VISION & SCOPE DOCUMENT
VietGara — Multi-Tenant SaaS Platform for Auto Garage Management & Maintenance
Product Direction Document — Business Level, Not a Technical Specification
Version 1.4 — October 12, 2026
1. Business Requirements
1.1. Background
Most auto repair garages in Vietnam currently manage their operations using standalone, single-tenant desktop software — or, in many cases, paper records and spreadsheets. Existing systems are typically tied to a single garage, do not support chain/franchise models, lack any connection to e-invoicing, payment gateways, or insurance providers, and offer no mobile channel for either customers or technicians. As Vietnam’s auto service industry grows alongside the expanding vehicle fleet, demand for a modern, scalable management platform sold under a service (SaaS) model is becoming increasingly clear.
1.2. Business Opportunity
Build a multi-tenant SaaS platform that allows many independent garages and garage chains to register and operate independently on a shared infrastructure — reducing the cost of ownership for each garage compared to building their own software, while creating a recurring revenue stream for the platform operator through per-garage/per-branch pricing.
- Target scale for the first 1–2 years: 100–1,000 garages using the platform, roughly tens of thousands of business transactions per day across the whole system.
- Expansion opportunity beyond the initial phase: direct integration with insurance companies and affiliated garage networks, creating a competitive advantage that is difficult for small garages to replicate by building their own software.
1.3. Business Objectives
| Objective | Description |
|---|---|
| Growth in tenant count | Reach garage sign-up milestones on a quarterly roadmap following the MVP launch |
| Recurring revenue (MRR) | Build a stable revenue stream from per-garage/per-branch subscription fees (License Management) |
| Faster time-to-value | A new garage can self-register and start using core operations (quotes, repairs, inventory) on the same day, with no on-site deployment team required |
| Lower operating cost for garages | Digitize currently manual processes (insurance reconciliation, invoice issuance) to reduce administrative time at the garage |
| Customer retention | Maintain a high subscription renewal rate through a stable experience and features that match real garage operating needs |
1.4. Market Size & Potential
Vietnam does not currently have a complete official count of auto repair garages nationwide. The figures below are compiled from vehicle registration data published by the Traffic Police Department and from the scale of insurance-affiliated garage networks, and are used here as a basis for estimating the size and growth rate of the target market.
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total cars in circulation nationwide | Over 7.13 million vehicles (as of mid-2026) | Traffic Police Department, compiled by VnExpress |
| New car registrations nationwide, 2025 | 624,300 vehicles, up 27% year-on-year | Traffic Police Department (Dec 26, 2025) |
| New car registrations, first half of 2026 | Contributed to pushing total vehicles in circulation past 7.13 million, a sharp increase versus the same period in 2025 | VnExpress (Jul 2026) |
| Share of vehicles in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City | The two cities user for over 40% of all registered vehicles nationwide | Compiled automotive industry reporting |
| New registrations 2025 — Ho Chi Minh City | ~102,354 vehicles — highest in the country | Traffic Police Department (Dec 26, 2025) |
| New registrations 2025 — Hanoi | ~88,165 vehicles — second highest in the country | Traffic Police Department (Dec 26, 2025) |
| New registrations 2025 — Hai Phong, Bac Ninh | 31,436 and 30,721 vehicles — the next fastest-growing urban/industrial centers | Traffic Police Department (Dec 26, 2025) |
| Scale of insurance-affiliated garage networks (e.g. PVI) | Approximately 686 affiliated garages nationwide, filterable by province/city | Data aggregated via the MoMo app |
Interpretation: a 27% year-on-year growth rate in new car registrations translates into a corresponding rise in maintenance and repair demand over time (new vehicles still require periodic servicing, while the accumulating stock of older vehicles requires increasing amounts of repair work each year). Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City together accounting for over 40% of the national vehicle fleet, combined with Da Nang’s role as a service/tourism hub with a high density of service vehicles, confirms these three cities as the top-priority markets for reaching the goal of 100–1,000 garages on the platform within the first 1–2 years. The fact that a single insurer’s (PVI) affiliated network alone comprises roughly 686 garages indicates the organized garage market is already large enough to support the initial target, while the much larger population of small independent garages outside insurance networks remains largely undigitized — this is VietGara’s growth headroom.
Target garage segments
- Independent small and mid-sized auto repair garages — the primary customer segment for the first 100–1,000 garages.
- Garage chains / multi-branch dealers — customers who need centralized multi-branch management and multi-branch pricing.
- Authorized dealer service centers — a potential segment for later expansion, with deeper integration needs around insurers and warranty processes.
- End users within each garage: garage owner/manager, accountant, technician, and the individual vehicle owner (the garage’s own customer, not the platform’s direct paying customer).
- Parts suppliers of the garage: a business that sells parts to a garage. A supplier is a garage-owned record today; a supplier portal for suppliers with a VietGara user comes in Phase 17.
1.5. Alternatives and Competition
- Existing single-tenant desktop software used at garages today — limitations: no multi-branch support, no mobile access, no built-in e-invoice/insurance/payment integration.
