Work orders

A work order is the job. Everything else in ShopFlow hangs off it.

Taking a machine in

Work Orders → New. Enter the customer — start typing and existing ones appear. A new name creates a new customer record.
The equipment. Make, model, year and serial. The serial is worth chasing: it's how you find this machine's history next time, and it's what a warranty claim will ask for.
What they told you. Write the complaint in the customer's words, not your diagnosis. "Runs rough and dies at full throttle" is worth more later than "carb".
Photos. Take them at intake, before you touch anything. This is the single habit that ends arguments about pre-existing damage.

Statuses

The status is where the job is right now. It drives your dashboard, the customer's tracking page, and whether an email goes out.

Status	Means
Intake	Checked in, not looked at yet.
Needs Estimate / Diagnosing	You're working out what's wrong and what it'll cost.
Awaiting Customer Approval	Quote sent, you're blocked until they answer. Emails the customer by default — it directly shortens the job.
Waiting on Parts	Diagnosed, parts on order.
Repairing	On the bench.
Ready to Invoice	Work done, paperwork pending.
Ready for Pickup	Done and waiting on the customer. Emails them — this is the one that gets machines off your lot.
Closed	Finished and settled.
Closed - Declined	They said no. Books only the diagnostic fee.

Rename any of these, reword what the customer sees, or control which ones send email in Shop Settings → Work Orders → Status Manager.

Parts and labor

On the Billing tab, add labor lines (description, hours, amount) and parts lines. Parts pulled from your inventory link to the stock record, which is what lets ShopFlow reduce stock when the job closes.

The Bill Summary at the bottom shows exactly what the customer pays, including tax. It matches the Total in the work order list and what Square will charge, so if those three ever disagree, something's wrong.

Estimates and invoices

Issue either from the Billing tab. Both take a snapshot of the job at that moment and freeze it.

Frozen means frozen An issued document never changes, even if you edit the job or raise your rates afterwards. To correct one, void it and issue a new one. This is what stops your billing history quietly rewriting itself.

An estimate can be converted to an invoice once the customer approves, which keeps the numbers they agreed to.

What closing a job actually does

Records the completion date, which is what dates the revenue — a job earns money when it's finished, not when it was opened.
Reduces inventory for parts used, exactly once ever. Reopening and re-closing doesn't deduct a second time.
Emails the customer, if the status is set to.
Books the revenue into your dashboard, analytics and accounting.

Adding a part to an already-closed job That part isn't deducted automatically — adjust it on the Inventory tab. The alternative, deducting on every later save of a closed job, would silently double-count and you'd never spot it.

Reopening a job

You can reopen a closed job to correct it. Stock stays deducted and closing it again won't deduct twice. If a machine comes back for the same fault, consider a rework instead — it tracks what you absorb versus what you bill, which is how you find out which repairs are actually costing you money.

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