External services: wheel alignments, paint and other contracted work
Sell work an outside contractor does, book it with a purchase order that carries drop-off and pick-up dates, and keep it in step with the workshop booking.
Where it is
- Inventory → Products — Create the service as a product of type External service
- Purchasing → Purchase Orders — The booking POs to your contractors
Some jobs include work you send out: a wheel alignment after a lift, a bumper to the paint shop, rims to the powder coater. These are external services. You buy them from a supplier like parts, but they're never stock, and they sit on the workshop calendar like a stage of the job.
1. Set up the service as a product (once)
In Inventory → Products, create a product of type External service. Give it a default contractor (a supplier), its usual turnaround in days (0 = same day), whether the vehicle leaves the shop or only a part goes, and whether it's done before, after or any time during the workshop work. Contractor cost is what they charge you; Customer price is what you sell it for.
2. Book it with the contractor
- On the sales order, Order Missing Items puts external services in their own group with a contractor, drop-off and pick-up date. One PO is raised per contractor per job (added to an unsent one if it exists). The PO prints as a booking request: vehicle, rego, job number, dates and instructions.
- Or on the job's left panel, under Schedule, the External services section: ⚡ From SO brings the lines in; choose the Contractor, set Drop-off and Pick-up (untick Vehicle leaves the shop if only a part goes) and press Raise PO. Open PO opens it to approve and send.
3. On the calendar
Each external service shows in the Offsite band. Until the PO is sent, its dates follow the job; after that, the calendar warns instead: Sublet drift (dates no longer match what the contractor was told), Vehicle in two places (at the contractor and in a bay on the same job) and Not booked (drop-off is close and no PO has gone). ✨ Smart Schedule avoids days the vehicle is away.
4. On the day
- Dropped off when it leaves. The job wears Sublet out (unless it's already on a hold), and the customer portal says it's with a specialist.
- Collected when it's back. The PO closes with nothing received into stock, the sales order line is marked received, and the label clears.
Contractor spend shows as Contractor Cost on the job's Time tab (for roles that can see costs). These lines print under External Services on customer documents.