CarSignalThe Vehicles page is the heart of CarSignal. It shows every active car as a card (Board view) or a row (List view), grouped by where it is in the pipeline.
The five lanes
| Lane | What it means |
|---|---|
| Incoming | Booked appointments and brand-new leads that have not been checked in |
| Needs quote | The car is here (or the request is in), but nothing is priced yet |
| Waiting approval | An estimate was sent and the customer has not answered |
| In shop | Approved work: ordering parts, waiting on parts, or in progress |
| Ready | Work is done; collect payment and hand back the keys |
Each card shows the vehicle, the customer, how long it has been in the shop, the work, the estimate value, and the assigned tech.
Next actions
Every vehicle shows one computed next action, so nobody has to reconstruct state from memory: Build quote, Send quote to customer, Waiting on customer, Order parts, Awaiting parts, Finish the job, Collect payment, Mark picked up. A booked car whose appointment day passed without a check-in reads Missed appointment, follow up.
Urgency flags
A red flag means a real bottleneck, not just age:
- Waiting on approval for more than 48 hours
- Approved but parts not ordered within 24 hours
- Waiting on parts for more than 5 days
- In progress with no update for 72 hours
- Ready for pickup for more than a day
- A missed appointment
List vs Board
List view is a sortable table (default sort is urgency) with the same information plus labor progress. Board view is the pipeline at a glance. The All / Assigned to me toggle filters to your own cars, and search matches name, phone, email, plate, VIN, or RO number.
You never set a stage by hand. Stages are derived from facts, like whether a quote exists, whether it is approved, and whether parts are ordered. See Stages and next actions.