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; supported accounts also get book labor lookup, which powers labor times in estimates.

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.

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.

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

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."