Checking in vehicles

Check-in creates the customer, the vehicle, and the repair order in one pass, and puts the car on the board.

The flow

1. Click + Check in vehicle on the Vehicles page (or New job in the mobile app, where you can scan the plate or VIN with the camera).
2. Pick or create the client. Existing customers match by phone number, so repeat visits attach to their history automatically.
3. Enter the vehicle. Type the VIN and CarSignal decodes year, make, model, and engine for you. A VIN that is already in your shop reuses that vehicle and its full history, and CarSignal blocks accidentally checking the same car in twice.
4. Describe the visit. Choose Something's wrong for a complaint (enter the customer's words, plus any DTC codes if you scanned it) or pick routine maintenance services. You can also drop in canned jobs.

That is it. The car appears in the right lane with an open issue, ready to quote.

Where check-ins come from without you

Most cars can arrive on the board before anyone types anything:

• The AI receptionist creates the client, vehicle, and issues from a phone call or text.
• Website booking does the same from your public booking page.
• Approved quotes with a chosen time create the appointment automatically.

In those cases, check-in is just confirming the car showed up.