Creating workshop jobs

Summary

This article explains how to create jobs in the Workshop system. See also How do I create a workshop job using Platinum Online?

More Information

The purpose of workshop job card is to store information about the customer, unit and work to be carried out. It controls the workshop loading, time management, the parts and labour, produces an invoice and takes payment.

All units that are booked into the workshop for retail work, warranty work, internal work, insurance work, goodwill and so forth should have a workshop job created.

A job should be created when a booking is taken, so that an entry is made on the system while the customer is on the phone or on the premises so that as much information can be taken and stored immediately. The benefits of having full customer information for marketing are huge.

To Create The Job

Go to " Workshop Workshop Diary".

• This will show the Diary for the current week and have today's date highlighted.
• To create a New Job on today's date, click [Add].
• To create a New Job on a Future date you can either:
  • Click on [>] or press <F1> to advance 1 Day.
  • Click on [>>] or press <F2> to advance 1 Week.
  • Click on [>>>] or press <F3> to advance 1 Month.
• Once on the correct date, click [Add] to create a new job.

The System will automatically create the Job number to stop duplicate job numbers being created.

The Job Card

A blank Job Properties screen will appear, waiting for you to fill in the details of the various parts of the job.

Account

• At the "Keeper:", type in part of the surname of the unit owner and press <Enter>.
  • Select the customer from the list or click [Add] to create a new account, if the one that you want is not shown.
  • If only one match is found the system will select it for you. If this is incorrect press <Ctrl+F1> and click [Add] to create a new customer.

The keeper should always be the person who drives, rides or operates the unit. The only time that this could be left blank is for internal jobs done for the sales department for demonstrators or showroom prep.

• If the customer has more than one unit associated with their keeper/account code, you will be presented with a list of possible units.
  • The "Date" column shows the last job date for that unit i.e. the last time it has been seen in your workshop. The most recent unit will say 'Last Used'.

To remove the link between a unit and keeper e.g. if they have sold it privately, click [Remove Keeper].

• Select the unit and click [Choose]. See the unit section below if you need to add a new unit.
• The "Invoice Account:" shows who is paying for the job. It will default to the keeper, but for internal and warranty jobs, this should be changed to the relevant internal or warranty account code.

See How do I find a customer? if you don't know the account codes.

Unit

• At the "unit:" enter in the unit stock number, or if you are unsure of the Stock Number, press <Ctrl+F1> to search.
  • See Creating workshop units if the unit is not on the system.

For internal jobs, you should be given the stock number of the unit to work on, and should refuse to carry out any work without a stock number.

Job Details

If you have a suitable Standard Job, load it now and then continue as below.

• At "Description:", type the description for this job. This will be the items that need doing on this unit, e.g. Full Service, MOT, Change Brake Pads and so on. This will appear on the printed job card. If you do not have enough space, it is possible to add more description to a workshop job.
• The "Status:" will default to 'BI'(Booked In). This can be changed by typing in a different status code.
• At "Reference:", enter the job reference. On a retail job, there probably won't be anything to put here, but on a warranty job, the manufacturer's warranty reference is helpful to find the job later.
• The "Depot:" will default to the depot for your current site. If you are a multi-site operation, this distinguishes your jobs from another site's jobs.
• At "Rate:", you may have rates set up for internal work or warranty work for specific manufacturers. This enables you to set the unit cost and retail price of labour for a specific type of job without setting up that rate for each of your labour codes. This will be done here.

Schedule

• At "Received:", enter the date the Job was taken on. This date will default to the user date.
• At "Started:", enter the date the Job is to be started. This date will default either to the user date or if you entered here from Diary screen, to the date you have selected in the Diary.
• At "Due:", enter the date the Job is due for completion. This date will get set to the start day if no date is entered.
• At "Hours:", enter an estimate of the time in hours it should take to complete this job.

Essentially this is all that is needed to be done to create a workshop job, unless you wish to allocate a particular Technician/Primary Skill to the job or spread the job over more than one day, in which case, refer to the section below.

• Press <Esc> and click [Accept] to save changes to the job that you have just completed and return back to the Workshop Diary Screen.

See the Platinum Dates article for tips on entering dates.

Adding a Technician or Skill to a Job/Spreading the Job

If you want to assign a particular Technician or Skill to a job, the following paragraph explains how this can be achieved.

This may be necessary if you are using Platinum Online to record time spent on jobs.

• Once you have a Workshop Job open, click the [Schedule] button, or you can press <F4> to amend the time allocation for the job.
• In the Job Schedule window, click [Add]
• Enter the Technician's Initials or press <Ctrl+F1> to search for a technician.
• To allocate a "Skill" enter the "Code" or press <Ctrl+F1> to search for a skill code.
  • If the one you want does not exist, then you can create it from here, however you MUST assign that skill to a Technician, otherwise the Diary Screen will show an error on any day to which you assign that Skill Code.
• At "Schedule" enter the "date" and number of "hours" to allocate to that date. You may also specify a start time and deadline if you wish.
• Click [Done].

To schedule the job over more than one day repeat the steps above making sure you enter the appropriate date and hours to allocate to that date.

• Press <Esc> and click [Accept] to save changes to the schedule and exit back to the Job Details.

Job Type

• Select the [Job Type] tab.
• Allocate the type of job from the selection in the "Unallocated" column.

Job types can be linked to check sheets so allowing the system to select the correct sheet when prompted - see How do I record unit health checks?. Selecting a job type can be a mandatory function - see How do I make workshop job types mandatory?

• Click [Done] and [Accept] to save the new job.
• Follow the links below for further actions.

See also

• How do I print a job card?
• How do I search for a workshop job?
• How do I add parts to a workshop job?
• How do I add labour to a workshop job?
• How do I create an insurance workshop job?
• How do I create a workshop warranty job?
• How do I deal with retail, internal, warranty & sales workshop jobs?
• How do I record unit health checks?
• How do I add advisories to a workshop job?
• How do I create a workshop job using Platinum Online?
• How do I create workshop job types?
• How do I make workshop job types mandatory?
• How do I invoice a workshop job?
• How do I deal with fitted options on units?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

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