Digital Service Book
Start a free digital car service book
Your paper records, photographed once and kept for good. Enter your registration to start — it's free, and your documents stay private.
What is a digital service book?
From a photo to an entry in your book
We do the reading and you do the checking. Nothing is saved until you say so.
Take the photos
We pick out the details
Marsh Lane Motors, Bristol
Engine oil and filter change · Cambelt and water pump replaced · Coolant renewed
You check each one
Marsh Lane Motors, Bristol
Engine oil and filter change · Cambelt and water pump replaced · Coolant renewed
Would you like to see a finished book first?
Our made-up example is a ten-year-old Ford serviced five times by two independent garages, laid out exactly as a real book is, PDF included.
See a sample service bookService book vs digital service record: what's the difference?
Three different things get called a service history, and they differ in who writes them and who can see them.
The paper service book. The booklet that came with the car. The garage that does the work stamps and dates it — franchised dealer or independent. Whoever holds the book can see it, and if it is lost, the entries go with it.
The manufacturer’s digital service record. Most manufacturers now log each visit to a franchised dealer against the car’s VIN in their own system. Only franchised dealers write to it, and independent garages cannot. It is what a dealer prints for you, and what our paid service history check retrieves.
Your own digital service book. This one. You write it, from the paperwork you hold — including independent-garage invoices the manufacturer never sees. Your documents stay private; what you share is the list of records, as a link or a PDF.
Mercedes, Audi, VW and BMW digital service records explained
These four brands keep some of the most detailed digital records, and in each case only franchised dealers write to them. Your own book doesn’t connect to any of them.
Mercedes-Benz. Every franchised dealer visit is logged against the VIN, typically with the date, mileage, the A or B service under ASSYST PLUS and the individual items. The Mercedes Me Connect app shows a summary of recent services, but the dealer system holds the full record. See our Mercedes service history guide or the Mercedes service history check.
Audi. Audi records run on the Volkswagen Group dealer system, logged against the VIN with the date, mileage and whether the car is on a Fixed or Longlife schedule. The myAudi app shows recent services on newer cars, not the full history. See our Audi service history guide or the Audi service history check.
Volkswagen. VW shares the same Group dealer system as Audi, Skoda, SEAT and Cupra, with each franchised visit logged against the VIN. The VW We Connect / VW app shows a summary of recent services on newer cars, but it is not the full dealer record. See our Volkswagen service history guide or the Volkswagen service history check.
BMW. Every authorised dealer visit is logged against the VIN, typically with the service triggered by Condition Based Servicing, the date and the mileage. The BMW app and ConnectedDrive portal show a subset of that data rather than the complete dealer record. See our BMW service history guide or the BMW service history check.
Work done at an independent garage never reaches any of these systems. If your car has been serviced outside the dealer network, those invoices belong in your own book.
Why the manufacturer's records aren't the whole story
A manufacturer only knows about visits to its franchised dealers. After the warranty, many owners switch to a local garage, and from then on the car’s maintenance exists only as invoices in the owner’s possession.
Your own book is where those invoices go. That makes it a partner to the dealer record rather than a substitute: the book carries the paperwork you hold, and a service history check (£9.99) fetches what the franchised dealers logged. Do both and they appear side by side on one report.
How each entry is labelled
A buyer reading your book can tell at a glance what each entry rests on. There are two kinds.
From a document. We read it from a photo or scan you uploaded, and we keep that file. These carry the most weight.
Typed in. For work you know happened but have no paper for. These are marked as typed and have no document behind them, so a buyer can weigh them accordingly.
The whole book is also marked as owner-supplied rather than from the manufacturer. Saying so openly is what lets a buyer trust the entries that do have paperwork.
The one check we can actually make
We cannot verify a receipt, and we do not claim to — we have not seen the car, spoken to the garage, or checked the work. There is one thing we can test, and it happens to be the thing that matters most to a buyer.
Every mileage you add is compared against your vehicle’s DVSA MOT odometer readings. Those readings are public, they were recorded by a tester rather than by you, and they cannot be edited. If a claimed reading does not fit between them, the record says so plainly rather than sitting there looking tidy.
Be clear about the limits of that: it constrains the mileage figure only. The date, the garage and the work described are unchecked, and a well-made forgery with a plausible mileage would pass. It is one honest check, not a guarantee.
Your documents stay private
A garage invoice usually carries your name and your home address. So the documents you upload are stored privately and are never shown on your report, never included in the PDF you hand a buyer, and never visible to anyone you share the report with. Only you can open them.
