Tyre shop software off the shelf or custom

What does tyre shop software have to do?

It has to know, for every customer, where their tyres are, in what condition and when they go back on the rim. Quotes, job cards, stock and e-invoicing are also handled by good workshop software. Storage, seasonal changes and the end-of-life tyre contribution are not, and that is where tyre shop software differs from an invoicing program.

Storage is the test that decides: software that finds a set by plate in a few seconds and stops you fitting the wrong one is worth more than one with ten extra modules. This guide is about tyre shops; for the mechanical workshop, with vehicle check-in, spare parts and vehicle history, there is the page on workshop and tyre shop software.

When do the seasonal change peaks fall?

In two windows of about a month: between 15 October and 15 November winter tyres go on, between 15 April and 15 May they come off. The dates come from two acts of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, and the obligation they set is narrower than it is usually described.

The directive of 16 January 2013 says that outside built-up areas, on roads where it often snows or freezes, the body that owns the road can require winter tyres or chains on board. The obligation applies from 15 November to 15 April, and inside built-up areas the municipality can do the same. It is not a national obligation: it applies where an ordinance imposes it. So as not to overload tyre shops close to the dates, the circular of 17 January 2014 adds a tolerance: winter tyres can be used from 15 October to 15 May even with speed index Q. Index Q is usually lower than the one on the registration document. Those with the speed index of the registration document can be used all year round.

The AI answers we read on 23 October 2026 put the peaks in the same months; Google's AI Mode, in one answer, calls the change «obbligatorio» (mandatory), and it is not. What matters for the software is the calendar: every storage customer comes back twice a year, and the windows to do it last a month.

Tyre shop software is measured on peak days: reminders sent in waves before 15 October and 15 April, a calendar per lift with the real duration of every job. Then come the list of sets to get ready the day before and the swap between the fitted set and the stored set, done while the customer waits, not in the evening.

What does it have to do with the end-of-life tyre contribution?

Carry it from the purchase invoice to the sales invoice, without changing it. Article 228 of Legislative Decree 152 of 2006, the Italian environmental code, says that at every stage of the sale the contribution for managing end-of-life tyres (PFU) is shown on the invoice clearly and separately. It is part of the price and subject to VAT. The producer or importer applies it, at the amount in force when the tyre enters the Italian replacement market, and it stays the same at every later step. Each retailer writes on the invoice the contribution it paid when it bought the tyre.

For the software this means that the contribution arrives with the tyre, from the price list or the supplier's invoice. It stays linked to that tyre while it is in stock and goes out on a separate line of the customer's invoice, with VAT. Customers' tyres in storage are not sold and carry no contribution: a program that keeps them in the same stock as new tyres gets the stock count wrong, and sooner or later the invoice too.

The e-invoice, on the other hand, goes through the Exchange System like for any other business: there, tyre shop software does nothing different from a good invoicing program.

How much does off-the-shelf tyre shop software cost?

From 432 € a year for storage alone to 549 € a month for complete software. These are three published price lists, read on 23 October 2026, one per type, next to essential custom software built by us.

TYRESOFT presents its figure as an indicative example, and writes that the final quote depends on sites, volumes and integrations. TYRESOFT and Officina in Cloud, on the pricing page, do not say whether VAT is included. Other products among those most cited by the AI answers, such as those from Mada, SmarTyres, MMB and Pneusdata, show no prices on the pages the AI answers cite.

What tyre shop software costs over three years

euro

TyreDep, storage only1,296TYRESOFT, storage only1,800Officina in Cloud, 99 € a month3,564Officina in Cloud, 299 € a month10,764Officina in Cloud, 549 € a month19,764Custom, essential19,500

The three-year sum says two things. The entry plans cost a fraction of custom, and for one site with an ordinary storage the choice is already made. The top plan of complete software, on the other hand, costs over three years about as much as essential custom software. There the choice is not made by the price, it is made by how well the product follows the way you work.

When does custom tyre shop software pay off?

When the off-the-shelf product forces you to keep a spreadsheet on the side, or to write the same thing twice. For one site with an ordinary storage that rarely happens, because storage is exactly what tyre shop products do best. It happens more often in these cases:

1. several sites that swap sets, or a central storage that supplies the sites, with a calendar that has to know where the tyres are before booking the slot;
2. workshop software or an ERP that works and that you do not want to change, which storage has to talk to instead of becoming a second program;
3. fleet or rental customers, with contracts, rates and reports that products do not provide for;
4. a portal for customers, or for the workshops that leave their tyres with you, with the storage status and booking;
5. a way of working that you keep in Excel today next to the program, because the program does not follow it.

Often the answer is not a whole system. The custom work that costs least is a module next to the off-the-shelf product: the list of sets to get ready, the customer portal, the link between storage and accounting.

