ARI (Auto Repair Software)v16.3.20

What changed

• New featureAI-powered Smart Voice Dictation for text entry and diagnostic code conversion.
• New featureWalkaround Dictation to automatically fill inspection checklists and summaries.
• MonetizationSmart Reminder Suggestions based on vehicle service history for PRO users.
• SocialRefer & Earn program providing credits for successful shop referrals.
• New featureCustomer Intake Links for remote entry of contact and vehicle details.
• New feature360 Payments integration for PayPal, Venmo, and digital wallets.
• UXRedesigned inspection checklist and editor optimized for one-handed use.
• UXRebuilt Email Setup with automatic provider and server setting recognition.
• PlatformOBD Scanner support for WiFi and Bluetooth (BLE) dongles on iOS devices.
• UXEnhanced QuickBooks sync visibility with error messages and status banners.

Original release notes

This update bundles versions 16.2 and 16.3 — packed with new features, redesigns and important fixes.

NEW FEATURES
• Smart Voice Dictation — tap the mic on any Concern, Cause or Correction field and just talk. AI rewrites your words into clean, customer-ready text, fixes false starts and turns spoken codes into the real thing ("P zero three oh one" becomes "P0301").
• Walkaround Dictation — circle the vehicle describing what you see; ARI splits your narration into separate concerns, or fills your inspection checklist and writes the summary for you.
• Smart Reminder Suggestions — ARI reads a vehicle's service history and proposes the next reminders, with due dates and mileage prefilled (PRO).
• Reminders that notice returns — a reminder marks itself Completed automatically when the customer comes back for the work.
• Refer & Earn — invite another shop and you both get 3,000 free credits when they subscribe, with bonuses at your 3rd and 5th referrals.
• Customer Intake Links — text a secure one-time link and customers enter their own contact and vehicle details before they arrive.
• 360 Payments hosted payment page — clients pay on a secure page with PayPal, Venmo and digital wallets built in, plus one-tap full refunds.
• QuickBooks sync you can finally see — plain-language error messages and an amber banner on any invoice that hasn't reached QuickBooks, with one-tap re-sync.
• Attach files to inspections, and the OBD Scanner now works with WiFi dongles and finds Bluetooth (BLE) dongles on iPhone and iPad.

IMPROVEMENTS
• Rebuilt Email Setup — type your email address and ARI recognizes your provider, fills in the server settings and walks you through the app password your provider requires.
• Redesigned inspection checklist, templates and editor — big Good/Fair/Poor buttons, progress bar and quick filters, built for one-handed use.
• Short links — invoice, estimate, inspection and booking links are now ~45 characters, so a typical text fits in a single SMS.
• Clearer Client Portal sharing page, PartsTech part positions carried over automatically, vehicle notes shown on the vehicle card, and a faster appointment calendar.

FIXES
• Inventory no longer deducts more stock than you invoiced when a record is saved more than once.
• Odometer readings no longer vanish from saved invoices and estimates.
• Older invoices no longer open with parts missing — and can no l…