Value for money

4.5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for AMS Protractor

1 - 5 of 36 Reviews

User Profile

Kiri

Verified reviewer

Automotive, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: GetApp
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2024

Protractor is the Best

PROS

I love using Protractor! It is easy and very functional. The customer service is the best. [sensitive content hidden] always assures any issues are resolved efficiently. Wouldn't want to run any other software in the industry!

CONS

I do not have any cons at this time. Protractor does everything I need!

Ken

Verified reviewer

Automotive, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed May 2022

Powerful software that is very customizable.

After onboarding and the initial struggles of making a big POS change like this, it has been very good over all. We do not regret making the switch. As with any shop POS software, it all comes down to personal preference and is it a good fit for you. Protractor is a good fit for us.

PROS

The massive number of reports available and the Dashboard function to keep an eye on your bottom line. Very customizable report system. The overall settings allow for much customization. Help is easy to get from other users and the company. The related forums are active with users and company people and usually have your answer quickly. Onboarding assistants are great people that work with you for quite some time before going live. The overall package is great. We don't use it to it's full potential as this program will do ALL of the business accounting as well! We do use and constantly make changes as needed the usual service shop functions. The "Canned Jobs" can be built extremely fleshed out. With some time in, the available library of services, jobs, concerns, etc. can grow quite large and make for good time savings and faster operations. The integrations with Auto Vitals is very good and has helped our shop grow the bottom line.

CONS

Steep learning curve. This program will take some time to learn, and you will have many questions. If you are already somewhat computer savvy, it may not be as big of a deal. If you are not good with computers, it could be a struggle. (But there is plenty of help from the company and other users.) This is a very in-depth program that does SO much!

Reason for choosing AMS Protractor

Depth of integrations with currently used software, AutoVitals.

Reasons for switching to AMS Protractor

Outgrew the software in general. When we started to use AutoVitals, the program was just over run, and the front counter people were struggling.

George

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

Reviewed June 2016

Broken Promises

Most shop management systems focus on auto shops needs. Protractor is an accounting program piggybacked with a shop management program. I was with Protractor over a year and they did not fulfilled their promises for example, an oil sticker label or to fix CarFax. I went back to my previous system where CarFax is working properly yet Protractor says it is not a Protractor problem, it is a CarFax problem. I was told from the beginning that if I left, my data is mine. They did not tell me that it was available in report form and you have to pay $149.00 a month ($1788.00 a year plus foreign transaction fees) to access it. With the dollar exchange, it was costing me around $125. A few months ago, they notified me that I will be charged the FULL $149.00 plus I have to pay the foreign transaction fee. This is due to the support it requires. We are looking at previous data only and NEVER need customer support??? If you choose to go with Protractor, I believe you will agree that the your experience is very AGGRAVATING.

Vendor Response

Hi George, I am very sorry to hear about your experience. Regarding product developments we are constantly updating the Protractor product based on customer requests and work on as quick a schedule as we can. As it happens we do now have an oil sticker integration available. Regarding carfax, there are no known issues at this time except for in a few territories that are out of our control which would be similar to any SMS. Perhaps you are talking about some vin decoding issues which are unrelated to carfax that have been rectified. Regarding your data, it is always available to you in a file, however it would not be possible to access this without the use of an interface. Unfortunately the best option is to run any reports that you require from the Protractor system while you have access to it, or to maintain a current subscription. We apologize that you have had an unfortunate experience, but we do stand behind our product and believe that it is a top sms on the market.

Replied November 2017

Daniel

Automotive, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2020

AMS is the only company you should consider when making your decision.

AMS as a company is the best part of the experience! I delayed the conversion for about a year because I was agonizing over the learning process of changing the POS. Now looking back, I wasted a year of waiting. AMS made the process so easy! They are well versed in the product they support and they held our hand during the entire journey. AMS educated us extremely well before going live. On the day we went live, our personal trainer was there the whole day walking us through all the things we forgot. There was a total of one day where we struggled and I can't say it was a full day. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] is the best part of my experience! He is ALWAYS available to answer my question. He is always available to log in and help me through the more advanced questions. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was our trainer and he went over and above to make sure we were comfortable with the software and be available to answer our questions. Great job [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] at making sure you did not launch a support company without thoroughly training your crew! AMS is the only choice if want to buy Protractor!

PROS

How customizable the reports are in Protractor. In the previous POS system, you got your information from a set of reports. I had to look at several reports to get the info I needed. With Protractor, I can build a dashboard that has all the information I need to look at on one screen. Estimating a large ticket is under 5 minutes, so easy! ROW it took over a half an hour. The time saved pays for the cost of the software. It's all in the cloud so my network issues with ROW have gone away. I can log into the system with my laptop, no more teamviewer.

CONS

The conversion didn't bring over declined services. A little hassle to look back into the old software. As time passes, that issue is slowly disappearing. Not a deal breaker.

Reasons for switching to AMS Protractor

AMS now supports Protractor. The service provided from R.O.Writer is terrible! It crashed and it took tier 2 a week to respond. If I didn't get another company to fix the problem, I would have been "shop down, cannot work, critical" for a week! I don't think R.O.Writer even cares about me, when I canceled my subscription no one asked why.

Brian

Automotive, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed September 2019

Awesome Very User Friendly System

Dependability and stable system, cloud based system with no back ups or disc needed. Made hardware expense much less

PROS

How easy it is to use, speed of making estimates and work orders, the customization to personal needs, support from AMS is second to none

CONS

The fact that AMS Protractator wasn't purchased sooner

Reason for choosing AMS Protractor

AMS always there when you need them (answering phones, emails, returning calls).

Reasons for switching to AMS Protractor

Several reasons. The main reason was lack of support and the time it took for support to return call in order to solve a problem.