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Create or convert a Repair Order

A Repair Order (RO) is the document that carries one vehicle visit from arrival through work, invoicing, and payment. Every visit runs on exactly one, and there are four ways one comes to exist: created directly, converted from an appointment, converted from a standalone Estimate, or started as warranty work against a past invoice. This page maps all four paths, what each one carries in, and how a Repair Order relates to the other documents on the books.

Whatever the path, a new Repair Order starts the same way. It takes the next number in your shop's repair order sequence (the sequence is contiguous, so numbers never skip), opens with status Open, lands in the first stage of the Workflow board, and gets the visit's Portal Link. How the first stage anchors the board is covered in Workflow stages and operational defaults; moving the card onward is covered in Move work through Workflow Stages.

Repair Orders, Estimates, and Counter Sales​

The Documents page lists the three customer-facing documents a shop writes, organized into type tabs:

  • A Repair Order is the work document for a vehicle visit. It needs a customer and a vehicle, it is the only document that appears on the Workflow board, and finalizing it is what produces an Invoice.
  • An Estimate is a quote that can exist before any visit. It can be created with just a customer, or nothing at all, and filled in as the conversation develops. It may later convert, once, into a Repair Order.
  • A Counter Sale sells parts, accessories, materials, or supplies over the counter with no repair work. It has no vehicle, the customer is optional, it runs its own number sequence, and it never appears on the Workflow board. Finalizing and collecting on one is covered in the Payments, Invoicing, and Accounting section of this knowledge base.

A Repair Order does not need an Estimate first. Every RO has its own Estimate tab where you build and send the quote for that visit, so for a vehicle that is already in the lot, create the RO and estimate there. A standalone Estimate is for pricing work before there is a visit, a phone quote or a fleet approval, and conversion exists so that document becomes the visit's RO without rebuilding it. Each of the three documents draws its number from its own shop-scoped sequence, so Estimate #12 and RO #12 are unrelated.

Create a Repair Order directly​

Direct creation is the walk-in check-in flow, covered step by step in Check in a vehicle and record visit details. In short: the Create repair order page is reachable from Workflow (Add repair order), from the sidebar plus button, from New RO on a customer's page, or from New > Repair Order on the Documents page. Pick the customer and vehicle, which are the only required fields, add the odometer and reasons for visit while the customer is in front of you, and click Create repair order. This path is also the only conversion-free one, so it is where your shop's auto-add inspection templates run: the new RO opens with those inspections already created.

Direct creation requires the repair orders create permission. The vehicle must belong to the customer you picked; to write an RO for a car that changed hands, transfer the vehicle first, as described in Transfer a vehicle to another customer.

Create from an appointment​

For a scheduled visit, open the appointment on the Calendar and click Create repair order. The appointment's customer, vehicle, Reasons For Visit, Visit Type, Promise Time, and service advisor carry over, the appointment is linked to the new RO and marked Arrived (the shop's Auto-Arrival setting, on by default), and clicking again can never create a duplicate. Auto-add inspection templates do not run on this path. The details, including what blocks the button, are in Check in a vehicle and record visit details. This path needs the repair orders create and calendar events update permissions.

If the shop needs to quote before check-in, choose Create estimate instead. The draft Estimate opens immediately with the appointment's customer, optional vehicle, shared visit facts, and Reasons For Visit, while the appointment keeps its current status. This path needs estimates create and calendar events update. Once that Estimate exists, direct RO creation is blocked: add a vehicle if needed and use Convert to Repair Order on the Estimate. The converted RO is linked back to the appointment with the same visit facts, and the appointment is marked Arrived on the same Auto-Arrival setting as the direct path.

The relationship can also be created in reverse. On an active Estimate or operational Repair Order, use the Appointment controls in Visit Details to schedule a new future Appointment or link an eligible existing one for the same Shop and Customer. A document can have only one Appointment. Vehicle values must match when both are present; a blank Vehicle is filled from the other record. The document's populated visit facts win, while its blanks can be filled from the Appointment. Linking never combines Reasons For Visit.

After linking, an Estimate or Repair Order and Appointment share Service Advisor, default Technician, Visit Type, and Promise Time. The Calendar time and status do not change the document's workflow or financial status. Unlinking keeps the Appointment active, and deleting either record releases the link rather than deleting the other.

Convert an Estimate​

When the quoted vehicle shows up, open the Estimate and click Convert to RO in the page header. The new Repair Order opens immediately.

Two things must be true first: the Estimate needs both a customer and a vehicle, and the vehicle must belong to that customer. Approval is not one of the requirements. A draft, sent, or even declined Estimate converts fine; the only status that cannot convert is one that already has.

The conversion copies the whole worksheet onto the new RO: concern groups, Reasons For Visit, Technician findings, Services with their labor lines, part lines, Sublets, and technician assignments, and fees and discounts at whatever scope they were applied. Tax settings and all visit facts carry over, and the Estimate Mileage becomes the RO's odometer-in reading. Authorization state carries too, so Services the customer already approved on the Estimate arrive on the RO still authorized, with the evidence of who approved them and how. The visit's Portal Link is unchanged: the link the customer already has now shows the Repair Order.

A few things intentionally do not carry. Sublet work status resets to planned, since the outside work starts fresh with the visit. The Estimate's internal notes stay on the Estimate. Auto-add inspection templates do not run, so start any inspections yourself from the RO's Inspections tab.

The Estimate itself is not consumed. It moves to status Converted, becomes read-only, and its header button changes to View RO; it stays in the Documents list as the record of what was quoted. The RO keeps a link back to it, and takes the next repair order number rather than inheriting the estimate number.

One permission note: converting is an action on the Estimate, so it requires the estimates update permission rather than repair orders create.

Start a warranty Repair Order​

When invoiced work fails and comes back, the fix is a new Repair Order linked to the original work, not a reopened invoice. It starts from the Vehicle history panel described in Understand vehicle ownership, service history, and historical invoices: a Start warranty button appears on a past service when that visit was invoiced at your shop for the same customer.

Clicking it opens the Start warranty work dialog listing the original invoice's labor and part lines for that service. Check the ones being redone and click Create warranty RO. The result is a normal new Repair Order (first stage, next RO number, auto-add inspections included) holding one Warranty Service named after the original, with the selected lines copied at zero price: labor keeps its hours at a $0 rate, parts keep their cost at a $0 sell price. The customer owes nothing while the RO still tracks what the comeback costs you. Recovering that cost from the vendor runs through Return Orders, covered in the Returns, Cores, and Warranty section of this knowledge base.

The link runs both ways. The warranty Service points at the original Service, and the original now shows a Covered by warranty chip that opens the warranty RO. Once that chip exists, the Start warranty button is gone, so a service gets one warranty RO, not one per glance at history. Starting warranty work checks repair orders read and create at the shop that wrote the original.

After the Repair Order exists​

From here the paths merge. Assign the people in Assign service advisors and technicians, move the card in Move work through Workflow Stages, and when the visit ends, whether in an invoice, a Close Without Sale, or deleting a mistake, see Complete, cancel, restore, print, or prepare a Repair Order for invoicing.