Click the New RO button at the top left of the work in process screen. Your list of customers will show in the search box. Begin typing the customer’s last name. As the list filters down, select the customer and click the repair order button at the right side. Within the auto shop software, Now you’re now on a screen that shows that customer along with all vehicles that the customer has had in-service with your shop.

Select the vehicle the customer is bringing in and click the green create RO button. Now that the repair order is ready, please describe the reasons the customer is bringing the vehicle in for repairs. Type one reason in each box. You can also click on a list of reasons on the right to add them automatically. Once you’ve completed the issues, click on the “add issues” button at the bottom. You will now be in your Repair Order to add parts and labor.

In your newly created repair order, you will see your vehicle issues listed at the bottom left. For each vehicle issue you will find buttons labeled “parts”, “labor”, “sublet”, “canned jobs”, “technician story” and “status”. Click the “parts” button. You will not be taken to a list of parts that includes your inventory parts as well as parts that you have added to previous repair orders. Begin typing in the search box to find the part you’re looking for either by part number or description. Once you find the part number, click on it. The new screen will have the part information including part number, part description, quantity, cost and selling price. Complete all fields required and click the “add part” button at the bottom left. Now that your part has been added, you will be returned to the repair order screen. Click the “labor” button for the same vehicle issue and type in a description of the labor the technician will be doing. Next, enter the number of hours that you will be billing the customer. Select your labor rate and give a discount if necessary. Once fields are completed, click on “Add Labor” and you’ll be returned to the repair order inside the Shop Boss auto shop software. The same process applies to sublet as well.

From a repair order on the selected vehicle issue, click the “Canned Job” button. This will take you to a list of canned jobs that you created in your account. Select the job technician and hourly rate. This will add parts labor to the repair order, rolling everything together as one, eliminating the need for entering each item individually.

To add the technician story, allow them to log into Shop Boss and open the repair order for each vehicle issue. In there is a tech story button. Click that button and the technician can enter his story about what he found as he inspected the vehicles issues. Click the “update stories and comments” button at the bottom and you’ll be returned to the repair order.

To perform a digital vehicle inspection, click the inspection button at the top left of the repair order screen. Choose from your custom inspection formats and you will be presented with the inspection form. For each item in the inspection form, click on the one that you wish to enter comments, photos or videos for. At the top left is a box to enter technician comments, and on the right-hand side is a rating system giving you a choice of excellent, good, fair, poor or bad. Click on the condition of the item you’re inspecting to upload photos. Click the green “upload photos” button at the bottom. If you are using an iPhone or tablet, you can be prompted to take the photograph and automatically upload. The same process applies to uploading videos. The button for uploading videos is right next to the “upload photos” button. Once your comments, photos and videos have been taken and uploaded, click the button to save changes. You’re now ready to move onto the next inspection item. If you would like to see the report as your customer will see it, click the preview report at the top right of the screen. There you will see the report exactly as your customer would see it once emailed to them.

From the work in process screen, click the repair order that you wish to change the status on. At the top right of the repair order screen, you will see the status of the repair order. Click the drop-down box and change your status to your desired choice. The statuses are inspection, approval, parts, assembly, quality check, final and closed. Each status is associated with a different color flag on the work in process screen.

To order parts and get labor times through Epicor, click the “Estimating and Parts Ordering” button at the top right of the repair order screen while in the Shop Boss auto shop software. Click on the car and select your desired supplier. Click on “build estimate”. Now click the login button. A new window will open presenting you with the Epicor parts catalog for the supplier that you chose. Click the categories of the parts you are looking for. Next click the group, then click the parts themselves at the bottom right click on the parts list. This will present you with a list of parts available from this supplier that you require. On this list, find the part you want and check the order box for each part you wish to add to your estimate. At the bottom right, click the “Add to Quote” button. Now that you are in the quote screen, for each part listed, you can click the L button for labor times. Click the type of labor job you wish to do and then click “next”. Now you will be presented with a list of all labor times associated with that part. Click all the labor times that you wish to be quoted and then click the “post and return to quote” button. You will see now that your quote screen includes the parts and labor that you have requested. At the bottom, click the “transfer quote” button. Now assign the parts and labor to the vehicle issue for the repair you are working on. Once the values are selected, click the “save values” button at the bottom and all information will be transferred into your repair. To actually order these parts, perform the exact same steps but when logging into the supplier, select “order parts”. Then from the quote screen, click the button at the bottom right that says “order parts”. The parts order will be sent directly to your supplier and then you will receive the parts from your supplier when he delivers them to you.

To Send an update to your customer, click the “send update” button at the top right of the repair order screen. Enter the email, cell phone number or both to send the update out.

To generate a final invoice for your customer, change the status of the repair order to “final”. Click the “save/calculate” button at the top left. You’re now ready to receive payment. On the right, click the green payments button. Click “add/delete” payments. Add the payment to the repair order and click the “print” button at the top left. Click the “print RO” button and you will see on the screen the invoice as your customer will see it. From here, you can click “print” to print the invoice, or “email” to send the invoice to the customer via email.

To schedule work into the shop, click the “schedule” button at the top left of the work in process screen. Each technician set up in shop boss will have a column of appointments available. Click the time that you wish to add an appointment. Here you can select an existing customer, create a new customer or enter basic appointment information. Complete the information required and save your changes. Your scheduling screen will now show a new appointment blocked out for the time that you have entered. You can drag and drop and move the appointment from one column to another. You can also shorten or lengthen the appointment as needed.

To look up vehicle repair history you can click the “history” button at the top center of the work in process screen. If the customer has an open repair order, you can also click their license number in the work-in-process list. This will take you to the history screen and show you the current open repair order as well as all previous repair history performed on this vehicle. This same information is available within the repair order as well.