Job cards & workshop

A job card is the record of one visit by one vehicle. It holds who brought it in, which vehicle it is, what they said was wrong, and everything that happens afterwards.

Record the complaint in the customer's words, not as your diagnosis. The diagnosis changes once someone looks at the vehicle; what the customer actually asked for is what you are answerable to at handover, and it is what you want to read back if there is ever a disagreement.

If the customer and vehicle are already in Klutch, selecting them brings their history with them, including anything outstanding on a credit account, which is worth seeing before you start work rather than after. A new customer can be created while you open the card.

Every job card has a mechanic and a status. Together they answer the question you get asked twenty times a day: who is on it, and is it ready.

Assign the mechanic when work actually starts rather than when the vehicle arrives. Otherwise the board shows people busy on vehicles nobody has touched, and it stops being worth looking at.

A job waiting on a part is not the same as a job in progress. Keeping those apart is what eventually shows you how much of your week goes on waiting for parts rather than working on vehicles, which is usually a bigger number than anyone expects.

Add to the job card as the work happens instead of reconstructing it at the counter afterwards. Parts added to a card come off stock at that moment, so the shelf count and the bill stay in agreement without anyone reconciling them.

Labour goes on as its own line, separate from parts. Keeping them apart is what later lets you see whether you are making money on the work itself or only on the parts you sell alongside it.

Notes are for what the next person needs to know: what you found, what you advised, what the customer declined. A note reading "customer declined brake pads, warned about condition" is exactly the note you will want to find six months later.

For any work the customer has not already agreed to, quote first. A quotation lists the parts and labour you expect, at the price you intend to charge, and gives the customer something specific to approve.

Once it is approved the quotation becomes the job card, so nothing is retyped and the price the customer agreed to is the price on the card. What actually happens can still differ (lines get added or dropped as the work goes), but the difference is then visible rather than silent.

Quoting also settles the most common argument in a repair shop, which is not about quality but about a number nobody wrote down.

Quotations are included from Full Throttle upwards.

Closing a job card is the point at which the record stops changing, so check it first: every part used is on the card, the labour is right, and the notes say what you found.

Issue the invoice, then either take payment or put the balance on the customer's book account, and give them their copy. If they are on credit, the amount moves to their account rather than the job staying open indefinitely.

A closed job stays searchable as part of that vehicle's history for as long as your plan keeps it: 12 months on Kickstart, 36 on Full Throttle and 84 on Fleet. History can be extended 12 months at a time as an add-on, which is worth considering if you service fleets that ask what you did two years ago.