Taking a digital inspection from checklist to estimate

A digital inspection begins as a reusable checklist, becomes a sheet tied to one repair order, and freezes as evidence when somebody completes it. The technician records what the car says; an advisor decides whether a problem becomes work the customer may be asked to buy.

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   Step 1: Build or install a checklist

   Open Settings › Inspection templates. If the shop has none, choose Install courtesy inspection. To make your own, enter a Template name, group each row with its section, choose Add checklist item as needed, then press Create template. The visible checklist rows post as ordinary form fields, so creating or editing a template still submits those rows when JavaScript is switched off.

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   Step 2: Write the shop's quick notes

   On the same screen, choose Manage quick notes and type the findings your technicians write again and again into Quick notes, one per line — "Pads at 3 mm, recommend replacement", "Seeping, monitor at next service". Press Save quick notes. Every open inspection sheet offers them beside each item's note. Empty the box and save to offer none.

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   Step 3: Start it from the repair order — a technician's screen

   Open the repair order you are assigned to. There are no tabs on it: the work fills the screen and the Inspections panel is in the right-hand column, listing any sheet already on the car. Choose the checklist and how many wheels the vehicle has, then press Start inspection. A repair order needs a vehicle, and at least one active checklist must exist first — when the shop has none the panel says so, and an owner or manager adds one in Settings.

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   Step 4: Start it from the repair order — an advisor's screen

   An advisor, manager or owner opens the repair order's Inspections tab, chooses + Add inspection, selects the checklist and wheel layout, then presses Add inspection. On the classic order screen there is a second door: without leaving the work, its right-hand Inspections panel folds open to + Start an inspection and the same two pickers with Start inspection. Every door starts the same sheet.

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   Step 5: Work down the sheet

   For each item choose OK, Soon, Now or N/A. Each press saves on the spot; the sheet does not reload. Add a note or any offered gauge readings before choosing the rating, or pick one from the item's Quick note list — the words go into the note, where you can still edit them. The bar along the bottom of the sheet counts how many checks are rated and how many need attention; Next unrated takes you to the next item still waiting for a rating. The repair order shows the sheet in progress, including its rating counts, notes and photo count, and its Inspections tab offers the same Quick note list beside each item's note, so a finding can be rated and worded from the order without opening the sheet.

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   Step 6: Keep the evidence with the item

   Choose Add photo on the item the picture explains. Taking the picture sends it — there is no second button to press. JPEG, PNG and WebP photos are compressed before upload.With no signal, Torqix keeps a queued photo on that signed-in device and sends it when the connection returns — you can leave the screen. If an upload keeps failing, a note in the corner says why and offers Try again and Discard photo. The device holds twenty photos; past that the camera says so and offers Discard the oldest photo. Remove photo takes one back off the item. Press a saved photograph to open it in the viewer, where you can move through the sheet's pictures and choose Download.

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   Step 7: Or record it, when a picture will not carry it

   The same item takes video. Add video accepts MP4, WebM and QuickTime, up to a size limit your shop sets — the line under the button says the number in megabytes, so read it rather than guessing. Recording the clip sends it. A noise, a leak under pressure or a play in a joint is a clip; everything else is a photograph. Remove video takes one back off. Two things behave differently from photographs and are worth knowing at the car: a video is uploaded as recorded rather than shrunk first, so a long clip is a long upload, and there is no offline queue for video — with no signal, record it and add it when you are back on the network.

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   Step 8: Let an advisor price a problem

   A yellow or red item offers Make job only to somebody allowed to edit estimates. Pressing it adds a job to the same repair order and marks the item On the estimate. A template may suggest the job title, but no rule presses this button for the shop.

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   Step 9: Add a check the checklist forgot

   On a sheet still in progress, type the item and, if you like, a section at the foot of its card on the repair order's Inspections tab — or choose + Add item at the foot of the full sheet — then press Add item. The new item rates, takes a note and photographs, and can become a job like any other. It is added to this inspection only — the checklist it was started from does not change. A completed sheet takes no new items.

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    Step 10: Record that the customer put a finding off

    On the repair order's Inspections tab, a yellow or red item offers Deferred by customer to somebody allowed to edit estimates, on an open or a completed sheet. It is the same deferral as on the service card: the finding's job is marked deferred — made first, as Make job would, when there is none — it leaves the estimate's total, and a follow-up opens straight away, dated from the finding's colour. It shows under the vehicle's deferred work and on the follow-up list for the next visit. Undo puts the job back to what it was before and closes that follow-up. A job the button made itself stays on the estimate afterwards, unpriced and not authorized, exactly as Make job would have left it.

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    Step 11: Keep a note on the inspection as a whole

    Each inspection card on the repair order's Inspections tab has one internal note box for the sheet as a whole, under the card's title; type in it and press Save note. The line beside the button says who saved it last and when. Only the shop sees it: it is never printed on the estimate or shown in the customer's glovebox. It can be written after the sheet is completed, and saving it empty clears it.

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    Step 12: Complete the record, and answer the question it asks

    After the checks are finished, press Complete inspection. Nothing is frozen yet: the sheet saves what you have typed and asks Complete this inspection?, naming what completing does. Press Yes, complete and send to finish it, or Not yet to carry on — what you typed stays on the screen either way. The completed sheet can no longer be rated, and its photos can no longer be removed or added to. It appears in the customer's glovebox; use Send with the estimate when the findings should also travel on an estimate.

What changes when a checklist changes

Choose Edit as new version for a checklist already in use. Save as new version changes only inspections started later; an open or completed sheet keeps the rows, order and wording it began with. Retire removes the checklist from the start picker without changing old sheets. A row marked Suggest a job when this comes back with a problem may prefill a title after the chosen yellow or red result, but a person still has to press Make job.

When completion is refused

A shop can turn on Require a reviewer before sending or Require photos on red items under its preferences. If the first rule stops a technician, the sheet says A reviewer must sign off before this inspection goes to the customer. Have an advisor, manager or owner open the same sheet and press Complete inspection. If the second stops it, the sheet says Every red item needs a photo before this goes out. Add a live photo to each red row, then try completion again.

Printing and sending the inspection report

A completed inspection is its own document. On its card on the repair order's Inspections tab, Print report opens the report as a PDF: the car, the customer, every item with its rating and note, the readings and the photos. Send report opens the send dialog, where you choose text, email or both and can add a message. The customer gets a private link to the report in their digital glovebox, and the email carries the PDF.

The report is made the first time it is printed or sent, and never changes after that. Every later print and send is the same file. The inspection's internal note is never on it. Sending makes a fresh glovebox link, so a link the customer had before stops working. Findings also still print on the repair-order copy and travel with the estimate when inspections are shown. See Signing invoices and inspections for customer sign-off.