Add (Build) A Job On A Repair Order

Add (Build) A Job On A Repair Order

Add (Build) A Job On A Repair Order

Section 1: Introduction And Clarification

Service Writing in MaxxTraxx is vital to a shop's daily business processes in order to create repair orders that document and invoice for services provided, products sold and recommendations made.
It also provides, among other things, the means to take payments, track sales & productivity, produce business reports and...communicate with Customers. All of this depends on learning and effectively using the system.
Special Notes: This tutorial is designed for those who have already learned the process of starting a blank Repair Order and who are now ready to learn the next steps. Repair Orders are used for jobs starting immediately. The article for learning to Add (Start) A New Repair Order is found HERE. However, to schedule a Customer for work on a future date, view the Add A New Appointment article, which is found HERE.
Detailed below are the steps required to put together or "build" jobs on a newly created Repair Order. "Estimates" and Repair Orders are the same thing in MaxxTraxx, by the way, so there are not separate things to keep track of.

Section 2: Begin Work On A Newly Created Repair Order

Once a Customer is chosen or created and a vehicle is selected or added, the Repair Order or Service Writing screen opens up in order to begin building jobs.
If a Repair Order was created previously and saved, but no jobs have been added yet, simply double-click the item from the Service Counter to open it. Or, one can also right click to bring up the Action Tile which presents many options. One of them being, Edit Repair Order.

Section 3: Getting Around The Repair Order Screen

In the repair order writing screen there are a lot of good things to know here. Two of the most prominent and important ones we'll mention are the links at the top that provide quick access to the Customer or Vehicle Master records. These are a quick and easy way to update information. At the top left is the Customer's name in blue which is a clickable link into the Customer's record.
Likewise, at the top right, the Vehicle is a blue clickable link as well. There are other items running down the left hand side, and down below. This is all we'll cover on screen navigation for right now.
Answers to Common Questions - Special Alert: There are two questions that come up consistently so we'll briefly cover them here. The first is that If changes are made to the default tax code for a Customer in their master record it WILL NOT automatically change the taxable status of any open Repair Orders. To do that, one must click the Miscellaneous tab on the left side of the RO screen. Towards the top left, click the Select button just to the right of Tax Code. Make the desired change and click Select in the lower right to save. Going forward, any new items created will use the Customer's assigned tax code. The second common question involves vehicle mileage. Changing the recorded mileage in a Vehicle's master record DOES NOT change anything on an open Repair Order. The vehicle's in and out mileage during the visit should be recorded in the Miscellaneous tab of the RO. Once that invoice is paid and closed out, the system is designed to take the final Out mileage and place it into that mileage field in the Vehicle's master record.

To gain more in-depth knowledge of the Repair Order writing screen overall, please refer to a video called Edit A Repair Order And RO Screen Overview. Found HERE.

Section 4: Service Writing Principles In MaxxTraxx

MaxxTraxx adheres to the concept of the "3-C's" of automotive repair service writing: "Condition, Cause & Correction".
Therefore, there is a definite flow that has to be followed in order to build jobs. Basically, Steps 1, 2 and 3, which are covered in the following sections.

Section 5: State The "Condition". The Customer's "Reason For Service"

Step 1 - Each job in MaxxTraxx must start with a statement of what the Customer is requesting. It's the "Condition" of the vehicle. Sometimes the terms "concern" or "complaint" are used, as well.
It is referred to simply as the "Reason for Service" everywhere in the program.
At the middle left of the screen click the Reason for Service button. That will bring up a drop-down list of choices.
The 3 main options at the top are Vehicle Problem (customer has a concern that requires diagnosis), or a Request for Service (a direct request for specific work), or a Free Form Note (perhaps does not conform to other two types or a freestyle entry is desired).
Click an option, for example Request for Service. That will bring up the "Select Request for Service" dialog box.
MaxxTraxx comes preloaded with a large sample catalog of universal, general automotive repair reasons with descriptions.
The reasons for service types are separated at the top into tabs. Items can belong to one or many types of service requests. All are also further organized into categories which are listed at the left.
For this example, Request for Service was selected so that is the tab the system is pointing to for us. One can easily change the type by just selecting a different tab and making a selection.
New items can also be quickly added to these master lists on-the-fly by clicking the Add button in the lower left of screen.
For demonstration purposes, we will select a very standard "Front Brake Service" and click the Select button at bottom right to add it to the repair order.
The following screen allows more comments to be added to the printed description that will show on the Repair Order and final Invoice. For example, statements or descriptions of the issue from the customer. When ready, click the Ok button at the bottom right to proceed to the next step.
Special Note: The Reasons for Service lists can be customized to suit a business' needs. To make changes to the master lists in setups rather than during the RO-writing process, click on the Manager menu option at the very top middle of the main service counter window. Select Reasons for Service at the left.