What a buyer sees is the record and a note that a document is on file. That is a real trade — they cannot inspect the paperwork themselves — and it is the right one, because the alternative publishes your address to everyone who opens your report.
Lost your service book?
A replacement book from the manufacturer arrives blank. None of the old stamps come back with it, and a brand-new book in a car that is a decade old tends to put buyers on guard.
What does help is the paperwork behind the stamps. Gather the invoices you still have, then ring the garages that serviced the car: most keep copies of past invoices and will send one on request. Photograph each into your book as it turns up, and the history comes back one visit at a time. Our lost service history page covers getting the dealer records back.
Supported Brands
Manufacturer Records
We access service history data directly from manufacturer dealership systems — covering most European vehicles from 2012 model year onwards.
Full Service History
(17)Itemised dealer records: the date of each franchised visit, the odometer reading, what was done and which dealer did it.
Workshop Remarks
(14)Entries come from recall and warranty work rather than routine servicing, so they rarely list what was serviced. Visits that fall about a service interval apart still suggest the car was being looked after at the dealer.
Limited Coverage
(14)The dealer system answers for only a minority of these cars, and often briefly. Whether anything comes back depends on the individual car.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it cost anything?
No. Enter the registration, sign in with your email address and build the book for nothing. The only paid product is the separate report of manufacturer dealer records.
Which files work?
Photos and scans saved as JPG, PNG, HEIC (the iPhone's own format) or PDF. A clear phone photo of the whole page is better than a close-up of one stamp, because the date and reading are often written beside it.
Will it read handwriting?
Printed invoices come out almost every time. Handwritten stamps usually do, though some handwriting defeats anyone. That's why you check every entry before it is saved and can correct any figure we got wrong.
Why would a buyer believe a book I made myself?
Because it doesn't ask them to take your word for everything. Each entry is labelled as added by the owner, and says whether a document sits behind it. Each reading has also been compared with the car's MOT figures, which come from DVSA and which you can't change.
Who can see my photos?
Only you. They aren't on the report, they aren't in the PDF, and nobody you share the book with can open them. A buyer sees the details we read from each photo and a note that the document is held.
Should I keep my paper service book?
Yes. A garage's stamp is its own mark, and buyers like to see it. Photograph the stamped pages into the digital book as well. The paper stays as the original, and the digital copy adds the MOT mileage comparison and a version you can send by link or PDF.
Can my garage add to it?
Not directly. The book is yours and only you write to it. After each service, ask the garage for an itemised invoice and upload that: we read the details from it for you to check.
Does it connect to the Mercedes, VW or BMW digital service record?
No. Your book does not connect to any manufacturer's system. The digital service records that Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW and other manufacturers keep are written by their franchised dealers, and retrieving them is what our paid service history check (£9.99) does. If you have both, they sit together on one report.
Do I need to sign in?
Yes. You sign in with your email address, so the book stays tied to you: only you can add records to it or open the documents you uploaded.
What if I've lost the paper book?
Start with whatever you have, even if it's one recent invoice. Each document you add strengthens the history, and the book keeps growing as the car is serviced.
How long does the service history check take?
Most reports arrive within 1–2 minutes of payment. We submit the lookup to the manufacturer dealer system as soon as the card is authorised. If the dealer system is slow we hold the order and email you the report when it lands — typically the same hour.
Will the report show services done at independent garages?
No. The manufacturer dealer system only holds records for visits to franchised dealerships. Independent garage services don't appear in the manufacturer database — that's the same gap any main dealer would see if you asked them directly. For independents, look for paper invoices or receipts from the seller.
Can I check service history without a registration?
If you have the 17-character VIN you can run the lookup at /check-service-history-by-vin instead. The VIN route is helpful for imports, vehicles awaiting registration, or auction stock. Otherwise the UK registration (VRM) is the easiest way to identify the vehicle.
What if the car is too old for digital records?
Manufacturer digital service records typically start around 2012. Earlier vehicles may have partial or no electronic records — the warning that appears at checkout flags pre-2012 vehicles. If we can't find any records your card isn't charged.
Is this the same as a car history check?
No — a car history check covers stolen markers, write-off categories, outstanding finance, and mileage anomalies. A service history check covers manufacturer dealer service records and DVSA MOT history. For finance, stolen and write-off records we also offer a separate Car check at /car-check, using data provided by Experian. It costs £8.00 added to a service history check, or £12.99 on its own. It comes with Experian's Data Guarantee (up to £10,000 for 12 months; Experian's terms apply).
Related
More on service history checks
Start your free service book
Enter your registration and we'll look up your vehicle and its MOT history. Adding your own records takes a photo each.
Start my free bookSee exactly what you get — view a sample report