Check In a Vehicle
Checking in is how work enters BayWise. It is the only step in the day where somebody has to type; everything after it happens on its own.
Who can do this: Service Advisors, Workshop Controllers, Location Managers, Org Admins and Account Owners.
Open New Vehicle
New Vehicle is in the board toolbar.
You cannot check a vehicle in on a past day — the control says so if you try.
Enter the vehicle
Type the plate. If the vehicle has been to your workshop before, it is found as you type, and its history comes with it — you do not re-enter the make, model or customer.
For a new vehicle, enter the plate, make and model.
Enter the customer
Name and contact details. These are what the board shows when somebody needs to make a call.
Choose the work
Select the services agreed from your catalogue.
For multi-stage work — a collision repair, a major mechanical job — choose the repair preset instead, and the stages populate automatically in the right order. You can add, remove or reorder stages for this particular vehicle afterwards.
Set the promise time
When the customer can collect. This is the most consequential field on the form.
Promise the customer, not the workshop: if you need half an hour to wash and invoice after the work, that time sits inside the promise.
Save
What happens next
Within moments the vehicle appears on the board — in a bay that can do the work, with a technician qualified for it, and a countdown. Nobody assigns it.
If it does not appear, look in the action centre under Could not schedule. The day genuinely could not fit it, and the reason is stated there.
→ When a car could not be scheduled
Adding work to a vehicle already here
When a customer approves extra work mid-visit, add the services to the existing job rather than creating a second one. The extra stages join the vehicle’s plan and everything is re-planned around the new length.
A second job for the same visit splits the vehicle’s record in two and makes the history much harder to read later.
Setting promises that hold
The commonest promise mistake is setting everything to closing time. A shop where every vehicle is promised for 17:00 has told BayWise that nothing is urgent, and given up the ability to distinguish a customer waiting in reception from one collecting on Friday.
Practical guidance:
- A waiting customer — promise realistically and tightly. This is the job that must not slip.
- A collection later today — promise the actual collection time.
- A collection tomorrow or later — promise the day. The board shows it as a day rather than a time, and it stops cluttering today’s urgency.
- Unknown until diagnosis — promise the point at which you will call them back, and update it when you know.
Booking for a future day
Choose the date at check-in. The full plan applies to future days: capabilities, skills, availability, hours and closures for that specific date.
This is how pre-booked work, insurance jobs with an agreed return date, and vehicles awaiting a part are handled.
Common questions
The vehicle was here before but is not being found. Check the plate for spacing and character confusions — 0 and O, 1 and I. Search accepts partial plates.
Can I check a vehicle in while the day is frozen? Yes. Checking in and clocking on are never blocked, even when scheduling is stopped because an earlier day has not been closed.
How many stages can one job have? There is a maximum per job, and the form tells you if a preset plus additions would exceed it. If you are hitting it, the work is probably two visits.
The customer does not know when they can collect. Promise the time you will call them, and update the promise when you speak. An honest short promise you update beats a vague long one.
Do I choose the bay? No. That is the point. If a specific bay is genuinely required — a customer request, a physical constraint — check in normally and then move it.
→ Move a car to another bay or technician