Assigning job tasks to workers without walking the floor

One shop running Autolly told us their front desk used to lose half a day to the job list — working out who was doing what, and writing it out.

That is the job nobody counts. The cards come in over the counter, they pile up, and at some point somebody has to sit down with the pile and turn it into a list of who is doing what. Then they have to answer the phone about it, and walk through to the machine room to find out whether any of it has actually started.

Here is what replaces that.

The job card

You cannot list work that has not been written down, so it starts with the card. Booking one in is five screens:

1. Customer — name and phone. Existing customers match as you type, so a returning one is a tap, and you can see what they still owe.
2. Job type — the make, then the component on the bench. Cylinder head, block, crank, conrods, gearbox.
3. Template — which version of that job. Petrol head, diesel head, and so on.
4. Pricing — tick the work and set the quantities. The total updates as you go, VAT included.
5. Quote — the customer signs, and the job exists.

Step 4 is the one that saves the time, because the template is your price list. Somebody set "Standard Petrol Cylinder Head" up once with its operations and its rates, and every head after that is tick-and-go. No line items typed, no price looked up, no VAT worked out on a calculator. The job number is issued automatically from your own sequence, so two jobs can never end up sharing one.

If the customer is not standing there, you send the quote to their phone. They sign on the link and the job opens on your side.

The job list

This is the half day.

Open Assign Job and everything waiting is already in a list down the left, urgent first and then longest waiting. That ordering is doing real work: the top of that list is always the next thing you should be dealing with, so nobody has to sort the pile or decide what matters first.

Click a job and its tasks come up on the right, each with a slot for a technician. Click the slot, pick the name. One job's tasks can go to as many different people as you like, because the slot is on the task and not on the job — skim to one machinist, pressure test to another.

From cold that is four clicks to put a name on a task: the job, the slot, the name, save. Every task after that on the same job is two more, and they all ride the same save — the button counts them for you, Save 5 assignments. The line underneath tells you what is still unassigned, so you cannot half-finish a job without seeing it.

Save, and it moves you straight on to the next job in the queue. You never land back on a list and have to find your place again.

Marking a job urgent floats it to the top of the queue and flags it out on the floor.

The list the floor reads

A screen on the workshop wall shows the same list as a card per technician, each one listing what that person has open — job number, vehicle, task. Urgent sits at the top of the card. It refreshes on its own, and where there are more people than fit, it pages through them so everybody comes round.

Nobody walks to the machine room to find out what is happening, and nobody comes to the counter to ask what they should be doing next. The list is on the wall.

Ticking it off

Technicians have a tablet at the bench — switched on under Company Settings when you want it. A technician taps their name, enters a four-digit PIN and sees their own work under Still to do: the job number, the make, the task. They tap Mark done as they finish.

That is what keeps the wall screen honest. The list is not a snapshot somebody printed at eight o'clock; it empties as the work gets done.

Where the time goes

The half day was never one job. It was writing the list out, then re-writing it when something urgent came in, then being interrupted about it all morning.

The list is not written any more — it assembles itself from the cards as they are booked in, already ordered. Putting names on it is clicks rather than handwriting. It updates itself when the work gets done, so it is never out of date, and it is on a wall where the people who need it can read it. The interruptions mostly stop, because the two questions behind them — what am I on next and has that head been started — are both answered by a screen.

Common questions

How long does it take to assign a job? Four clicks for the first task — the job in the queue, the technician slot, the name, and save. Two clicks for every task after that on the same job, and one save covers all of them. The queue arrives already sorted urgent-first and longest-waiting-next, so you work down it from the top rather than deciding what to do next. When you save, it advances to the following job on its own. In practice the limit is how fast you can decide who should do the work, not how fast the screen keeps up.

Do I have to type prices in on every job card? No, and this is where most of the time goes on the card itself. The prices live on the template, so somebody sets a job type up once with its operations and rates and every job of that type afterwards is ticking work and setting quantities. The total builds as you go with VAT included, and the invoice comes off the same record later, so the work is priced once rather than being written on a card and then keyed into an invoicing system a second time at the end of the month.

Can two technicians work on the same job? Yes, and it is the normal case. The slot sits on the individual task rather than on the job, so a cylinder head can have its skim with one person and its pressure test with another, each tracked separately. A job is never blocked because one person is busy. The screen shows how many of a job's tasks have somebody on them and how many are still open, so a part-assigned job looks part-assigned rather than quietly sitting there looking finished.

What if the list changes during the day? It is meant to. A job booked in at eleven appears in the queue straight away, and marking it urgent puts it at the top rather than at the back. Re-assigning a task is the same two clicks as assigning it — open the slot, pick a different name. The wall screen and the technicians' tablets follow along on their own, so a change made at the counter does not need anybody told about it, which is the part that used to cost an afternoon of interruptions.

Have a look

If your week involves writing out who is doing what, request early access and we will set Autolly up with your own job types on it.

There is more on the front counter in bringing order to the everyday workshop rush, on engine work in engine reconditioning workshop software, and on running through load-shedding in workshop management software built for South African workshops. If you are still on paper, what goes on an engine machine shop job card covers what to record in the first place. Once the work is invoiced, connecting your workshop to Xero covers getting it into the books without typing it again.