Estimate, approval and work
Estimates approved or declined line by line
Build the estimate from your services and parts, priced and taxed. The customer approves or declines each line in person, by phone, by message, or on their job page with a typed signature. Each line keeps how it was decided, when, and who recorded it.
PlansEvery plan
The problem it solves
- The customer says yes to "the work" on the phone, and at delivery disputes half the bill.
- Nobody knows which lines were approved, which were declined, and who took the call.
- Technicians start on work the customer has not agreed to.
- A declined repair is forgotten and the customer is never offered it again.
How it works
- 01
On the Work tab of the job card, add lines. Choose a service or a part; the description, unit price and taxes fill in from it. Check the quantity, price and discount.
- 02
Open a line to add a photo, for example of the worn pad; the customer sees it on the job page.
- 03
Click Ask to Approve. The job card moves to Waiting for Approval and the customer gets the estimate with the link to their job page.
- 04
The customer approves or declines each line, or all, on the job page with their name and a typed signature. Or click Customer's Decision, choose the lines, choose How (In Person, Phone or Message) and click Approved or Declined.
- 05
Approved services become tasks for the technicians; declined lines cancel their task. The job card shows Waiting for the Customer, Partly Approved or Approved.
Everything it does
Estimate lines
- Product (service / labour or part), description, quantity, unit, unit price, discount %, taxes
- Taxes from the product, adjusted by the customer's fiscal position
- Subtotal, tax and total per line; Estimate, Untaxed Amount, Taxes and Total of the approved work on the job card
- Origin: Estimate, Found During Work, or Added by Customer; lines added after the first estimate are marked as extra work
- A photo per line
- Supplied By: Shop or Customer (a part the customer brings is not charged and holds the job card until received)
Each decision records
- Approval: Proposed, Approved or Declined
- How: In Person, Phone, Message, Customer Page or Standing Approval
- Decided: date and time; Recorded By: the user
- On the job page: the customer's name and typed signature, and a note on the job card
- A decision taken again in the shop clears the name and signature typed on the page
After the decision
- Approved services become tasks, planned from their standard hours
- Declined lines cancel their open tasks and are kept, shown faded
- Work cannot start, and the job card cannot move to In Progress, until at least one line is approved
- Invoiced lines are locked: change them with a credit note or add a new line
- With Growth, declined work comes back on the vehicle's next visit
Who uses it
Where you use it
- Web: the Work tab of the job card, Ask to Approve and Customer's Decision
- The SmartMy Garage app: the estimate with lines priced from the product and line photos. The customer's decision in person, by phone or by message. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet.
- Customer page: approve or decline each line or all, with name and typed signature
- Not without signal: estimate lines and decisions by phone or message need signal in the app; a decision in person is kept and sent later
What you control
Settings
- Services and parts with prices, taxes and standard hours (Garage > Configuration > Services and Vehicles > Services and Parts)
- Customers Approve Work on the Job Page: on to start with (Garage > Configuration > General > Settings > Customer Job Page)
Approvals
- No approval chain: the customer decides; staff only record how the customer decided
Messages and alerts
- Estimate Ready: to the customer when you click Ask to Approve or the job card enters Waiting for Approval. It goes at once by WhatsApp, else SMS, else email
- Extra Work Found: to the customer when work found during the job waits for them
- Customer Decided Online: to the advisor, by phone notification, in the app and by email, when the customer decides on the job page
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Can the customer approve some lines and decline others?
Yes. Each line is decided on its own. The job card then shows Partly Approved, and only approved work becomes tasks and goes on the invoice.
What if the customer agrees on the phone?
Click Customer's Decision, choose the lines, choose Phone and click Approved. The line keeps how, when and who recorded it.
Do customers need an account to approve?
No. They open the job page by the private link in the message, and type their name and signature.
Can the customer add work later?
Yes. Add the line with the origin Added by Customer and get it approved. If the job card was already in quality check or ready, it goes back to In Progress.
Which plan has it?
Every plan, from Starter.
Related
Related features.
Standing approval for work found: ask each time, up to an amount, or fix everythingEvery plan
At check-in, ask the customer what to do when your technicians find more work. Ask each time, go ahead up to an amount, or fix everything. Work found then waits for them or is approved at once, and each line says how.
Approve line by line and pay online from the job pageEvery plan
On the job page, the customer ticks the work they want, types their name and signature, and approves or declines. Each decision is kept with how, when and by whom. When the invoice is ready, Pay now takes them to your payment provider and the payment lands on the invoice.
The customer's job page by a private link, no loginEvery plan
Every job card has its own page for the customer, opened from a link in their messages with no password. They see the status, the estimate, the photos, the damage, the readings and their invoices. It comes with every plan.
Declined work brought back, and follow-ups on estimatesFrom Growth
Work a customer declined comes back on the vehicle's next job card, to propose again at today's price or mark as not needed. Estimates left waiting, and work declined on a finished visit, are followed up after the days you set. The customer gets a message and the advisor a call to-do.
Tasks per mechanic with Start, Pause and Done timersEvery plan
Each approved service becomes a task for a technician, planned from its standard hours. Technicians press Start, Pause and Done on the web or their phone, one timer at a time. You see each person's tasks, the workload and the hours worked against the hours planned.
Invoices from approved work, part invoices and deliver only when paidEvery plan
Bill exactly the work the customer approved, in one invoice or in parts, with the taxes already on each line. Invoiced lines are locked, and a branch can choose to hand cars back only once the bill is paid.
Want to see it on your own job cards? Book a demo and we walk you through it with your workshop's work.