Estimates and approvals
Customer approval before work and before any extra, recorded with its timestamp. It is the piece most often missing when a customer disputes an invoice.
Shopmonkey
Is it ready is the call that interrupts the advisor at the worst moment. The question is written into Zenvox with the vehicle and the customer; the signed estimate stays with the advisor.
7 days, 20 answered calls, no card
Where your status call lands
The question is written into Zenvox: customer, vehicle, what the call is about, and the line between a menu service with a known rate and a diagnosis still to do. Shopmonkey keeps its work orders. The exact answer depends on three separate states — the ordered part, the work in progress and customer approval — and the signed estimate stays with the advisor: it is neither announced nor written from Zenvox.
On access, customer, order, vehicle, user and inventory objects are reachable according to the documentation. Detailed mutations and the signed estimate are untested, and key, plan and permissions remain to be verified — so your edition decides before any install. That is exactly the line the matrix draws below.
Shopmonkey holds customers, vehicles, work orders and parts inventory; the advisor is at the counter, the technician is under a vehicle, and every status call interrupts both of them.
Read, create, update, cancel
The status below comes from vendor documentation and from what has not been tested: detailed writes, signed estimates and event coverage.
| Action | Status | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Read | To qualify | Customers, vehicles, work orders and inventory are described as reachable. That read is what lets somebody answer is it ready without interrupting the advisor; it needs a key, a plan and permissions that must be verified. |
| Create | To qualify | Creating a shop appointment or a work order means keeping the vehicle identification number and parts states reliable. Detailed writes are untested: the request is prepared, and the shop enters it. |
| Update | To qualify | Adding a line to an open order touches customer approval. Extra work found along the way produces a revised estimate and an explicit agreement: labour does not add itself. |
| Cancel | Zenvox native mode | Cancelling an order, returning an ordered part or freeing a bay are shop decisions. A customer cancellation is taken, time-stamped and passed on, and the advisor decides what follows. |
What is included, what needs an add-on
Answering, identifying vehicle and customer, telling maintenance from diagnosis, capturing a symptom without naming it in the technician place and passing everything on belong to your automotive base. Estimates and their approval are a named add-on.
The authorisation, and what holds the truth
In a shop, authorisation means two things: access to the software, and customer agreement on work. Both are handled here.
- The key is created from your account, with plan and permissions verified; Zenvox asks for no password
- The vehicle identification number and parts states stay reliable: nothing is overwritten blind
- The technician diagnoses and the advisor approves the estimate; the receptionist does not diagnose on the phone
- Extra work found mid-job produces a revised estimate and customer agreement before continuing
- A completion time is announced only by the advisor, once the shop has confirmed it
Tuesday morning, every bay is full and the advisor is at the counter. The call is taken by Zenvox; nothing is written into the software.
CustomerHi, my car makes a noise when I brake. How much would it cost to fix that?
ReceptionistLet me take your name, a callback number, and the make, model and year. For a braking noise, it takes a diagnosis before any figure: I cannot give you an amount on the phone.
ReceptionistI am recording the symptom in your own words and passing the request along. The shop offers you a slot for the diagnosis, and the advisor gives you the estimate after inspection.
The shop receives a diagnosis request rather than a price promise nobody could keep. The symptom is recorded as the customer described it, not translated into a fault by somebody who has not seen the vehicle.
When the connection is not there
The software keeps its work orders, and the receptionist works in Zenvox native mode.
- The request is created inside Zenvox with customer, vehicle and reported symptom
- Status requests are grouped and handed to the advisor instead of interrupting them one by one
- No amount and no completion time are announced on the phone
- You find the call, its transcript and its reason in the app
- The day a write becomes qualified, it is added without redoing your setup
Questions about this connection
Can she tell the customer whether the vehicle is ready?
Not yet. Customer, order, vehicle and inventory objects are described as reachable, and key, plan and permissions remain to be verified. Meanwhile the question is written into Zenvox with the customer and the vehicle, and status requests are grouped for the advisor.
Does she add labour to an open order?
No. Extra work found along the way produces a revised estimate and an explicit customer agreement; labour does not add itself.
Does she diagnose on the phone?
No. The symptom is recorded as the customer described it, not translated into a fault. The technician diagnoses and the advisor approves the estimate.
Does she announce a completion time?
A completion time is announced only by the advisor, once the shop has confirmed it. No amount is given on the phone either.
What protects the vehicle identification number and parts states?
Nothing is overwritten blind. Creating a shop appointment or a work order means keeping the vehicle identification number and parts states reliable, and detailed writes are untested.
Where to next
See the practice concerned, or the full list of software studied.
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