Real-Time Labor Guide 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Real-Time Labor Guide

4.3

(80)

Pricing

Starting at $12.50 per month

About Real-Time Labor Guide

Real-Time Labor Guide is a cloud-based auto repair platform that helps small to large size automotive businesses manage customer charges, technician tracking and staff.

Real-Time Labor Guide enables users to manage complete store operations with labor guide, packaging jobs, miscellaneous charges, unlimited tickets, QuickVIN decoding, advanced reporting and more. Additionally, it allows staff management, customer history, shop reports, technician tracking, parts markup, inventory and accounts receivable. The repair guide tool feature in the platform allows tracking vehicles’ condition, mechanic experience, availability of tools and testing time that can be used to provide quotes, manage customers, access jobs and estimates.

Real-Time Labor Guide allows users to create custom tickets, estimates and invoices. The platform is available on a per month subscription pricing and support is extended via phone and email.

Real-Time Labor Guide Screenshots

Real-Time Labor Guide Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $12.50 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Real-Time Labor Guide

$12.50

per user, per month

Plan includes:

Accessible From Any Device
Create Combination Jobs
Create Estimates & Invoices
Customizable Manufacturer List & Labor Rates
Full Pricing Flexibility
Labor Times for Different Vehicles
Regular Updates

Real-Time Labor Guide Features

Popular features found in Auto Repair
Accounting
Appointment Scheduling
Communication Management
CRM
Employee Scheduling
Estimating
Inspection Management
Labor Rates
Maintenance Scheduling
Point of Sale (POS)
Service History
VIN Lookup
More features of Real-Time Labor Guide
Alerts/Notifications
Billing & Invoicing
Customer Database
Customer History
Inventory Management
Labor Cost Reporting
Quotes/Estimates
Work Order Management

Real-Time Labor Guide User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.3

Ratings Breakdown

57%

28%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.6

Value for money

4.5

Customer support

4.4

Functionality

4.2

Eric H.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2020

Best Bang for your buck available

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I have used this software for years and love the features and ease of use! This has cut my service ticket time considerably and is quite accurate with the labor times posted. If you are a small shop then you must have this software to compete with the big boys and show a big time appearance to the customer, it reinforces professionalism and integrity of your shop,I.e. letterhead and breakdown of ticket with an appealing look. I would recommend it to all repair shops no matter the size or location. This software has definitely made me a lot of money and helped ensure to not leave any on the table.

Cons:

Wish it had older model cars I work on some older cars and a lot are not on the software and I understand I’m probably in the minority on this

Reasons for choosing Real-Time Labor Guide

Simplicity and cost of use

Charles L.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed September 2020

Great pic for small shops

Needs more features in an additional tier or al a cart add ons. I use this daily, incredibly easy to generate accurate quotes, but a POS system its not...yet.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Overall the product is very useful. The are very few products for small guys to get away from paper & get access to labor guides. Ive tried all of the $20-$50 monthly options as I wanted a cloud based system that I could work with from anywhere regardless of platform. I really think this has helped me attract more business & close more sales due to accurate quoting. Lets face it people want professional & accurate quotes up front...and when they come back to pickup they dont want surprises either- this gains trust. In this regard RT has actually made me more money & makes things more efficient. How can a small shop justify $100-250 per month for Shop Management? Well theres not much out there that will get you running for sub 100 much less the $25/month I promise ya!

Cons:

Now for the downsides...Im anxiously awaiting some upgrades- another tier for those of us wanting AR & Inventory, regardless of the info page here there is no inventory- nada. This needs to be fixed. The Customer owed balance needs to me on the main page so you know what folk are due/overdue at a glance instead of drilling into each work order & clicking thru to the end- its ridiculous to have to do that. Multiple tech assignment would be super helpful as well- each labor line should have ability to assign more than one all of the techs- not just one. Adding part vendors on the fly would be nice too but thats nit pickin. We need inventory Customer AR (and report) as well as Quickbooks online integration. I should be able to use this software to see what oil & filters I have on hand at least! All that said, they promise more soon & are adding payment processing- I really hope its soon!

Reasons for choosing Real-Time Labor Guide

Ease of use, price & stability

Reasons for switching to Real-Time Labor Guide

To get the features from Workshop it gets pretty expensive...when you pay that kid on money you expect it to be stable & not glitchy. Had my request & complaints not went ignored for days I may have stayed longer & dealt with it, as there is alot of promise for Workshop. Though when I tried RT & actually saved a ton of time & money & wasnt bogged down with glitches I was sold on RT. WS had many half baked feature sets that were there but didnt work fully only to get aholt of some one and be prodded into spending more $$...then when had to sort out billing errors with overseas CS, thats it Im done!

