What system do you use to keep track of jobs being fixed in the workshop?

[alanhughes]

I am trying to devise a system to keep track of customers PC/Laptops when they are in the workshop for repair and am hoping other members will share the system they use or put forward some ideas.

Thanks in advance for any posts

 

[generalj]

This is how I do it.

First I use CommitCRM to track all work. Off-site, on-site and business contracts. I update this with all the info from the work and updates its notes as I need.

Second, I always print out a work-order from the job I created in CommitCRM even for jobs in my shop and I update it as well and keep it on a clip board with the pc I am working on.

I have sectioned off work benches that keep different customer computers apart form each other and always have each area with a work order printed out and near it. This way if I forget what I have done or "need" to do it is there to reference and if a customer calls or stops in wondering what is up and I am not sure I can always grab that paper and see.

Also with CommitCRM I can set a special field for every ticket, such as one stating this was a in-shop job etc. This way for instance I want to see how many in-shop versus out of shop repairs I am doing I can easily pull a report from CommitCRM using its built in report generator. CommitCRM is really nice.

I also try to track other things on the customer accounts inside CommitCRM such as how they heard me etc.

This way I can pull reports for my marketing plan, also I can add notes in CommitCRM about the customer specifics, maybe some account I did work for has a service I could barter with the next time or the customer also had other things wrong that I would recommend fixing I can pull a report every month to see those and give them a friendly call about it.

 

[14049752]

I built my own workorder system in Access/SQL. I went the home-built way for a couple of reasons: I can completely customize my database for my needs....and...when I was starting out, I had no money to budget for a decent workorder system...I feel like mine does everything I need for a long while and if it doesn't, I can add the feature fairly quickly.

 

[ComputerLife]

I've spent the last 2 years building my system. It has all the bells and whistles, Accounting, job tracking, tech tracking. Job scheduling/dispatching, record keeping, billing. A job doesn't get done unless its in my system. All in php, all web based so techs in other areas can access it. I wouldn't have a business if it wasn't for it. It took some time to program but it was well worth it, saves me a lot of time.

 

[alanhughes]

Thanks for your posts
What I am looking for is a way to keep track of PC/Laptops in for repair, if they come in with power adapters, printers etc, I want to make sure that items don't get lost and the paper work stays with the job, at the moment I am thinking each job goes into a big numbered plastic box and all paperwork attached to a clipboard that stays with it until collected, then process all the paperwork