Creating an estimate from anywhere
One screen: find the customer or the car by name, phone, plate or VIN — or add them right there — write the first concern, and press Create estimate.
For service advisor, owner, manager · checked against the product on 2026-09-28
New estimate opens the same screen wherever you start: the board header, the top-bar + menu (or Ctrl+Shift+E), a new or clear board, a customer's record, or Ctrl+K. The address is /estimates/new. It does not send you to the customer list first, and nothing on it opens another page until you create the estimate.
Find the customer, or the car
Type into the one search box: a name, a company, a phone number, a plate or a VIN. Each match shows the phone and the car so you can tell two people apart. Choose one with the mouse or press Enter for the top match. When you searched by plate or VIN, the car you typed is chosen for you; a customer with only one car has it chosen too, and the cursor moves straight to First concern.
Nobody matches? Fill in Or add a new customer on the same screen — first name, last name, phone, email and company. Every field is optional, and Torqix checks the phone and email against your customers before it adds anyone: if they are already on file, the screen comes back with them in the search so you can pick them instead.
Pick the car, or add it
A customer's cars are listed with their plate or VIN. For a car that is not listed, choose A vehicle not listed here. Type a plate or VIN into the vehicle box: a car already on file offers Use this vehicle, which takes the car and its owner together, and a new VIN is decoded so Use this vehicle fills the year, make and model. Enter Vehicle Manually opens the fields to type it yourself. If VIN decoding is off or does not know the VIN, the car is still saved with the VIN as typed, and the estimate says so.
A car with no customer yet — the night-box drop — needs no customer at all: leave the customer fields blank, add the car and create the estimate. The car is saved under New customer, and you can name them from their record when you know who it is.
Say what it is in for, and create it
First concern is optional. Put the customer's words there and they become the first service on the estimate, or leave it empty and build the services on the ticket. Press Create estimate (or Ctrl+Enter in the concern box). Anything new — the customer, the car — is added in that same press, and you land on the estimate.