Handle a Paused Job
A pause is work that has stopped for a reason that is not the technician. Handled well, it is information. Handled badly, it is the quietest way for a day to go wrong.
Who can do this: Workshop Controllers, Location Managers, Org Admins and Account Owners.
Pausing
Press Pause on the bay card
Pick at least one reason
Waiting for parts · Customer call-back · Payment hold · Tech unavailable · Other.
Other requires a note.
Decide whether the vehicle leaves the bay
Move the vehicle out of the bay is a switch on the pause dialog, off by default. Leave it off for a short wait. Turn it on when the wait is long enough that the bay should be doing something else.
With it on, the dialog tells you exactly what you are giving up — “Frees Bay 3 and the technician for another car. The car rejoins the queue for a bay when you resume it” — and the note field changes to ask where the vehicle is parked.
Confirm
The button reads Pause work, or Pause and move out if you turned the switch on.
The vehicle now reads as “held for parts” — not just “paused” — on the card and in the action centre. That difference is what makes a pause actionable by somebody other than the person who created it.
The countdown freezes. Time spent paused does not count against the work.
The still-on-hold prompt
A paused job that sits without an update is the problem this exists to solve. The parts arrive at 11:00, the job resumes in the technician’s mind, and the board still shows it paused at 15:00.
After an interval your workshop sets, the card offers Still on hold?
Read what it says
“This vehicle has been paused with no update for 2h. Is it still waiting?” — with the original pause reason shown.
Answer
Yes — still on hold, optionally with a note.
No — it’s moving again, which can resume the work there and then.
One tap either way. The board records the answer and stops asking until the next interval.
Answering “still on hold” is not an admission of failure — it is the answer that keeps the rest of the day honest. The unhelpful response is ignoring the prompt, because then nobody knows whether the vehicle is waiting or moving.
Resuming
Press Resume
On the bay card if the vehicle stayed in its bay, or on its row in the action centre if it was moved out.
Say how the pause ended
Optional, and worth doing. “Part arrived and was fitted” is the sentence that makes the record readable weeks later.
If the vehicle never left its bay, that is the whole story: the countdown picks up where it stopped and the rest of the day re-plans around the new finish time.
If the vehicle was moved out, it needs a bay again, and it will not silently take its old one — the bay may well be busy with the car you freed it for. Instead it joins the list of vehicles waiting to be placed, under Could not schedule, reading Back from storage.
Placing it is one tap: open Assign on the row and the bay it came out of is already selected, because the system remembers where the work was happening. Take it if it is free, pick another if it is not.
Vehicles waiting for a bay are ordered by promise time first, then by how long they have been waiting. A car back from storage does not jump the queue — but neither does it go to the back of it for having been out of the way.
When a pause becomes a risk
A pause long enough to threaten the finish time appears in the action centre under Needs action, with the reason “paused 2h 10m — will overrun by 45m”.
That is your prompt to chase whatever the pause is waiting on, or to talk to the customer about the promise.
Freeing the bay while a vehicle waits
A vehicle paused for anything more than a short wait should not be occupying a working bay. This used to be advice you acted on yourself, off the system. Now the pause dialog offers it, and the board keeps up.
When you pause with Move the vehicle out of the bay turned on:
- The bay is free immediately and can be given to the next car.
- The technician is free too, and can be put on other work.
- The vehicle stays visible in the action centre, marked In storage, carrying its pause reason and your note about where it is parked.
- Nothing about the job is lost. The stage record, the pause history and the time already worked all stand.
This is the single most effective thing a busy shop can do about apparent capacity: at Sharma Motors in Mumbai, three vehicles waiting on parts were occupying mechanical bays for two days. Moving them out recovers three bays without hiring anybody — and now the board shows the three bays as free the moment it happens.
Use the note to say where the car went. “Side lot, row 2” or “Behind the parts store” is the difference between a two-minute collection and ten minutes of walking the yard. The action centre prints it on the row; if you leave it blank the row says location not noted, which is the board being honest rather than helpful.
At day close
A vehicle still paused at day close is asked about: is it still waiting tomorrow? — still waiting, or resolved. If it needs a delay reason, you choose one from the standard list.
This is what carries the hold forward accurately rather than as a guess.
Common questions
How long before it asks whether a job is still on hold? An interval your workshop sets, with a minimum of ten minutes. Most shops use thirty to sixty.
The pause reason has changed — it was parts, now it is the customer. Answer the prompt with a note, or resume and pause again with the correct reason. The second is cleaner if the wait is going to be long.
Can I pause a job that has not started? No. Pausing applies to work that is running. A job that has not started and should not start yet is a scheduling matter, not a pause.
Does pausing hurt our efficiency numbers? Paused time is recorded separately from worked time, so it does not count against the technician. It does show up as waiting time in the repair analysis, which is the honest place for it.
Somebody resumed a job I paused. The record shows who did what. If it was resumed in error, pause it again with the reason.
I moved a vehicle out of its bay. Where did it go on the board? To the action centre, under In progress, marked In storage with its reason and your parking note. It does not appear on the floor, because it is not on the floor — but it is never out of sight.
Can I move a vehicle out of its bay without pausing it? No. Moving out is something a pause does, not an action of its own. A vehicle that has genuinely stopped should say why it stopped.
Can I move out a job that has not been started? No. There is nothing to free — a job that has not started is not holding a bay or a technician. Pausing itself is only for work that is running.
Will it go back to the same bay and the same technician? The bay it came out of is offered first when you place it, and you can accept it in one tap. It is a suggestion, not a reservation: if that bay is busy, the vehicle goes wherever it fits. The technician is chosen fresh, on who is actually available when the work restarts.
Two people pressed Resume on the same vehicle. The second press is ignored. The vehicle joins the waiting list once, not twice.