Trades, logistics & industry
Backup for garages, car dealers and repair workshops
Mindtime copies your workshop PCs, mailboxes and stock files to its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany. The copies are immutable and one is kept air-gapped, so a hacked laptop or a failed disk does not take your repair history with it.
In Dutch, German or English.
- NL · DEStored only in our own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany
- ImmutableObject Lock storage plus an air-gapped copy; every backup job is checked
- ISO 27001 · NEN 7510Audited security, with a data processing agreement in every contract
- NL · DE · ENSupport from people, no offshore call centres or chatbots
In short
Garages need backup because repair orders, vehicle stock records and invoices must be kept for years and are needed every working day. Mindtime backs up the workshop PCs, diagnostic laptops, mailboxes and NAS around your garage software, stores immutable copies in the Netherlands and Germany and checks every backup job.
What's at stake
The data garages and automotive companies can't afford to lose
Repair orders and vehicle history
Work orders, inspection notes and photos of damage show what you did to a car and why. Customers, insurers and lease companies ask for them long after the car has left the workshop.
Stock and margin-scheme records
For used cars sold under the margin scheme, purchases and sales are tracked per vehicle. Without that file, the VAT you calculated is hard to support.
Diagnostic and calibration reports
Readouts, software update logs and calibration reports often live on one workshop laptop. If that laptop dies, the proof of the work goes with it.
Rules and obligations
What the rules ask of garages and automotive companies
Summarised from the sources listed at the bottom of this page. This is general information, not legal advice.
Seven years, stock records included
The Belastingdienst requires seven years' retention of basic records, which include stock records (voorraadadministratie), purchase and sales records and payroll. [1]
Margin scheme: extra administration
Dealers in used goods who use the margin scheme have extra administrative obligations under both calculation methods. If you calculate VAT per individual item, you record purchases and sales per item. [2]
RDW recognitions mean inspectable records
Holders of an RDW recognition (erkenning), such as APK or bedrijfsvoorraad, must allow the RDW supervisor to check the administration relevant to that recognition, as well as the vehicles. [3]
NIS2 lists vehicle manufacturing, not repair
The Cyberbeveiligingswet includes manufacturers of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers as an Annex II sector. Garages that repair or sell vehicles do not appear in the sector lists, so most are outside its scope. [4]
When it goes wrong
A phishing email on Saturday
Illustrative example: a family-run garage keeps its planning exports, quotes and scanned purchase documents on the reception PC and a NAS in the office. A phishing email leads to both being encrypted over the weekend. On Monday the garage restores the PC's files and the NAS share from Mindtime's immutable copies, which the attacker could not alter, after they have been scanned for malware. Appointments go ahead, and the margin-scheme file for the cars in stock is complete again.
How Mindtime protects it
Backup for garages and automotive companies, workload by workload
- Laptop and endpoint backupReception PCs and diagnostic laptops hold reports and scans that exist nowhere else.
- Microsoft 365 backupQuotes, approvals from lease companies and supplier invoices arrive by email and live in Outlook and OneDrive.
- Google Workspace backupSmaller garages often run on Gmail and Google Drive, where an emptied trash folder is hard to undo.
- NAS backupA Synology or QNAP in the office is a common home for scans and photos, and a common ransomware target.
The software you use, and what we protect around it
| Autoflex | Cloud garage management software for workshop, sales and administration. Check Autoflex's export and retention terms; Mindtime protects the mail, PCs and NAS around it. |
|---|---|
| Exact Online | Cloud accounting used by many garages. Ask Exact about exports and how long data is kept; Mindtime backs up the Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace mailboxes where purchase invoices first arrive. |
| Diagnostic laptops | Usually a Windows laptop with the manufacturer's diagnostic software and stored reports. Mindtime backs up the laptop's files, so reports survive a broken or stolen device. |
| Scanned purchase and sales documents | Often kept on a NAS or small file server. Mindtime backs up Synology and QNAP NAS units and Linux servers. |
Before you switch
What garages and automotive companies ask us first
Our garage software runs in the cloud, so why back up?
The software supplier looks after its own platform. Your mailboxes, scans, photos and workshop laptops are yours to protect, and those are what Mindtime backs up, with every job checked.
We don't have time to manage IT.
You don't need to. Mindtime monitors the backups 24/7; if something fails, people who speak Dutch, German or English pick it up. No chatbots, no offshore call centre.
Is our customer data stored outside Europe?
No. Backups are stored only in Mindtime's own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany. Every contract includes a data processing agreement.
FAQ
Questions about backup for garages and automotive companies
How long must a garage keep invoices and repair records?
For tax purposes, seven years: the Belastingdienst counts the ledger, purchase and sales records, stock records and payroll as basic records. Repair orders and photos are not named separately, but they often support those records and help when a customer disputes work. Keeping financial files in your backup for at least that period avoids gaps.
Can Mindtime back up our diagnostic laptop?
Yes. Mindtime backs up Windows, macOS and Linux laptops, including the reports and logs stored on them. It protects your files, not the diagnostic tool's licence or the manufacturer's online portal, so ask your equipment supplier how to reinstall and reactivate the software on a replacement laptop.
Are the backups protected against ransomware?
Yes. Backups are written with Object Lock, which makes them immutable, and an extra air-gapped copy is kept apart from the network. Admin actions require multi-factor authentication, and backups are scanned for malware before you restore, so an infection is not copied back onto a clean PC.
Does a garage with a local server need disaster recovery?
Only if the workshop cannot run without that server for long. Mindtime Disaster Recovery keeps standby infrastructure ready, with a first test failover typically within 10 days and quarterly DR tests after that. Most garages with cloud software start with backups of PCs, mail and NAS.
How do we get started?
Book a free 15-minute demo and tell us which PCs, mailboxes and storage you use. If your mail runs on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, you can start a 7-day free trial of that backup first and see it working before you decide.
See it with your own data
Book a 15-minute demo
We show you a backup and a restore, and answer your questions in Dutch, German or English. No offshore call centres, no chatbots.