The Collection Queue
The Collection Queue is the cashier’s primary screen. It answers one question at a glance: what money needs to move today?
Every open receivable and payable across the workshop appears here, sorted by urgency. When a customer walks up to pay, when an insurer remits a claim, when a parts vendor invoice is due — the Collection Queue surfaces it. At Tanaka Auto Service in Osaka, the morning cashier opens this screen first and works through it top to bottom.
Urgency buckets
The queue groups every open entity into three buckets. Entities move between buckets automatically as dates change and payments arrive.
| Bucket | Criteria | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Overdue | Payment link expired, OR invoice past due date with balance > 0 | Money should have arrived but has not. Needs immediate attention. |
| Due Today | Due date is today, OR payment link sent today, OR invoiced today | Expected to settle today. The cashier’s active working set. |
| Watch | Everything else that is open | Not yet urgent, but on the radar. Upcoming obligations. |
Fully-paid entities never appear in the queue. Once every expected amount is collected (or paid), the entity drops out automatically.
Bucket assignment is computed on the server and refreshed every 30 seconds via polling. There is no manual override — urgency is always derived from dates and balances.
Two sub-tabs: Collect and Pay
The queue splits into two sub-tabs that separate the two directions of money flow.
Collect (AR) — what customers owe you. Vehicle repair balances, insurance claim payments, parts sales, credit-term invoices. This is where most cashier activity happens.
Pay (AP) — what you owe vendors. Parts supplier invoices, sublet services, recurring expenses due. At Sharma Motors in Mumbai, the accounts team reviews the Pay tab every morning to catch vendor invoices approaching their net terms.
Both tabs share the same urgency buckets, filtering, and search. The only difference is the direction of money.
Counterparty filter
Within each sub-tab, a filter narrows the view by counterparty type:
| Filter | What it shows |
|---|---|
| All | Every open entity regardless of type |
| Vehicle | Vehicle repair entities only — the standard workshop receivable |
| Business | Non-vehicle receivables and payables — fleet accounts, credit-term customers, vendor invoices |
Entity cards
Each entry in the queue is rendered as an entity card — a compact summary of what is owed and by whom.
Vehicle entity cards show:
- Registration plate and RO number
- Customer name
- Status badge: PRELIMINARY, INVOICED, LINK SENT, PARTIAL, or OVERDUE
- Outstanding balance
- Insurance split indicator (if the job has an insurance component)
Business AR cards show non-vehicle receivables: credit-term invoices, fleet account balances, and other commercial obligations. These carry their own status badges and due dates.
Each card is tappable. Tapping opens the Financial Modal for that entity, where the cashier records the payment.
Search
A search bar at the top of the queue filters across multiple fields simultaneously:
- Registration plate
- RO number (repair order)
- Customer name
- Insurer name
- Invoice reference number
Search is instant and works across all urgency buckets. At Santos Body Works in Sao Paulo, the front desk uses plate search dozens of times a day when customers arrive to collect their vehicles.
Header summary
Above the queue, two summary figures give the cashier an instant pulse check:
| Metric | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Collected Today | Total money received today across all methods |
| Expected Today | Total outstanding across all entities in the Due Today bucket |
These numbers update in real time as transactions are recorded.
Day Close gate
The Collection Queue enforces a strict operational rule: you cannot record transactions for today if yesterday’s day close has not been completed.
When yesterday remains open, the queue displays a blocking notice with a link to complete the day close. This prevents financial data from accumulating without reconciliation. At Muller Werkstatt in Berlin, this gate caught a missed Friday close on Monday morning — the cashier completed the Friday reconciliation before any Monday payments were recorded.
The Day Close gate blocks all transaction recording, not just the queue. The Financial Modal will also prevent new entries until the previous day is closed.
Real-time polling
The queue refreshes automatically every 30 seconds. When a payment link is completed by a customer on their phone, or when another team member records a cash payment from a different terminal, the queue updates without a manual refresh.
This polling interval keeps the queue current for multi-user workshops where the cashier is not the only person recording payments.