1. Check-in or digital inspection: which one?
BuildTrack has two kinds of check. The check-in records how the car arrived on a job. A digital inspection is a structured check with results, photos, a report and a quote. Start here.
Where it is
- Service → Workshop → Inspections — Digital inspections
- Service → Workshop → Jobs — The check-in is on each job’s Inspection tab
Settings for this
- Settings → Workshop → Checklists — The check-in checklist
- Inspections → Manage Templates — What a digital inspection checks
Who this is for: technicians and service advisers. Lesson 2 is for workshop managers.
BuildTrack has two kinds of vehicle check, and they answer different questions. The names are close, so it's worth getting them straight first.
The two checks
| The check-in | A digital inspection | |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | How did the car arrive? | What does the car need? |
| Where it lives | On the job, the Inspection tab › Check-in | Workshop › Inspections, with its own number (INSP-0001) |
| What you record | Walk-around and damage photos, odometer, fuel, the check-in checklist, condition notes | Pass, Caution, Fail or N/A on every item, a priority for anything flagged, notes and photos |
| What comes out of it | A dated record that protects you if a customer says a scratch is new | A report for the customer, in their email and their portal, and a quote for the work |
| Who sets the list | Settings › Workshop › Checklists | Inspection templates (lesson 2) |
The trap: the job's tab is called Inspection, but it holds the check-in. A digital inspection is a different thing that lives under Workshop › Inspections.
Where to find it
- The check-in: open the job and press the Inspection tab. Lesson 3 of the Workshop jobs course covers it step by step.
- Digital inspections: sidebar Service › Workshop, then the Inspections tab. From a job, the ⋯ menu has Digital inspection.
Step by step: choosing
- A car is arriving for booked work? Do the check-in. Every car, every time, before anyone touches it.
- The customer wants to know what the car needs? A pre-trip check, a safety check, a pre-purchase check or a service check: start a digital inspection.
- The car is in for work and the technician spots more? Start a digital inspection on that same job (lesson 3), so the findings, photos and a quote travel with it.
- Not sure? Ask: "Is this a record of how it came in, or advice on what it needs?" A record is the check-in. Advice is a digital inspection.
Many jobs have both: the check-in when the car arrives, and a digital inspection once it's on the hoist.
How a digital inspection travels
Draft → In progress → Completed.
| Status | What it means | How it gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Made, nobody has started it | Create Inspection (lesson 3) |
| In progress | The technician is working through it | Start (lesson 4) |
| Completed | Finished, with an overall result | Complete (lesson 4) |
Once it's Completed you can email or print the report, the customer can see it in their portal (lesson 6), and the flagged items can become a quote (lesson 5).
The results
| Result | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Pass | It's fine |
| Caution | It's OK for now but needs watching or doing soon |
| Fail | It needs fixing |
| N/A | It doesn't apply to this vehicle |
A Caution or a Fail can also go in a bucket that says how urgent it is: Safety Required, Pre-Trip Recommended or Nice to Have.
What happens by itself
- Starting a digital inspection without a job makes a job for it, so every inspection belongs to a job (lesson 3).
- The overall result is worked out when you press Complete: any Fail makes it Fail, otherwise any Caution makes it Caution, otherwise Pass.
Where it ends
You know which check you need. Managers, read lesson 2 next. Everyone else can skip to lesson 3.
Lesson 1 of 6 in Inspections: check-in and digital inspections. Next: 2. Templates: what gets checked (managers).