Workshop software: the order with digital approval
The workshop order is the part where the most money and the most trouble sits — and the reason why customer approval here is not an option but the core.
Digital order approval: rust on the brake line
The customer brings the car in for an oil change and the mechanic finds something. Until now he entered the item and the customer saw the total on the invoice. Now, instead of a quote over the phone, the customer gets a link, sees what it costs, and approves or declines the work digitally — before it is done.
A declined item stays on the order — it was proposed, after all — but costs nothing. If nobody answers, the application reminds once after two days, and after five days the item is at the top of your work list. Nothing is decided for you: an approval that agrees by itself would be an invoice without an order.
How long has my car been there
The status history is a separate, unchangeable list on the order. That gives you an answer to the question on the phone — and to the accusation that nothing happened for two weeks.
The total matches the lines
Labour, parts and materials are calculated, not stored. There is no total column on the order for someone to keep in step when an item is added — and therefore no order whose total does not match its lines.
Two notes, and the customer sees one
The internal note stays internal. What the customer should read has its own field — so that nobody accidentally puts the foreman's assessment on the tracking page.