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Track Service progress and work time

The Work tab on a repair order is where the shop marks work finished and records how long it took. Every authorized Service is a card there, with a checkbox on each Labor Line and Part Line, a timer, and a Complete service button. What you record on this tab is what the Workflow board's progress bar and the customer's portal report, so a shop that keeps the Work tab current gets a board and a portal it can trust.

This page is about the job in front of you: checking off work and tracking time against Services. The shop-wide workday clock (the clock in/out under your name at the bottom left of the sidebar), corrections to staff time records, and productivity reporting belong to the Staff, Time, and Shop Performance section of this knowledge base.

What appears on the Work tab​

A Service shows on the Work tab once the customer has authorized it and staff have reviewed it. Hidden Services, Pending Services, and Declined Services stay off the tab; until something is authorized, the tab reads "No authorized services are ready for work." Recording authorizations is covered in Record authorizations, declines, and deferred work.

The overview card at the top sums the visit: how many technicians are assigned across the Services, Logged Time (all recorded work time, running timers included), Billed Time (the total Labor Line hours the customer is charged), and Completed (Services done out of total). Logged against billed is the at-a-glance efficiency read for the job.

Each Service card shows the Service name, an in-progress badge while any timer runs on it, a completed badge once it is done, its assigned technicians, and the timer button. Expand the card for its Labor and Parts checklists. You can drag a card by its grip handle to reorder; this changes the Service order on the whole repair order, so the Estimate tab and customer documents follow. Assigning technicians works the same here as anywhere else on the repair order; see Assign service advisors and technicians.

Check off lines as work finishes​

Check a Labor Line or Part Line's box when that piece of work is done. The card's footer counts progress ("2 of 5 lines done"), and each check records who checked it and when. Unchecking clears it.

Labor Line checks are what move the Work Progress percentage (more on that below). Part Line checks don't change the percentage, but they do count toward the lines-done tally and tell the Customer Portal the Service is underway.

A part still waiting on a Purchase Order wears its status badge in the checklist. Checking off a part that hasn't been received raises a Used before received exception on the line; the line's menu can dismiss it with a reason once you've confirmed the part really is in the vehicle.

Complete a Service​

Select Complete service in the card footer when the work is finished. BayEngine checks off every remaining Labor Line and Part Line, stamps when and by whom, stops every running timer on the Service, and grays the card.

If a listed Part was not used, remove it from the Estimate before completing the Service. A completed Service cannot contain unfinished or editable Labor or Part Lines.

Reopen undoes the completion stamp without restarting a timer. Line checkmarks stay as they were. For a correction, reopen the Service first. Removing a completed Part Line from the Estimate then restores its inventory consumption automatically.

Only authorized Services on a repair order can be completed. Estimate Services and unauthorized work are rejected.

Completing the last incomplete authorized Service records Repair Order Completed on the visit. That is an automation trigger ("Starts when every Authorized Service on a Repair Order is complete"), and it marks the Service stage done on the customer's portal timeline while keeping each completed Service itemized. It does not move the card on the Workflow board or finalize anything; invoicing is its own step, covered in Complete, cancel, restore, print, or prepare a repair order for invoicing.

Track work time with timers​

Press the play button on a Service card to start your timer. The button shows the Service's total recorded time and counts up while running; press the square to stop. A few rules:

  • One running timer per person per Service. Two technicians can both run timers on the same Service, and its Logged Time counts both.
  • Starting a timer on one Service does not stop your timer on another. If you switch jobs, stop the first one yourself.
  • Clocking out of your workday does not stop a Service timer. Completing the Service does.
  • Work time belongs to whoever ran the timer, assigned to the Service or not. Assignment is about who owns the job; time is about who actually worked on it.

The first time entry on a Service also writes "Started work on service ..." into the repair order's activity, so the office can see when wrench time began without walking to the bay. See Add notes and maintain the repair order for where activity lives.

Fix or add time by hand​

Forgot to start the timer, or left one running over lunch? Edit time log on an expanded card opens the Activity Timeline dialog: every recorded interval for the Service with its technician, start, end, and optional note. From there:

  • Add Time records an interval manually; pick the technician, start, end, and a note explaining the entry if it needs one.
  • Edit an interval to correct its times, note, or technician.
  • Delete an interval that shouldn't exist. Deleting is permanent from the shop's point of view, so be sure.

Start and end can't be in the future, and an interval can't end before it starts. Beyond that, entries are trusted as typed.

What the shop and the customer see​

Work Progress is derived from the Work tab, never entered directly.

On the Workflow board, each card grows a progress bar once progress begins. The percentage is the completed share of Labor Line hours: a 5-hour line counts five times a 1-hour line, and a line with no hours counts as one unit. Part Lines and timers don't move it. The bar caps at 90% until every Service is complete, then jumps to 100%; keeping a Service open holds the card visibly unfinished no matter how many lines are checked. The bar and the card's column are independent; moving cards is covered in Move work through workflow stages.

On the Customer Portal, an authorized visit reads "Authorization received" until work starts. The first timer or checked-off line switches it to work in progress, names the Service when exactly one is underway, and shows the same progress bar. Completing some Services does not move the portal backward to "Authorization received"; once every Service is complete, the card reads "Work complete" at 100% until the Repair Order leaves the middle Workflow Stages. The portal's timeline lists each Service as up next, in progress, or done with its completion time. The customer never sees logged hours or who logged them, only that work is moving.

Permissions​

Checking lines off and completing or reopening a Service ride the update action on the services, labor lines, and part lines resources. Time has its own resource, service work time segments: create lets a user start, stop, and enter their own time; update lets them record or change someone else's; delete removes entries. A technician with only create sees the Add Time dialog locked to themselves. Grants are managed in Assign Shop Roles, shop access, and User Permissions.