Section 6: Determine The "Cause" And Propose A "Correction". Add Labor/s To The Reason For Service

Step 2 - Is where one diagnoses the Cause and/or lists the labor required and steps taken for Correction of the issue stated in the Reason for Service above.
This means the next step is to add a Labor detail line, probably the most important part of the process.
To add a labor to a Reason for Service, or RFS line, it must be selected so the system knows where to attach the labor.
With that RFS line selected and highlighted in blue, click the Labors button just below the top window. This presents the user with some options. There are quite a few choices here including jumping out to an e-catalog Labor Guide, creating a Freeform labor and more.
Special Note: MaxxTraxx does not include any labor catalogs or guides natively. However, we like to offer options and can connect electronically to your existing subscription with either Alldata Repair, Mitchell ProDemand, Mitchell HD or Shopkey. One or more can be linked. Once set up in the system they will appear as options on the Labors context menu.

To keep things brief, we will select the Labor Service from List option at the top. This is an internal customizable list of labor operation codes with descriptions, hours, pricing, and more. A choice can be made from the existing list, -or- new items can be added "on-the-fly" to the permanent library by clicking the Add Labor Service button at the bottom left of the screen.
For training purposes, we'll use one that's already in the system. Start typing "brakes..." to locate a suitable labor code. Select the one called Brakes - Front Pads.
To choose it and add it to the job, click the Select button at the bottom right to attach it to the RFS.
The "Labor Service - Sales Detail Information" screen will open up. At the top left is the "Printed Labor Service Description" box. This is where one inputs all details about the cause and correction needed, and performed. There is plenty of room provided here for documenting a lot of information for the customer.
Below that is the "Technician Assignments" area where up to 2 different Technicians could be assigned to each labor line.
Right below that is a place to include add-on charges if needed.
At the bottom is the "Labor Sales - Not Including Add-On Charges" area. This is important for determining the number of flat-rate hours assigned for the job to the mechanics and also the number of hours that are being billed to the customer. These are often always the same and this can be set as the default option in setups. There is a checkbox to "Link Flat And Billed Rate Labors Together" that can be activated or deactivated on demand.
At the middle right, is the area describing the hourly shop rate which the system will pull automatically from setups. There are also 2 types of discounts that can be applied if needed. One is a general purpose discount and the other is specifically for rework or warranty work. And at the bottom right, is the summary of total labor charges for this one labor operation.
Once finished, click the OK button at the bottom right of this screen to save and close.

Section 7: If Parts Are Needed, Attach Them To A Corresponding Labor

Step 3 - In MaxxTraxx, adding parts to a job is the generally the "final" step. There are other items like sublets but these are just the basics for now. And since Parts can only attach to a labor line, which is step 2, that makes them the last piece of putting a job together.
Click the Labor line that was added in the previous step to highlight it, then click the Parts button.
Here one is presented with quite a few options, especially if there are many part supplier's e-catalogs connected to MaxxTraxx.
The first entry, "Part from Parts list" is where one would select a part from the Master Parts List. Any part that's ever touched in MaxxTraxx gets put on this list. This does not necessarily mean it's a "stocking" part, although it can be set that way.
For any parts suppliers that offer electronic ordering through various technologies online and are connected in Vendor setups, they will appear next on that list of options.
For this example, we will choose the O'Reilly test account and source a couple of parts. Input the search criteria, locate suitable parts and select them. Each vendor technology will do things in different ways. But basically, the principles are very similar. In this case, click the Add to Quote button. Then, to finalize all choices and send them to the RO, click the Transfer Quote button.
At this point, no parts have been actually ordered yet. The first step is to find some and get them onto the customer's estimate for approval. The actual parts ordering and tracking process would happen next but is a more involved topic best covered in a separate video lesson called "Service Writing Basics - Part 4".

Section 8: Summary And Video Tutorial

So those are the very basic 3 steps needed to build jobs in MaxxTraxx.
A "Reason for Service" line, followed by a "Labor" line or lines, followed by a "Part" line or lines.
There is definitely more to know but these are some core basics to get started with first.
Below is a video covering this topic for review.









As always, the Support Team is here if you have questions or need help.
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Phone: 800-996-9777, Option #1
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Thank You for Your Time and Have a Great Week!
-The MaxxTraxx Team