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Workshop Wrench

Comms · Partial ship

SMS and messaging that land as structured decisions — not reply-YES chaos

Category leaders sell unlimited two-way SMS as packaging. Workshop Wrench treats SMS/email as the notify channel and the customer portal as the decision surface: line-level approve / decline / defer with audit. Adapters ship with mock SMS by default; Twilio when keys are configured.

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Why this category matters

Profit levers behind the keyword

Category pages should not be synonym stuffing. Here is the operating rationale every serious shop platform must address.

  1. 01

    Car count dies on missed calls, weak booking, and messy intake — the OS must own first contact through check-in.

  2. 02

    ARO dies when findings never become priced, decided lines — DVI and portal approvals are margin features.

  3. 03

    Throughput dies when AWAITING_AUTH and AWAITING_PARTS are invisible — board stages must mean something.

  4. 04

    Cash dies when invoices are re-keyed and AR is a Friday spreadsheet — money path starts on the repair order.

Vehicle lifecycle

Complete vehicle service lifecycle

The Automotive Workshop Operating System (AWOS) maps every customer moment from first contact to retention — so software follows how workshops actually earn margin.

  1. 01Lead
  2. 02Customer
  3. 03Vehicle
  4. 04Booking
  5. 05Check-in
  6. 06Inspect
  7. 07Estimate
  8. 08Approve
  9. 09Parts
  10. 10Labour
  11. 11Produce
  12. 12Invoice
  13. 13Pay
  14. 14Release
  15. 15Retain
Explore every use case with stage sequences →

Shop day sequence

Six moments that protect cash

The same operational spine as the product board — detailed use cases live under Processes.

  1. 01

    Book or walk in

    Public booking or front desk intake with customer + vehicle first-class. Why: car count dies when first contact never becomes a system object.

  2. 02

    Check in & board

    Booking becomes a repair order; board shows stage, tech, and blockers. Why: WIP you cannot see is WIP you cannot manage.

  3. 03

    Inspect with evidence

    DVI findings with severity convert to estimate lines or deferred work. Why: verbal upsells without structure kill trust and ARO recovery.

  4. 04

    Authorise work

    Line-level approve / decline / defer via portal tokens. Why: silent scope expansion creates write-offs and disputes.

  5. 05

    Parts & labour

    Reserve stock, raise POs, clock labour on the RO. Why: authorised work without parts is fake progress; unbilled labour is pure waste.

  6. 06

    Invoice & collect

    GST invoice from approved lines, payments, AR visibility. Why: revenue is not cash until collected — money path stays on the RO.

Deep dive every use case with stage sequences →

Capabilities

What ships — with honest status

Live means in the multi-tenant product/demo. Integrations use Live / Stub / Dry-run / Planned — never Connected for stubs. Roadmap means not production-complete.

Portal deep links

Live

Approval and pay paths open token URLs on mobile without a shop login.

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Reminder YES / RESCHEDULE

Live

CX-35: inbound YES confirms booking; RESCHEDULE parks waitlist. Keyword path in demo — not AI voice or unlimited two-way chat.

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Inbound HELP / STATUS / STOP

Live

CX-23 safe keywords on public inbound + mock. Structured replies only.

Email transactional

Live

SMTP path (Mailhog in dev) for booking, approval, and invoice events.

SMS adapter

Stub

Provider port with mock default; Twilio-class config for real send. Never Connected without keys.

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Comms timeline on RO

Live+

Message history and dispatch surfaces on the repair order.

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Templates

Partial

Template overrides API path; persistence across restarts expands.

Spam Act / consent awareness

Live+

Transactional vs commercial classes — marketing campaigns stay gated.

FAQ

Questions buyers actually ask

Structured for humans and search (FAQ schema). We update when ship status changes.

Do you offer unlimited two-way SMS on every plan?+

No. Growth includes an SMS pack entitlement. Real send requires a provider. We do not claim Connected unlimited SMS packaging.

Can customers reply YES to confirm a reminder?+

Yes in the demo keyword path (CX-35): YES confirms the booking; RESCHEDULE parks waitlist. Transport is mock SMS by default or Twilio when keyed — not a live carrier Connected badge.

How do estimate approvals work without SMS?+

Share the portal token link via any channel. SMS is optional transport; structured line state lives in the portal.

Related

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