- Manual management via paper records/Excel — common at very small garages, limitations: no real-time reporting, error-prone, no quick vehicle history lookup.
- General-purpose accounting/ERP software (MISA, FAST, BRAVO, etc.) — strong on accounting but lacking auto-repair-specific workflows (repair orders, technician assignment, insurance reconciliation).
2. Vision of the Solution
2.1. Vision Statement
For garages and garage chains across Vietnam that need a modern operational management system, VietGara is a SaaS garage management platform that digitizes the entire workflow — from quoting, repair, and parts inventory to settlement, e-invoicing, and insurance reconciliation — accessible on both web and mobile. Unlike the standalone desktop software currently on the market, our platform is available instantly with no installation required, supports multiple branches, and is designed to add e-invoicing, payments, and insurance integration as the platform grows (Phases 16 and 17 of the roadmap).
2.2. Major Features
| Feature Group | Value Delivered |
|---|---|
| Quotes & Repair Orders | Fast quote creation, online customer approval, conversion into a repair order with technician assignment and real-time progress tracking |
| Parts Inventory Management | Track stock in/out/on-hand, low-stock alerts, avoid repair delays caused by missing parts |
| Settlement & Receivables | Fast settlement, payment vouchers, automatic receivables tracking (the customer/insurer split returns with insurance in Phase 17) |
| E-Invoicing | Issue e-invoices directly within the settlement flow, compliant with current tax regulations, no separate manual step required |
| Online Payments | Customers pay through popular payment gateways directly in the app, reducing time spent on manual cash/bank-transfer collection |
| Insurance Reconciliation (Phase 17) | Track vehicle insurance claims with their deadlines and document checklist, reducing manual paperwork between the garage, the owner and the insurer |
| Appointment Booking (Phase 12) | Customers book a slot with a garage; the garage manages capacity and a calendar |
| Customer App | Customers track vehicle progress, approve quotes, view vehicle history, pay, and receive e-invoices directly on their phone |
| Technician App | Receive repair orders, update progress, take before/after photos on-site, works even in low-connectivity conditions |
| Owner & Admin Apps | Garage owners run their garages from the phone (dashboard, quotes, repairs, receivables); VietGara’s operators manage plans and subscriptions and follow sign-ups and licenses on the go |
| Reporting & Analytics | Real-time revenue and stock in/out/on-hand dashboards for each garage and across the whole chain |
2.3. Assumptions and Dependencies
- Assumes target garages have stable internet connectivity at the front office/reception area; workshop areas may have weaker signal (already addressed through the offline-first design of the technician app).
- Depends on third-party e-invoicing providers (VNPT, Viettel, etc.) — the platform does not issue e-invoices itself but acts as an integration intermediary.
- Depends on each insurer’s own claims process, which today is still largely based on paper/digitized documents rather than fully open APIs.
- Assumes garage owners are willing to adopt digital transformation and pay a recurring subscription fee rather than a one-time software purchase as in the past.
3. Scope and Limitations
3.1. Scope of Initial Release (Phase 1 — MVP)
- Garage user registration (e-mail with OTP verification, or Google), staff invitations, and owner-defined roles with default roles (manager, accountant, service advisor, technician, inventory staff).
- Customer and vehicle records management.
- Quotes, repair orders, parts inventory management, basic settlement.
- Subscription plans & license management per owner, with limits on garages, staff and daily transactions (trial, plan change, expiry).
- Basic reporting and statistics for each garage.
- Owner web console for garage owners and staff.
- Admin Web for the VietGara operators (subscription plans and subscriptions), a separate web app.
- Mobile apps are not released in this phase. The garage owner’s Flutter app (
vietgara-owner-app) already implements the owner side of the MVP features and ships in Phase 2.
