Intake is where disputes are prevented
Most repair disputes start at the counter: a scratch the customer says was not there, a charger left behind, a passcode nobody wrote down. A consistent intake record fixes that. For every job capture the customer and contact details, the device brand, model and serial or IMEI, the fault as the customer describes it, the physical condition, the accessories left with it, and the passcode or pattern if you need it to test.
Photos of the device on arrival take seconds and settle most disagreements. Label the device and every accessory with the job number.
Checklists and estimates
A pre-repair checklist, specific to the device type, records what works before you open it: screen, touch, cameras, speakers, charging, buttons, Wi-Fi. Run it with the customer present when you can. Then give an estimated cost and completion date, and print or send the job sheet with your terms (diagnostic fee, how long you hold uncollected devices, data loss) for the customer to sign.
Statuses that mean something
Keep statuses few and clear. A typical set is Received, Diagnosing, Waiting for approval, Waiting for parts, In repair, Ready for pickup, Collected, and Not repairable. Each should tell the customer and the team what happens next. Too many statuses and nobody updates them; too few and the board stops being useful.
Give each job one technician who owns it. A board or list filtered by technician shows each person their queue, and a manager can see what is stuck.
Keep customers informed
The most common call to a repair shop is 'is it ready yet?'. A short message at key steps (received, parts ordered, ready) cuts those calls. A status page the customer can check with their job number cuts them further. When the device is ready, the hand-off should be fast: the job becomes an invoice, the customer pays, any warranty is recorded, and the job is marked collected.
Doing it in SeroPOS
Repair is an add-on module in SeroPOS, run from the web back office. It adds job sheets, statuses, device models with checklists, repair invoices and a public status page.
- Repair, then Settings: create Statuses (name, colour, order, whether it marks the job complete, and an SMS template), Devices and Device Models, each model with its own repair checklist. Set the job sheet prefix and your terms and conditions.
- Repair, then Add Job Sheet: customer; service type (carry-in, pick-up or on-site); brand, device, model and serial number; passcode or pattern lock; the model's pre-repair checklist; problem reported, condition and accessories; technician, expected delivery date, estimated cost, status, photos and custom fields.
- Print the job sheet with your terms and signature blocks, and print a barcode device label.
- Job Sheets has pending and completed tabs; technicians see only the sheets assigned to them unless allowed to view all.
- Change status from the job sheet, with an optional SMS to the customer.
- Create a repair invoice from the job sheet to take payment, with warranty, serial and defects on the invoice.
- Customers can check progress on the repair status page using their job sheet or invoice number.