Assign Skills to a Technician
Every technician in BayWise has a skill profile — a set of competency tags that describe what kinds of work they are qualified and regularly assigned to perform. The skill profile has two direct effects: it determines which jobs the AI suggests this technician for, and it controls which technicians appear in the manual assignment list when an advisor filters by skill.
Getting skill profiles right is one of the highest-leverage configuration tasks in BayWise. A well-calibrated skill profile means the AI surfaces the right person for the right job. A poorly calibrated one — typically through over-tagging — means the AI has no basis for differentiation and reverts to general suggestions that ignore specialisation.
The 16 Skill Types
BayWise uses a fixed set of 16 skill categories. These are the same categories used on repair steps, which is what allows the matching to work:
| Skill | Typical work covered |
|---|---|
| Master Technician | Senior tech qualified across multiple disciplines |
| Diagnostics | Fault finding, scan tools, electronic systems |
| General | Basic maintenance and light repair tasks |
| Oil & Lube | Oil changes, fluid top-ups, basic lubrication services |
| Tires | Tire fitting, balancing, rotation, puncture repair |
| A/C Service | Air conditioning regas, leak detection, climate system repair |
| Electrical | Wiring, lighting, sensors, battery and alternator work |
| Denting | Panel repair, dent removal, structural straightening |
| Painting | Colour matching, base coat, clear coat application |
| EV Certified | Electric and hybrid vehicle high-voltage systems |
| Body Estimating | Damage assessment, repair scoping, parts costing |
| Frame Straightening | Chassis and structural alignment after collision |
| Surface Prep | Sanding, priming, masking — paint preparation |
| Spray Painting | Spray booth operation, multi-coat application |
| Body Assembly | Panel fitting, trim installation, gap alignment |
| ADAS Technician | Calibration of cameras, radar, and driver-assist sensors |
The best skill profiles are built with the technician present. Sit down with them, go through the 16 skill types, and agree on which ones reflect their actual daily work — not their full career history or theoretical capability. Priya Nair at Tanaka Auto Service Osaka carries Master Technician and Diagnostics only. Her AI suggestions are sharply accurate as a result, and she consistently receives the jobs she is most productive on.
How to Assign Skills
Open Technician Settings
Navigate to Settings → Technicians using the left sidebar. You will see all technicians at your current location.
Select the Technician
Click the technician’s name. Their profile panel opens on the right.
Go to the Skills Section
Scroll to the Skills section within the technician profile panel. You will see all 16 skill types listed with checkboxes.
Check Each Applicable Skill
Work through the list and check each skill that represents work this technician is regularly and competently assigned to. Leave unchecked any skill the technician is not regularly performing, even if they are technically capable.
If you are unsure about a particular skill, ask: “Do we regularly assign this technician to jobs tagged with this skill?” If the answer is rarely or never, leave it unchecked.
Save the Profile
Click Save. The updated skill profile takes effect immediately — the AI begins using the new profile for job suggestions from this point forward.
Practical Guidance on Skill Selection
Assign only what is regularly used
The AI uses skills to narrow the candidate pool for each job. If a technician has 12 of the 16 skills checked, they appear as a candidate for almost every job in the workshop. That renders the matching meaningless — the AI falls back to generic factors like availability rather than actual specialisation.
A healthy skill profile for most technicians is between two and five skills. Specialists might have just one or two. Multi-discipline technicians might have four or five. Profiles with seven or more skills should be reviewed — the question is whether those skills are actually represented in the jobs that technician is assigned to week-to-week.
Multi-skill specialists are valid
Some technicians genuinely span multiple disciplines — a workshop veteran who handles Master Technician, Diagnostics, Electrical, and Tires is common, and all four skills are appropriate if they are actively assigned to all four types. The point is not to limit techs artificially, but to reflect reality accurately.
General should be used deliberately
General is not a catch-all for technicians whose skills you have not yet configured. It means the technician performs basic maintenance and light repair tasks. A fully trained mechanic should not have General checked alongside their other skills unless they genuinely spend time on non-specialised tasks that appear as scheduled steps.
Skills do not affect current assignments
Changing a technician’s skill profile does not affect jobs they are already assigned to. It only changes which jobs the AI suggests them for going forward, and which assignment filter results they appear in. Existing assignments are not removed or flagged.
When to Update a Skill Profile
Update a technician’s skill profile when:
- They complete formal training in a new skill area and you begin assigning them to that work
- They move into a more specialist role and stop performing certain skill types
- A new skill type becomes relevant to your workshop’s operations (e.g. you start taking in EV work and your diagnostic tech completes high-voltage training — add the EV Certified skill to their profile)
- The AI’s suggestions consistently miss the mark for this technician — the skill profile is the first thing to review
Common Questions
Can a technician have zero skills assigned? Yes, but the AI will not suggest them for skill-matched jobs. They can still be assigned manually. If a technician is new and not yet assigned a skill profile, leave their profile blank until their role is clear rather than assigning General as a placeholder.
What happens if a job’s step requires a skill that no technician has? The AI will not return a suggestion for that step. The step will appear as unassigned and the advisor will need to assign manually or add the appropriate skill to one of the techs. This is a signal to review your step and skill configuration.
Can skills be assigned in bulk across multiple technicians? Not from the technician settings panel — each technician’s profile must be set individually. For a new location setup with many technicians to configure, plan to work through them systematically; a complete profile for one technician typically takes under two minutes.
Do skills affect how the technician appears on the scheduling board? Skills affect AI suggestions and manual assignment filtering. They do not directly change the visual appearance of the technician’s column on the board. However, jobs filtered by skill in the assignment panel will only show techs with matching skills.
What if two technicians share the same skill — how does the AI choose between them? The AI considers multiple factors when skills match equally: current workload, availability for the job’s time window, and bay assignment compatibility. It surfaces ranked suggestions rather than a single mandatory assignment. The advisor makes the final call.
Is there a way to mark a skill as primary vs secondary for a technician? Not currently. All assigned skills are treated equally by the matching system. If you need to express a strong preference for a technician on a particular skill type, the practical approach is to keep their skill profile tight — assign only the skills they should be prioritised for — and handle exceptions via manual override when needed.