Workshop
Appointments on a bay calendar with daily capacity
Book visits by customer, vehicle, services, time and bay. The booking warns when the bay is taken, the branch is closed or the day is full. The customer is reminded, the arrival opens the job card, and no-shows are counted.
PlansFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- Two cars are booked into the alignment bay at 10 am and one customer waits an hour.
- Saturday is overbooked because nobody counted the appointments.
- Customers forget their slot and the bay stands empty.
- When the customer arrives, the advisor types everything again on a new job card.
How it works
- 01
Open Garage > Appointments > Appointments and click New. Choose the customer and the vehicle, or type the plate, model and year of a vehicle you have not seen.
- 02
Set the start time and add the services; the length comes from their standard hours, else the branch's default. Choose the bay, advisor, technician and source.
- 03
Read the Check box: it says if the bay is already booked, the branch is closed then, or the day is full. Your branch either warns or refuses a double-booked bay.
- 04
The customer gets the booking message, and reminders the day before and some hours before.
- 05
When the customer arrives, click Arrived: a job card opens with the customer, the vehicle, the complaint and the services, ready for check-in.
Everything it does
An appointment
- Customer, vehicle, or a new vehicle's plate, model and year (created on arrival, or found by its plate)
- Start, duration, bay, service advisor, technician, services, Customer Says, internal notes
- Source: Phone, Walk-in, Online, Other
- Status: Requested, Booked, Confirmed, Arrived, No-show, Cancelled
- Buttons: Customer Confirmed, Arrived, No-show, Cancel, Book Again, and Job Card once arrived
Calendar and checks
- Bay Calendar: the week, each appointment in its bay's colour; Today by Bay: one column per bay
- Opening hours per weekday, with several rows for a lunch break; a branch with none is always open
- Appointments a day per weekday (0 for no limit)
- Bay double-booking: Warn or Refuse
- Filters: Upcoming, To Confirm (Online), Arrived, No-shows, Not Cancelled, Today, Next 7 Days, My Appointments, Comebacks; group by bay, day, status, source or advisor
Reminders and no-shows
- Reminder the day before (on) and a number of hours before (2), checked every 15 minutes
- A booking made too late for a reminder gets none; a moved appointment gets them again for the new time
- No-show by hand, or by itself a number of minutes after the time (0, by hand, to start with)
- Book Again after a no-show or cancellation
Comebacks
- Book Comeback on a delivered job card
- On arrival, a rework job card linked to the first one opens, within warranty where it applies
Who uses it
Where you use it
- Web: Garage > Appointments > Appointments, Bay Calendar and Today by Bay; Garage > Configuration > Workshop > Opening Hours
- The SmartMy Garage app: Appointments by day and bay (columns on tablets), Book a visit from the "+" with live warnings. Move, confirm, no-show, cancel, and Arrived into check-in. Most steps kept on the phone without signal. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet.
- Customer page: Appointments, coming up and earlier
- With Enterprise: appointments can also be made by your other systems through the connections
What you control
Settings
- Bay Double-Booking: Warn to start with (or Refuse)
- Default Appointment Length: 1 hour
- Opening hours and appointments per day: none set to start with (a new row opens 9:00 to 18:00)
- Remind the Day Before: on; Remind Hours Before: 2 (0 for none)
- No-show After: 0 minutes (marked by hand)
- Bay colours on Garage > Configuration > Workshop > Bays
Messages and alerts
- Appointment Booked: to the customer when booked or moved, by WhatsApp, else SMS, else email, at once
- Appointment Reminder: the day before and the hours before
- Appointment Cancelled: when the shop cancels
- Online Booking Request: to the appointment's advisor, else the branch's service advisors, by phone notification, in the app and by email
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Can a customer book themselves?
Customers can ask for a visit online from their job page or your public booking page. The request arrives as Requested and an advisor books it.
Can we stop double-booking a bay?
Yes. Set Bay Double-Booking to Refuse and an appointment in a taken bay cannot be saved. With Warn, it is saved and shows the clash.
What happens when the customer does not come?
Click No-show, or let the branch mark it after the minutes you set. The Appointments and No-shows report counts them.
Do appointments need the app?
No. They work on the web. The app adds the day by bay on a phone or tablet, and Arrived straight into check-in.
Which plan has it?
Growth, Scale and Enterprise.
Related
Related features.
Online booking from the job page and a public page per branchFrom Growth
Customers you know ask for their next visit from their job page or My vehicles. New customers use your branch's public booking page. They sign in or sign up, pick a day and time when you are open, and tick services. An advisor confirms each request.
Check-in with odometer, fuel or battery, photos, belongings, consent and signatureEvery plan
Record how each car arrived before anyone touches it. Take the odometer, the fuel or battery level, a dashboard photo and the walk-around photos your branch asks for. Note what was left inside, test drive consent and what to do about work found, and get the customer's signature.
Workshop reports: inspections, appointments, no-shows and bay useFrom Growth
See which inspection items fail most, how many appointments turn up, and how busy each bay is against your open hours. Read them by day, week or month, as a pivot, chart or list.
Service reminders by date and by kmFrom Growth
Each delivered job card plans the next service of the car. It falls due by date or on the day the car is expected to reach the next km, whichever comes first. That day is worked out from the car's own readings. The customer is reminded before it is due with a link to book, and the reminder closes when they come back.
Comebacks, workmanship warranty and root causeEvery plan
When a car comes back after delivery, open a linked rework job card in one click. The workmanship warranty is checked by days and km, and the work is free within it. The root cause is asked before the car leaves.
Floor TV board for the workshopFrom Growth
Put the workshop on a TV, by stage or by bay. Each car shows its plate, model, technician and promised time, with late cars in red and holds marked. The screen opens by a private link with no login and refreshes by itself.
Want to see it on your own job cards? Book a demo and we walk you through it with your workshop's work.