A pre-purchase inspection app for mechanics

GoFolio turns a pre-purchase inspection into a booking with a checklist attached. You rate each item Pass, Watch or Fail, add a note and photos as you go, and the finished report goes to the buyer inside the same document as your invoice, with its own link they can forward.

How an inspection runs

The buyer books

New accounts come with a Pre-Purchase Inspection service already set up. Add extra questions to it so the booking arrives with what you need: the seller’s name and phone, and the address where the car is parked. Every booking also captures make, model, year, rego and odometer. Send buyers straight to it with a link like gofolioapp.com/book/your-shop?service=pre-purchase-inspection.

At the car

Open the booking and the checklist is on the same screen. Each item gets Pass, Watch or Fail, a note, and as many photos as it needs, taken with the camera or picked from your library. Tag each photo “Good condition” or “Needs attention” so the buyer knows which shots are the bad news. The checklist saves as you go, so there’s no save button to forget.

Sending the report

Complete the checklist and send the invoice. The colour-coded results and photos are folded into the invoice document and its PDF, so the buyer pays and reads the report in one place. In Australia the invoice text says the report is included. The report also has its own public page the buyer can pass to the seller or their partner without forwarding your invoice.

Example: part of a finished report

A made-up inspection of a 2014 Mazda 3 at 168,400 km. Notes are short and say what the buyer should do, not just what you saw.

A Fail on tyres gives the buyer a concrete number to take back to the seller. A Watch with “budget for” tells them it isn’t a deal-breaker.

A starting item list

The checklist is editable per service, so set it up once to match how you inspect. Copy this as a starting point and cut what you don’t check.

Our printable pre-purchase inspection checklist goes item by item through what to look for, if you also want a paper copy.

What to tell the buyer about the rest

Your inspection covers the car’s condition, not its paperwork. The WA Consumer Protection car buyers checklist recommends a pre-purchase inspection by a third-party licensed mechanic and, separately, a $2 PPSR search using the VIN to check whether the car is written off, stolen or has money owing. A line on your report pointing the buyer to the PPSR costs nothing and saves an awkward call later.