Set up registration renewal reminders

Registration renewal is the one date a customer cannot ignore, and in several states it drags an inspection along with it. Recording rego expiry against a vehicle turns that date into a booking.

This is free and runs for every automotive account.

Read this first: CTP

You can record a CTP expiry date on a vehicle. It is stored, it shows on the vehicle record, and it comes out in the CSV export. No reminder is sent about CTP. Only the registration expiry date drives reminders. If you have been relying on a CTP reminder going out, it has not been.

Recording the dates

Three ways, all reaching the same fields:

1. On the vehicle record, in the Rego renewal panel. Pick the state, set the expiry, save.
2. In the vehicle add or edit form, in the same section.
3. In a bulk import, using a rego expiry column and a state column. See bulk import vehicles from a spreadsheet.

What you see

Once one vehicle has a date, the vehicles list gains two filters, Rego expired and Rego expiring soon, and the workshop dashboard raises a callout for each. An expired rego is the urgent one: the customer cannot legally drive away.

What the customer gets

Once a day we look at every active vehicle with a rego expiry date and an owner contact.

• Both email and SMS. This is the only automotive reminder that texts.
• When: 30, 14 and 3 days before expiry, and up to 7 days after it, so a lapsed rego still gets one chase.
• How often: at most one per vehicle per 7 days, whichever channel.
• Wording by state. New South Wales gets pink slip wording, Victoria gets roadworthy certificate wording, Queensland gets safety certificate wording, and so on, so the message names the thing the customer actually has to do.
• An SMS needs a valid Australian mobile on the contact. An email needs an email address. A contact with neither gets nothing.

About "Reply BOOK"

The text message ends by inviting the customer to reply. Those replies only land somewhere if your workshop number is run by the AI Receptionist. Without it, a reply goes to a number nobody is watching. If you are not running the Receptionist, tell customers to ring you, and treat the SMS as a one-way nudge.

Editing a date

Correcting a rego date clears that vehicle's reminder throttle, so the next run reconsiders it straight away against the new date. You do not have to wait out a 7-day window after fixing a typo.

If a customer says nothing arrived

Check the delivery record before you assume. See checking a reminder was sent. The usual causes are no email address on the contact, a landline in the mobile field, or a bounced address.

Roadworthy certificates you issue yourself

Certificates your own workshop issues have their own chase, separate from this one. See roadworthy and pink slip certificates.