Christopher P.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used monthly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2025

Labor guide with invoicing not bad

I was happy for the first month. I needed something that had more integration and more functionality. Even though those things cost more money with another company, that’s where I went.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Someone offered me the opportunity to take my Shop to the next level from paper invoices and calculator to something that did most of the work for me. It’s really inexpensive. I would say it’s cheap and it works for a start up shop which is what I used it for. Only a few months so I could get off the ground.

Cons:

Invoices are tough to find once finalized for warranty. They are there you just have to do an irregular search.

Sayyed A.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2025

Useful Tool with Some Rough Edges

Overall, it’s a solid and practical system once you’re set up, especially for managing schedules and invoices. With fewer bugs and a smoother learning process, it could be excellent.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Real-Time Labour Guide does a great job with Invoice Management and Appointment Scheduling, and the Security gives confidence when handling sensitive data. Mobile Access is handy on the go.

Cons:

There’s a noticeable Learning Curve, and I ran into a few Bugs and Issues that slowed things down. Customer Support is helpful, but responses can sometimes take longer than expected.

Darren R.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2020

Auto repair invoicing and labor

The customer service has always been extremely friendly and helpful. For us as a small business the software works perfect. It allows us to customize our invoices and track our customers repairs. Customer service is very helpful with finding labor on old cars or very new cars that may not be in a labor system.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Ease of use, great customer service, pricing, does pretty much everything we want. We’ve stayed with this software for several years.

Cons:

In progress tickets drop from system after 14 days. There are times when we are waiting for special order parts that arrive past that period and we have to rekey what we’ve entered already.

Reasons for choosing Real-Time Labor Guide

Options and pricing.

Reasons for switching to Real-Time Labor Guide

System down time, wait too long for customer service assistance and poor customer service.

Vendor Response

Darren - Thank you so much for your glowing review! I will make sure we look at the in-progress time frame, but the best way to make sure those tickets are never dropped is to complete them as estimates. Estimates don't show up on sales reports and can be edited and changed into invoices at any time. The in-progress was meant more like an auto-save feature so you wouldn't lose your partially completed ticket if you had a customer walk in and need immediate assistance.

Replied May 2020

William M.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2020

Real Time Labour Guide review

Great value. Couldn't run shop without it

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The closest you will get to an accurate time to complete operations. this has increased revenues by approximately 20%

Cons:

bit weak on larger vehicles such as medium duty trucks

Reasons for choosing Real-Time Labor Guide

Seemed to have most accurate real time labour times.

Reasons for switching to Real-Time Labor Guide

Inaccurate under valued times in other products. when I compared I found I was charging about 20% less than what I should have been charging, I also confirmed my belief that other product was inaccurate on times allowed for most jobs.

Jason T.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2020

JASONS AUTO BODY

I just use it because of cost is so low.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It is easy to use and navigate just have to play with the system to learn its uses.

Cons:

I wish it had repair help on some jobs like Mitchell has and like for me I wished they would offer a crash -labor estimator like this. Even tech to tech talk for help would be nice.

Reasons for choosing Real-Time Labor Guide

cost

Reasons for switching to Real-Time Labor Guide

The cost between them made the choice for me

Vendor Response

Jason - Thank you for your glowing review! We do try to offer just what a shop needs at the lowest price possible. We appreciate the feedback and are happy to have you as a customer!

Replied June 2020

Brenda C.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed March 2025

Making Us Competitive in Real Time

Updated guides to keep us competitive in a large market without shorting ourselves.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Being competitive with labor rates and not under-charging for services.

Cons:

Sometimes it was hard to get the market we are in just right compared to places less urban than us.

Verified

Reviewer

Automotive

2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed October 2018

customer service & incorrect Labor Time

labor times most of the time is wrong make sure you you have different source you can't trust the info which is they getting pay monthly! 30% of time they are wrong

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

????!!!I'm not sure I like anything about them they been introduced by different company

Cons:

we have to call them at least a couple times a month to correct the time labor times incomplete and they supposed to give you credit to correct them. good luck they ignore you

Vendor Response

How much trust can you put in an anonymous review? We serve thousands of customers and provide hundreds of thousands of labor times. No labor guide is 100% correct, which is why we are called "guides". But we are always here to take your call, look at the job with you and give you the information you need to complete the job. Most customers appreciate that and tell us it's impossible to get that kind of service from the other guys. They also appreciate how much money we make them by providing correct times when the other guys are off. This is why the smart technician has more than one source. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but again, how much can you trust a reviewer who blasts you anonymously?

Replied October 2018