Quotes and approvals
The vehicle sits on the hoist waiting for a call back
You found the second thing wrong with it, the customer is at work, and the bay is occupied by a job nobody has authorised. MecanoPro puts the price on the customer's own phone, gets a signature, and keeps the signed copy with its timestamp.
- Client Julie Tremblay, 2019 Subaru Outback
- Job 1: Front brakes $412.00 - Approved
- Job 2: Struts Declined, follow-up Jan 15
- Sent By text, for signature
- Signed On the customer's phone, 2:41 p.m.
- Recorded Name, time and IP address
- Valid until Nov 17
The struts were declined, not forgotten: they have a follow-up date.
Signed copy emailed to the customer and kept on the record.
What it is costing you
A verbal "go ahead" is worth nothing when the bill arrives
Work done on a phone call is work you may eat, and every hour a vehicle sits idle on a hoist is an hour you cannot sell. There is no statistic on this page. Ask your team.
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When did a customer last say "I never agreed to that"?
Work done on a phone call is work you may eat.
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How long did the last vehicle sit on a hoist waiting for somebody to decide?
An occupied bay is a bay you cannot sell.
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What did you find last month and never mention again?
That is revenue you found and did not collect.
One quote, from the finding to the follow-up
Six moments where an approval goes missing, and what MecanoPro keeps at each.
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The finding
A technician finds the second thing
The technician raises a Finding on the job: what needs doing, what was found, suggested labour hours and up to three suggested parts, with photos. The advisor prices it as additional work.
- Each job has its own status: Awaiting Approval, Approved, In Progress, Done, Declined or Deferred.
- The clock is locked on a job that is awaiting approval, so nobody works on what the customer has not agreed to.
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The quote
Built from what you already sell
Add lines with Quick Add from your saved services and products, or as one-time items you can save to the catalogue. A client's standing discounts apply by themselves, taxes follow your tax groups, and a quote shows its Valid until date.
- From a work order, Quote for Approval puts the waiting jobs on one quote, which expires in 30 days unless you change it.
- The quote screen has a panel for the job's photos. They are for your team: they are not in the PDF, the text or the signing link.
- It goes out as a PDF in English or French, chosen by whoever sends it.
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The signature
Signed from a phone, in writing
Send it for signature by email or text. The customer opens a private link with no login and no app, types their name, draws their signature and ticks that it is as binding as a handwritten one. Nobody has to reach them by phone.
- What is recorded is the typed name, the time, the IP address and the signature image. The signed copy is the quote with an Electronic Signature Certificate page, emailed to the signers and kept on the record.
- Reminders go out every three days, up to three times, once you switch the scheduled task on. It is off to begin with.
- At the counter, hand them the tablet with Sign in Person. Or record an acceptance by hand: in person, by phone, by email, by text or other.
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The jobs
Approved, and never past the number
A signed or accepted quote approves the jobs on it, and a cancelled one declines them. Approval lives on the quote, never on the work order, so what was agreed is on the document the customer signed.
- A job cannot go beyond its quote plus the percentage you allow without a new approval. It starts at zero, and the wiki says to check your provincial rules.
- Decline or Defer a job and it gets a follow-up date, three months out unless you choose another. Back to Waiting undoes it.
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The invoice
One step to the invoice
A quote with no work order behind it converts with Convert to invoice, and the client, the vehicle, every line and the discounts come across as quoted. For a work order, Close & Invoice builds the invoice from the jobs, and the quotes behind them are marked converted.
- The new invoice gets a new number and today's date and starts as a draft. The quote is locked as Converted to invoice, with a link to it.
- By default a quote has to be accepted before it can be converted.
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Three months later
The work the customer said no to
The Declined Work report lists what is due to come back, with the customer, the vehicle, the mileage at the time and the estimate. Quote Again turns a line into a new quote in one step.
- It is a call list: nothing is sent on its own, and a job with no date still shows in Due.
- For administrators, the Quotes Report and the Conversion Report show how many quotes are open, how many were accepted and how many expire within seven days.
Where it stops and you start
An approval you can produce is only as good as how it was gathered. Here is what MecanoPro leaves to you.
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A quote is edited in place
There is no version history of a quote. Edit it and send it again, and each signed copy is kept as signed, with its certificate page. Once a request has gone out, its signature boxes are locked, and after a signature it can only be cancelled.
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Texting is for signature requests
There is no plain text this quote. A text carries a link to sign it, not a PDF and not your photos, and quotes are not in the client portal: the customer sees a PDF or the signing page.
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Accepted by phone is a record, not proof
Mark Accepted records who accepted, how, when and who recorded it, and it can be undone. A signature cannot. Only the signature is verified by the customer's own hand.
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Signing needs the right parts
It needs the E-Signatures module, an email address on the sender's own record and on the contact, and a text needs text messaging connected. The reminders are a scheduled task that starts off.
Somewhere on your hoists right now is a job waiting on a phone call
Come and see a quote go from a technician's finding to a signed approval on a customer's phone in under a minute - then imagine that on tomorrow's work.
See it running on your own work orders
Thirty minutes, at a time that suits the shop. We load a few of your real jobs in and you tell us where it would break.