3.2. Scope of Subsequent Releases
| Phase | Additional Scope |
|---|---|
| Phase 2 — Mobile Apps (foundations) | Owner App (vietgara-owner-app), Admin App for platform admins (vietgara-admin-app), and the foundations of the Customer App (vietgara-customer-app) and Technician App (vietgara-technician-app) |
| Phase 3 — Terminology | The word “account” becomes “user” in the database, API, apps and documents |
| Phase 4 — Quality Foundation | Shared test data, API (blackbox) coverage of the stable modules, web end-to-end tests |
| Phase 5 — Customer & Garage Foundations | Customers without a VietGara user (optionally linked to one), suppliers as their own garage-owned records (no longer mixed with customers), customer personal and company tax IDs, the garage’s legal name, tax ID and logo on documents, payment vouchers, one rule for deleting versus deactivating, a file registry |
| Phase 6 — Catalogue & Security | Units of measure with conversion, part categories and pictures, Excel exports, multi-factor authentication |
| Phase 7 — Inventory & Job Catalogue | Goods receipt documents with a supplier on every line, weighted-average cost and valuation, cost visibility, write-off and returns, stock count, barcode scanning, Excel import; job catalogue with suggested parts, hidden consumables and stock reservation |
| Phase 8 — Security & Support Access | Rate limiting, security review and compliance checklist, platform admin staff with roles and groups, read-only support access to a garage with the owner’s approval |
| Phase 9 — Production Readiness | Load and performance testing, monitoring, alerting and backups with restore drills, infrastructure as code; the gate before an open launch |
| Phase 10 — Quoting & Printing | A4 and A5 printing from web and phone, e-mail notifications to customers and staff, low-stock alerts; the public company homepage and VietGara product page with a demo request form, and the user guide for garage owners (Release 10.2) |
| Phase 11 — Mobile Core | Push notifications and real-time progress in all four apps, the technician app’s offline work and photos, the customer app’s quote approval and progress |
| Phase 12 — Scheduling | Customers book an appointment with a garage (mainly in the app, push reminders; public page as fallback), garage calendar, capacity, optional bays and technicians; platform admin dashboards (new joiners and licenses per day / month / year) |
| Phase 13 — Money & Insight | Advanced receivables with reminders and reconciliation, payment-out vouchers, purchase orders and supplier payables, technician and profit reports, customer personal-data requests |
| Phase 14 — Advanced Printing & Templates | Thermal receipts and labels, LAN printers, a print agent, garage-designed print templates |
| Phase 15 — Scale | Service split, silo for large tenants, multi-garage dashboards and custom exports, transfers between an owner’s garages |
| Phase 16 — Payments & E-invoicing | Payment gateway (customer payments, subscription payment and renewal), e-invoice integration, SMS/Zalo notifications |
| Phase 17 — Insurance & Partner Expansion | Insurance claim tracking with the garage’s own insurers directory (deadlines, assessment, document checklist, settlement split), more e-invoice providers and insurers, a supplier portal |
3.3. Limitations and Exclusions (Out of Scope)
- Does not replace a full accounting/ERP system (no corporate income tax reporting, detailed payroll) — the platform focuses on garage operational workflows.
- Does not cover motorcycle maintenance/repair; the initial phase focuses on cars only.
- Does not act as an e-invoicing service provider (T-VAN) in its own right — it only integrates with a provider the garage has already contracted.
- Does not perform insurance damage assessment — it only digitizes and transmits claim records; the compensation decision remains the insurer’s responsibility.
- No multi-currency support in the initial phase — focused on the Vietnamese market and VND. The interface is Vietnamese by default, with English available.
4. Business Context
4.1. Stakeholder Profiles
| Role | Primary Concerns |
|---|---|
| Garage owner / manager | Control revenue, cost, and technician productivity; wants fast deployment and reasonable subscription cost |
| Garage accountant | Accurate receivables reconciliation and e-invoicing, reports that are easy to export for tax settlement |
| Technician | Clear repair orders, fast progress updates, no disruption from weak workshop connectivity |
| Supplier (parts supplier, Phase 17 portal) | Clear purchase orders, fast confirmation, delivery notes and invoices matched to the garage’s goods receipts, without phone calls |
| End customer (vehicle owner) | Transparent quotes, ability to track repair progress, convenient payment, immediate e-invoice |
| Platform operations team (Customer Success) | Fast onboarding of new garages, high renewal rate, low repeat support burden |
| E-invoice provider & insurer partners | Stable connectivity, correct data standards, no disputes over the legal validity of records |
Customer profile and user. Two things carry the end customer’s name and must not be confused. A customer profile belongs to one garage: staff create it (a walk-in customer when the person does not want a user), it holds the person’s contact data, vehicles, tax profiles and history at that garage, and it needs no VietGara user. A VietGara user belongs to the person and is the same across garages (it signs in to the Customer App). The two are linked only with the user’s consent: the garage sends a link request, the user confirms it with a one-time code or in the app, and either side can end it. The garage never learns which user a profile is linked to, and a user sees every garage that holds a profile for them. Suppliers are a third thing, kept apart from customers (Phase 17 adds their own link).
4.2. Project Priorities
Applying the classic trade-off model (Scope – Schedule – Resources): one factor is fixed (driver), one is adjustable within limits (constraint), and one is the most flexible (degree of freedom).
| Factor | Priority Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Constraint | The MVP scope (Section 3.1) is fixed by agreement, to ensure the launch includes the necessary core feature set |
| Schedule | Driver | Priority is given to launching the MVP on time to capture the market opportunity before competitors expand |
| Resources | Degree of freedom | Team size/budget can be adjusted within reasonable limits to keep the schedule on track |
4.3. Operating Environment
- Owner web console (garage owners and staff) and Admin Web (VietGara operators): modern browsers (recent versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox), designed for desktop screens at the garage’s front desk/office (1280px and above) and usable on tablets and phones down to 360px (NFR-US-03).
- Mobile apps: iOS and Android, with support for degraded/intermittent connectivity for the technician app.
- Server infrastructure: Google Cloud Platform (ADR-002), serving users in Vietnam from the Singapore region (
asia-southeast1). - Interface language: Vietnamese (default) and English.