The writer dashboard

What this does

The writer dashboard is the service writer's working screen. It puts every job that needs a counter decision in a queue, shows the day's pipeline as a board, and keeps the shop's counter numbers in view. Managers see all writers; a writer can filter to their own.

The sections

Action queue — five buckets: Authorization (jobs in Awaiting Authorization; the customer needs to approve added work), Inspection (completed inspections not yet reviewed), Message (customer messages needing a reply), Ready (jobs in Ready for Pickup to call the customer about), and Past Due (jobs past their promised date). Work the queue top to bottom.

Inbound queue — today's appointments not yet checked in, with Check In on each. See Checking in.

Pipeline board — columns for Approved, In Progress, Waiting Parts, Awaiting Authorization, Ready for Pickup, and Delivered. Drag an estimate onto the board to convert it once the customer has approved.

KPI strip — Car Count, ARO (average repair order), Close Rate (estimates approved over estimates sent), Hours Sold, and GP% for the period.

Writer assignment — each work order can carry a writer. Use All Writers or pick one to see only their jobs; managers assign or reassign from the job.

Common problems

A job is in Authorization but the customer already said yes. Move the work order to In Progress; the queue reads status.

Inspection review won't clear. Open the inspection and mark it reviewed from its page.

Close Rate looks wrong. It counts estimates that were sent, so estimates approved at the counter without sending don't move it. Send estimates from the app if you want the number to mean something.