Getting Started Overview

Everything you need to run your shop is included. In this article we cover navigation basics and the basic steps for getting started with the following items:


  1. Creating an appointment
  2. Adding a customer
  3. Adding a vehicle
  4. Creating an RO
    • Adding services
    • Adding parts
    • Working with notes and photos
    • Creating recommendations
    • Sharing the RO with your customer
    • Customer communications
  5. Leveraging Canned Jobs
  6. Leveraging Past Services
  7. Navigating to your Estimates
  8. The "Jobs in the Shop" page


Let's get started!


Navigation

When you login to Identifix you will land on the "My jobs" page.


The left panel with the black background and the various icons is what we refer to as the Navigation pane. You'll see a blue bar next to the icon of the page you're on. The icons represent the following:


Jobs in the Shop page:

 

This page is where you'll see jobs assigned to you, access to the Workflow page, Open Jobs, and Closed Jobs.


Appointments and Estimates (Quotes) page:

Here you'll work with the calendar, see near term appointments, appointments that are further out, and most importantly this is where you'll access your Estimates under the 'Quotes' tab.


Reports page:

Here you'll access reports on Invoices, Technician time, Categories, A/R, and Payroll.


Customers page:

Here you'll interact with your Customer profiles as well as add Customers. You can export your Customer data and also unfulfilled Recommendations.


Canned jobs page:

The Cannery is your link to view your canned jobs, search them, and make edits.


Inventory & Parts database page:

Parts you add to the system are stored in your Parts database. You can also configure Vendors on this page as well as track Orders and Purchases.


Global Search:

You can search for Customers, Vehicles, and RO's using the global search function.


User Icon:

The User icon is where you'll go to access settings, the Support Help Center, clock in/out of the shop, and view your profile. 



Creating an Appointment

Click the Estimates icon. In Calendar View you can see the day/week/month appointments, filter by Techs, or filter by Labels. 


  • Double-Click on the time you want to begin the appointment - it can be placed under 'Unassigned' or assigned to a technician, if one is already known/chosen.
    • An appointment box will appear for an RO to be chosen, title the event, enter a description, and select a start/end time.
  • None of these are actually necessary to fill in to continue, if you simply click save appointment - it appears as it does in the screenshot below. Or if you choose 'New Estimate' - you will be taken to a new Estimate view.


  • If you do associate an RO - an appointment will generate on the calendar with the RO information attached
  • You do not need to set the Start/End date now if you do not want to - you can click and drag the appointment down on the calendar to adjust the times.


Starting the Estimate


Once the appointment is created, you need to gain access to the RO that will be associated. This can always be accessible from the Calendar by clicking on the Appointment Title - or click within the appointment area itself to see a little notecard icon to the upper left of the appointment box.


Note the 'Due In' time below defaults to the date/time you chose when you created the appointment.


From here you'll add a customer or pick an existing customer, and add their vehicle. Vehicles can be entered in with a VIN search, or can be entered in manually. 


If you have enabled the Carfax integration in your Shop Settings, you can decode the VIN using the vehicle's plate#.



Now you can begin to build the RO via the 'Services' button.

Click the +Service button at the bottom of the screen, then choose from the +Service modal.



You can add Services from Canned Jobs, Past Services, build one from scratch, or if you have our Labor Guide/Maintenance Guide, you can build Services using those tools.



Now that we've added a Service, we can update the title and add/adjust comments, labor lines, parts, hazmat/fees, sublet, and inspections. 


To add parts, you can build a part from scratch or if you've configured your eCommerce Vendors, you can punch out to PartsTech, WHI, or Worldpac Speed Dial to order parts. 

Parts that you have previously created or added to your parts database will also be available. Just enter the part information in the search and you'll be presented with parts you can choose from.



Click on the other areas such as Sublet to add sublet line items:



Saving the Service as a Canned Job is easy. Just click the three dots menu at the Service summary line and adjust the title if so desired, change the labor rate, and add a Service Category (configured in Account settings).

*You can save the Canned Job for all vehicles or just this specific year, make, and model.


Now that you've added a Service, let's save this as a Recommendation which you can then add notes to and you'll share with your customer. To create a Recommendation from a Service that you've built, click on the three dots menu and choose 'Convert service to a Recommendation':



You'll notice the Recommendation is now on the right side in the 'Notes' section. Write a note explaining what the Service consists of, add images from your device, or click the camera icon to snap photos or record videos from your mobile device and add those to the Recommendation.

*Note: File attachments are limited to 50MB.


After publishing the Recommendation, you'll see it on the RO under 'Current Recommendations'. You can use the wrench icon to approve it if you received the approval from your customer or the preferred method which is to share the RO with your customer and have them approve it electronically on their phone, computer, or tablet.


You can also make adjustments to the Recommendation before sending it to your customer if any are needed. Here's an example:



You can now share this estimate with your customer. They will be able to approve/decline the Recommendation and then approve the Estimate.


*Note you can share with Recommendations or you can also include Services in the body of the RO. In this example we have added a Service to go along with our Recommendation. From there we'll share it with the customer.



Here's the view your customer will see. Instruct them to review the notes and images on the right side and they can also communicate with you directly in the RO in real-time.