CarSignalCarSignal never asks you to set a status. You change the underlying facts (price the work, send the quote, order the parts, take payment) and the stage follows. Dragging a board card is just a shortcut that runs the real action; it never relabels a car.
The stages
| Stage | Board lane | What put the car here |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled | Scheduled | A booking or lead exists; the car has not been checked in |
| Intake | Needs quote | Checked in with a complaint that has no priced work yet |
| Quoting | Needs quote | Work is priced but the quote has not been sent |
| Pending approval | Waiting approval | The quote was sent; the customer has not decided |
| Approved / ordering parts | Waiting parts | The customer approved; parts still need ordering |
| Waiting on parts | In repair | All approved work has parts on order |
| In progress | In repair | A tech has started the work |
| Ready for pickup | Ready | Work is done; payment or pickup remains |
| Paid | Ready | The invoice is paid; mark picked up to close it out |
The board splits in-shop cars on the parts truth: any approved job with unhandled parts keeps the car in Waiting parts (even if a tech started something else); once every part is ordered, marked ordered, or pulled from inventory (or the jobs need none), the car sits in In repair.
A maintenance-only booking skips Intake entirely: there is nothing to diagnose, so it goes straight to Quoting.
What triggers each move
- Sending a quote moves the car to Pending approval.
- Customer approval moves it to In shop and flips the next action to ordering parts.
- Ordering parts (through PartsTech or your inventory) advances it to Waiting on parts once every approved item is handled.
- Starting the job moves it to In progress.
- Marking it ready moves it to Ready, and a paid invoice moves it to Paid.
- Mark picked up removes it from the floor. If that customer approves new work later, the car reactivates by itself.
On the mobile next-step card, unsold work you can act on comes first: a job that still needs pricing or a priced quote ready to send outranks ordering parts or starting an approved sibling, because sending the quote takes seconds and captures the work while the customer is engaged. A quote that is merely out with the customer never blocks approved work; each job's row still offers its own action either way.
Active work always wins: adding or revising a job on a "done" car pulls it back onto the board automatically. The reverse holds too — when every job is finished, the car reads Ready (or Paid) even if a background step misfired, so a done car never shows "Create issue".
Urgency flags
A red flag means "actionable now", not just "here a while". The rules:
- Booked appointment day passed with no check-in — likely no-show, call them
- Quote priced but not sent, untouched for 2 days — send it
- Quote sent, no customer answer for 2 days — follow up
- Approved work with parts unordered for a day — order them
- Parts on order for 5+ days — chase the supplier
- Repair with no updates for 3 days — the tech may be blocked
- Done (or paid) but still on the floor a day later — get it out the door
Sorting by urgency puts flagged cars first, longest-in-shop first within each group.
If a car seems stuck in the wrong stage, check its facts instead of looking for a status dropdown: is there an unsent quote, an unordered part, an unpaid invoice? Fix the fact and the stage corrects itself.