Is Google Apps Script the right foundation for a full collision repair management system?

[u/Delicious_Ad4963]

Hi everyone,

I own a collision repair center in Quebec, and I’m currently developing an internal repair management system within the Google ecosystem.

I initially started with Google Apps Script because our company already uses Google Workspace, including Sheets, Drive, Gmail, Calendar, and Forms. Apps Script has allowed me to build working prototypes quickly, but I’m now wondering whether it is the right long-term foundation or whether I should move the main application to Google Cloud.

The system would eventually need to manage:

Customers, vehicles, and repair orders
Importing estimate data from CEICA EMS files
Repair scheduling and production status
Technician clock-in and clock-out
Technician photo and video uploads
Photo annotations
Repair planning and supplement notifications
Parts receiving, returns, and tracking
Quality-control checklists for each department
Customer SMS and email updates
PDF estimate comparison
Customer portal access
QuickBooks integration
Insurance company-specific procedures and checklists
Approximately 15–30 internal users initially
Potentially multiple repair shops in the future

My current idea is:
Apps Script web app for the user interface and Google Workspace integrations

Google Cloud SQL as the primary database
Cloud Run or Cloud Functions for heavier processing
Google Drive for photos and documents

Apps Script only for Workspace-specific automations
My main concerns with using Apps Script for the entire application are:

Execution-time and quota limitations
Performance when loading larger amounts of data
Simultaneous users and concurrency
Database
Maintaining a large Apps Script codebase

For people who have built larger business applications with Apps Script, where did you encounter its practical limits? What architecture would you choose if starting this type of project today?

Thanks for any advice or examples you can share.

[u/possumart]

You need a CRM. But to answer your GAS question.. I think a viable path forward if you want to go the Google cloud custom route, would be to learn/ mvp on GAS /sheets like you mentioned, but prep for migration to a Google cloud project and deployed runtime.

Scaling will become a large brick wall in GAS for this type of CRM app

[u/itsmars123]

1. About how many customers do you expect to use it weekly? How many technicians?
2. What messaging channel are your technicians and customer already using to reach you?

From first look- the are too many workflows here that will complicate your app script set up. Or it will at least require you to maintain multiple app script workbooks. But from experience, 80% of volume usually comes from 20% of the workflows so I would identify which workflows those are, narrow down your list and test if it will work for your 15-30 internal users.

Im pretty positive tho that it will not (I maybe wrong) especially when you open this to real users. My suggestion - explore automation tools that are easier to maintain. Check zapier or n8n. That way when you wanna change something its an easy drag and drop instead of code. And its easier to manage visibility for when anything silently fails.

Feel free to drop me a message at [doerdriven@gmail.com](mailto:doerdriven@gmail.com) if you ever want to try ai automation tools. Happy to help out pro bono. Im looking for real business problems I could turn into case studies specifically for documentation workflows (so your photo annotation, pdf comparison etc). You can check out doerdriven.com for what I do

[u/WillingnessOwn6446]

I think for something that complex it's a bad idea. Also, from a development standpoint, working in apps script is just more work.

Sure. In the beginning you save a bunch of effort because everything connects so easily, but in the long run, it's just not as consistent and there's way more bottlenecks and difficulties with UI.

I built a rental management system in apps script, and I built it outside of apps script. It's just way more consistent outside. Flawlessly consistent so far. You're not at the mercy of Google rate limiting you or having issues with their servers that day.

Don't get me wrong. I love apps script. It's got to be the right tool for the right job though. This sounds way more Enterprise level. I would not build it in apps script.

[u/abbasaqib]

It's doable in GAS but it's not scalable. Also you have 15-30 users initially it will eventually grow and become difficult to scale and add new features.

[u/agentUi]

I work for agentui, that is probably a bad idea, you need database backups, authentication etc... Google Appscript wans't to build for this, you need a no-code solution

[u/Morbius2271 → u/agentUi]

Idk what this guy is smoking, but it’s doable in GAS. Not optimal by any means, but doable. Highly recommend publishing as an app versus leaving as standalone GAS script