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Estimates & approvals

Building estimates

Parts, labor, templates, and a preview of exactly what the customer will see.

Estimates live on a vehicle's issue. Open the issue and add line items; the totals, taxes, and fees compute as you go.

The issue workspace: complaint and diagnosis on top, then parts and labor line items with live totals.
The issue workspace: complaint and diagnosis on top, then parts and labor line items with live totals.

Line items

Every line is a part, labor, or a charge:

  • Parts come from three places: typed by hand, pulled from your inventory, or ordered through PartsTech with cost and retail filled in by your parts matrix.
  • Labor is entered by hand or pulled from the labor guide. Quoted hours round up to the next half hour.
  • Charges cover money that is neither: sublet work, storage, disposal. Add one on the job with the "+ Charge" button, or straight from the vehicle page: New issue, pick Charge, type the description and amount. A standalone charge lands as its own line on the vehicle. Each charge picks taxable or not, is never touched by discounts, and can record what you paid a sublet vendor so your profit numbers stay honest — that cost never prints for the customer.
  • Fluids like oil and coolant use the vehicle's book capacities, so quantities are right without looking them up.

Templates

Canned jobs drop a full service onto the estimate with parts and labor pre-filled: oil changes, brake jobs, mileage services, whatever your shop does often. Build them once on the Templates page, then add them in one click at check-in or on the issue.

With PartsTech connected, template parts written in plain words ("oil filter", "coolant") match to the exact part for that vehicle. Fluids are held to the manufacturer's spec and the book fill quantity — a coolant flush quotes the right chemistry and enough gallons for the whole system, or leaves the line for you rather than guess.

AI drafting

For most jobs you do not have to build the estimate at all. AI estimates draft the line items, labor hours, and fair part prices from the diagnosis or the service request, and you edit from there.

Preview before sending

Preview shows exactly what the customer will see on their phone: the plain-English report, the itemized cost, and the approve button. Every customer-facing sentence can be edited inline, or rewritten by AI, before anything sends.

Next: Sending quotes.