With us the thresholds of every custom project apply. A first module starts at 10,000 € with 6-8 weeks of work. An essential management system, like the one for a workshop in the cost guide, starts at about 15,000 € with 2-3 months. A platform with several departments and roles and integrations with ERP and CRM starts at 45,000 €. The top of the range is written in the contract. When custom pays off in general is in the FAQ custom or standard; the signs that a spreadsheet is no longer enough are in the guide Excel or business software.

How do you choose, and how do you move to the new program?

You choose with your own tyres in the demo, not with the list of features, and you move to the new program after a peak. Bring the vendor twenty or thirty real sets, taken from your storage, and have them run these tests in front of you.

1. Find a set by plate: how long does it take to know which site it is in, on which shelf, in what condition?
2. Run a full change, from the reminder to the booking, the picking, the fitting, up to the removed set going back on the shelf with its new location.
3. Try to make a mistake: scan the label of another customer's set, or a location that does not exist, and see whether the program stops you.
4. Record a damaged tyre with a photo, and find it again on the receipt the customer signs.
5. Prepare from the calendar the list of sets for tomorrow morning.
6. Export the whole storage to an open file, and ask how you would load it into another program.
7. If you have two sites, move a set from one to the other and see what the other site's calendar shows.

The move happens after a peak, not before. In December or June there is time to give every set a code and a location, label the shelves and train whoever is at the counter; in October there is not. Before importing the Excel sheet, clean it: plates written one way only, locations that really exist, collected sets removed. A new program that imports messy storage gives you back the same mess, faster.

Before signing, have the contract state that the data is yours, in what format you receive it if you change vendor and what support you get on peak days.

An example: two sites, 1,500 sets and an Excel sheet

A tyre retailer has two outlets and about 1,500 sets in storage. It invoices with a generic program and keeps storage in an Excel sheet. On 23 October 2026 we asked Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity what it needs to manage storage, seasonal changes and bookings.

The answers agree: cloud tyre shop software that both sites see together, with labels on the sets, the location in each site and transfers between the two. They add a calendar that knows at booking time which site the tyres are in. Google's AI Overview works out that 1,500 sets are about 6,000 tyres. AI Mode advises changing system right after a peak. ChatGPT suggests testing the candidates with 20-30 real sets. None says what it costs.

What is missing is the sum for the peak days. Here it is with round numbers, to redo with yours. If the sets are split evenly between the two sites and every customer fits winter tyres between 15 October and 15 November, over 22 working days the changes come to about 68 a day, 34 per site. If a change with balancing takes a lift for half an hour, the duration AI Mode uses, each site needs 17 lift hours a day: two lifts full from morning to evening. And every evening, at each site, there are 34 sets to take down from the shelves for the next day and another 34 to put away. With those numbers Excel does not give way because there are too many rows, but because after the first peak day the location written in the sheet is no longer the one on the shelf.

From there the path that pays off is this:

1. in December, a label with a barcode or QR code on every set and on every shelf location, at both sites;
2. the Excel sheet cleaned and imported, with a single record per customer and per plate;
3. tyre shop software that handles two sites, with the calendar per lift and the list of sets to get ready;
4. the test in the April peak, with the sheet kept in reserve until the end.

For two sites and 1,500 sets there are off-the-shelf products that state they handle several sites. Ask for the price for two sites and about 6,000 tyres, because entry plans have limits: TYRESOFT's, in the price list example, stops at 5,000 for one site. If the generic program is only used to invoice, it pays to replace it: tyre shop software invoices better, with the end-of-life tyre contribution.

Custom pays off if that program stays for reasons of its own, accounting, fleet customers, the link with the accountant, and storage has to talk to it. The first module, for example storage with labels, transfers and the list of sets connected to the program that stays, starts at 10,000 €. If an off-the-shelf product is enough for you, we tell you before the quote, because custom software that is not needed is good for neither of us.

When do you not need new software?

When storage is at one site, holds a few hundred sets and whoever is at the counter knows them: then a tidy sheet, with labels on the shelves, still holds up. And when the software you have already has a storage module nobody uses: the work to do is on the labels and on the habits at the counter, not on another program.

A program that knows where the tyres are is no use if nobody scans the label when putting them away.

Sources and further reading

• Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, directive of 16 January 2013, protocol 1580, on winter tyres and anti-skid devicesmit.gov.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
• Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, circular of 17 January 2014, protocol 1049, “Impiego degli pneumatici invernali” (Use of winter tyres)mit.gov.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
• Legislative Decree no. 152 of 3 April 2006, article 228, “Pneumatici fuori uso” (End-of-life tyres)normattiva.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
• TyreDep, “Quanto costa un software per gestire il deposito pneumatici?” (How much does tyre storage software cost?)tyredep.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
• TYRESOFT, “Piani e costi” (Plans and costs)tyresoft.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
• Officina in Cloud, “Prezzi” (Pricing)officinaincloud.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026