Parts ordering

CarSignal connects to PartsTech, which connects to your parts suppliers. You order from the job, and the parts come back as line items.

Connecting (one time)

Settings, Integrations, PartsTech. CarSignal pre-fills your shop details into the PartsTech registration. Book labor times do not depend on this connection: CarSignal licenses the MOTOR labor guide directly for every shop.

Ordering from a job

1. On the issue, launch the parts search — or hit the PartsTech button right on the job's line grid: every job has its own PartsTech cart, and parts picked there come back onto that job, never a guessed one. Dragged a part to a different job? Its cart follows: the part joins the new job's PartsTech cart and leaves the old one automatically.
2. Search, compare suppliers, and pick parts. Quote them or place the order.
3. The chosen parts flow back automatically as line items: description, part number, brand, your cost, and the retail price from your parts markup matrix. The estimate recomputes on the spot.

A retail price you type never follows a later cost edit; only a price the matrix set keeps following it. A matrix with every bracket at 0% means no automatic markup: parts arrive at cost, and a cost edit never changes a price.

Each result shows where the stock actually is. Warehouse distributors like WORLDPAC can fill your order from any of their branches, and CarSignal picks the branch that covers your quantity automatically. Store networks like NAPA only fill orders from your own connected store — when the part sits at a nearby branch instead, the row says Not available from your store and where the stock is, so you can call for a transfer.

When you place the order, the review sheet lists every part by supplier with a checkbox per line. Uncheck anything you already have on the shelf or plan to source elsewhere — it stays on the quote at the same price, skips the supplier order, and moves to the sourced-outside list where you mark it ordered manually once it's in hand. This works after the customer approves too: approval locks pricing, not sourcing.

Already ordered a part by phone or on the supplier's own site? Uncheck its row and hit Mark ordered right there — it comes out of the pending order, counts as handled, and the cart count drops. Undo lives on the part line on the job page, and undoing puts the part back on the next order.

On the web job grid, Mark ordered acknowledges your click immediately with Saving… beside that part. The other rows stay usable. Its status changes after saving and refreshing; if the request fails, the error appears beside the button so you can retry.

Add to quote appears on parts you can't order through PartsTech at that moment (out of stock, or only at a branch that can't ship to you). It puts the part on the job as a regular line — catalog name, number, and cost carried over, retail from your markup matrix — with no PartsTech order attached. The part keeps its catalog identity, though: every time you open the order review, CarSignal re-checks it against live stock, and if the supplier can fill it by then it joins the PartsTech order automatically (the sheet tells you when that happens). Until then it sits in the sourced-outside list like any hand-entered part.

A job created from a template can carry parts to pick — like "Front tires ×2, Rear tires ×2" with the exact tire chosen per car. Hit Find part on any of them and the punchout becomes a guided walk: the window opens searching that item, and the moment you add it to the cart, the same window moves on and searches the next item on the list — same cart the whole way, one submit at the end. The list rides the window's header; click any item to jump straight to its search, and green checks mark what's already in the cart.

Tires get a fast lane inside that walk: CarSignal looks up the vehicle's own tire sizes and opens the tire catalog already searched — one size on file means zero questions, several means one quick pick (a partial answer like "255" matches, and Enter takes the first). Staggered fitments carry their rear size, so the rear-tires stop searches the rear size automatically. A size in the line name (like "225/60R17 tires") always wins. Those show as orange to-pick rows on the job, and the PartsTech window lists them right in its header: add everything to one cart and submit once. As you add parts, items that look covered get a green check (a name-match hint, live from your cart). Submitting never erases your list — a to-pick row only clears when you fill it through its own Find part search or remove it yourself with its ×, so a part named differently by the supplier can't silently eat a row, and you can always go back and change a pick.

Parts can also be imported into your inventory or attached to a job template the same way.

If PartsTech asks you to sign in

The PartsTech window opens already signed in. If it shows a sign-in page instead, and signing in just spins, your browser is blocking PartsTech's cookies inside CarSignal. Safari does this by default, and so do Brave, private or Incognito windows, and any "block third-party cookies" setting. CarSignal detects it and shows the fix for your browser right above the PartsTech window:

• Safari: Safari menu, Settings, Privacy, turn off Prevent cross-site tracking. On iPhone or iPad: Settings app, Safari, turn off Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.
• Chrome: click the eye icon at the right end of the address bar and allow third-party cookies on this site. Incognito windows block them by default.
• Brave: click the Brave lion icon and set Shields to Down for trycarsignal.com.
• Firefox: click the shield icon at the left of the address bar and turn Enhanced Tracking Protection off for trycarsignal.com.

Hit Check again after changing the setting. PartsTech reloads in place, signed in, and the setting sticks for next time. The CarSignal mobile app is not affected.

Tracking

Parts bought by phone or outside PartsTech have their own Parts status view. Use Mark ordered beside the part after you have ordered it, then Done. There is no supplier checkout or $0 order to submit when every part is sourced outside PartsTech.

Once approved work has its parts ordered, the car advances to Waiting on parts, and CarSignal polls order status for you. Shipped and Delivered fire notifications automatically, even if nobody has the job open.

Every part line on an approved job shows its own status — Ordered, Ordered manually, or Not ordered yet — with a Mark ordered manually action for parts you sourced outside PartsTech. The job counts as parts-ordered once every line is either ordered or marked.

Ordered parts then wait to arrive: the parts window keeps an Ordered, waiting to arrive list with a Mark received per part, and a received part shows a green "received" tag on its job line. That answers the question the schedule actually runs on: not "did we order it" but "is it in the building."