Repair order

In most shops the repair order starts life as an estimate, becomes a work order when the customer approves it, and becomes an invoice when the work is done. Those are three states of one record, not three documents linked by a person retyping the lines, and a system that keeps them as separate records is where a changed part price or a forgotten line goes missing between them.

The vehicle on it is the one its VIN decoded to. The FTC's consumer guide, written for the customer, is a usable list of what the completed record should hold. It tells the customer to "Get a completed repair order describing the work done" that lists "each repair, parts supplied, the cost of each part, labor charges, and the vehicle's odometer reading when you brought the vehicle in as well as when the repair order was completed", and to "Ask for all replaced parts". The FTC's consumer guide tells a customer the completed repair order should list the odometer reading when the vehicle came in and when the order was completed, which makes the odometer a field captured twice, not once.

The estimate side has its own rules by state: Michigan wants it to itemize labor and parts "as closely as possible" and caps the overage without a new consent, and the rules pages hold each state's words. A work order is the same record under the name California's statute uses.

Wrenchy keeps the repair order as one record whose states are estimate, work order and invoice, with each issued document kept exactly as the customer received it. The repair order template is the printable version with the fields above.