2. Booking a job in

Who this is for: service advisers and workshop managers, and anyone who books cars in.

Where a job comes from

• + New Job on the Jobs tab: phone bookings, walk-ins and anything that isn't on a quote.
• An accepted Service & Repair quote. Create Workshop Job on the quote makes a job of type Service with a sales order behind it, and it happens by itself a few minutes after the customer accepts if Turn accepted quotes into orders is on in Settings › Orders (it is by default). The order holds the parts and takes any deposit, the quote's labour becomes the job's tasks, and the job raises its invoice from that order later. You only need to book it in.
• A booking request from your public booking page, on the Booking requests tab: Confirm it, then Check in when the car arrives makes the job.
• A sales order for parts we fit (an Accessories & Build quote): press Create job on the order. Lesson 8 of the Orders course covers these fitting orders.

Step by step: + New Job

1. On Jobs, press + New Job. The "New Workshop Job" box opens.
2. Type the Job Title (the only required field). Choose the Job Type and Priority, and Charged to if it isn't the customer (Internal, Warranty, Rework or Goodwill).
3. Pick the Customer or Company, and the Vehicle.
4. If there's already a Sales Order or Quote for the work, pick it. A job linked to a sales order brings its parts, tasks and estimated hours with it.
5. Fill in Bay / Hoist (if your workshop uses bays), Estimated Hours, and the times if you know them: Scheduled Start, Scheduled End and Promised to customer.
6. Add the Scope / Description and press Create Job.

With a Scheduled Start, the job is created Booked and opens straight away with Send booking confirmation? (when it has a customer). Without one, it's created as Draft: book it in from the job page or the calendar (below).

Booking it in on the job

Open the job. In the left panel, under Schedule:

1. Set the Scheduled Start. A Draft job becomes Booked, and Scheduled End is worked out from the estimated hours and your trading hours.
2. Set Promised to customer: the time you told them it would be ready. It drives the "Due" time on the board and the overdue flag.
3. Under Team, choose the Bay / Hoist, and press + Add next to Technicians to put people on it. The first one added is the LEAD. Only staff enabled in Settings › Workshop › Technicians are in the list.
4. Work that needs more than one bay or more than one day? Press ⇄ Split across bays / days, add a stage for each part of the job, and press Split job.

Let BuildTrack find a slot

Under the Schedule fields, set Earliest (the customer's first available day, if they have one) and press ✨ Smart Schedule. ✨ Suggested slots lists the best options: date and time, bay, technician, a confidence, the reasons and any warnings. Press Apply (best) on the top one, or Apply on another. Dismiss closes the list.

The booking confirmation

Whenever the start time is set or moved, BuildTrack asks Send booking confirmation? It shows who it goes To, the Subject, and a preview of the "Booking Confirmation" email with the job, its reference, when, and a Confirm booking button for the customer.

• Press Send confirmation to email it.
• Press Skip — don't send if they don't need it.

Either way it won't ask again for that same time. If the customer has no email address, Send confirmation is greyed out: add one to the customer first.

The calendar

On Jobs, press Calendar.

• ‹ Today › moves through the dates. Day, Week and Month set the range.
• By Bay, By Tech and All set the rows. (By Centre appears if your workshop plans by work centre.)
• Jobs and Tasks switch between booking whole jobs and booking single tasks.
• Unscheduled ‹ opens the list of jobs with no date. Drag one onto the calendar to book it.
• Drag a booked job to another day or row to reschedule it. Dropping it on a bay's row moves it to that bay; on a technician's row, to that technician.
• The cell colours show how full each bay or person is (the legend explains them), and a Parts chip warns when the parts aren't in yet.
• Work at an outside contractor sits in the Offsite lane (lesson 6).

Moving a job on the calendar asks about the booking confirmation the same way.

What happens by itself

• The first date a job gets moves it from Draft to Booked.
• The job's sales order is given the same date.
• On the Orders desk, a booked fitting order becomes the workshop's move and leaves "Needs us".

Where it ends

The job is Booked, with a date, a bay and a technician, and the customer has their confirmation. When the car arrives, check it in (lesson 3).