Repair estimates and approvals: getting authority, and recording it

A car on a ramp waiting for an answer is the most expensive thing in a workshop. The bay is occupied, the technician has moved on, and the job will now finish tomorrow instead of today. Most garages treat that as a communication annoyance, and it is really a question about authority: who agreed to what, when, and on what basis.

Getting an answer faster is worth having. Getting it in a form you can produce three months later, when a customer says they never approved the rear discs, is worth considerably more, and it is the part that message automation is genuinely good at.

What we'll cover

• Estimate, quote, and which one you sent
• Unapproved work is your risk
• What an approval has to capture
• The shape of a message that gets answered
• Building it with CodeWords
• Partial approvals, which are the normal case
• Work found after the job started
• Photographs, and what they can and cannot do
• When the answer is no
• Making it survive
• Limits worth knowing about
• What to build first
• Frequently asked questions

Estimate, quote, and which one you sent

Customers use the words interchangeably and the difference matters when there is a dispute.

A quote is a fixed price for defined work. A customer who accepts one expects to pay that figure. An estimate is a considered projection which may move if the work turns out differently, and it only behaves like an estimate if you said so and said why it might change.

Most garage communication is somewhere in between, which is where the arguments come from. A message listing items and totals, sent without qualification, reads to a customer as a quote whatever you called it internally.

So say which it is, in the message, in ordinary words. "This is a fixed price for these items" or "this is our estimate; if we find the calliper is seized as well, we will come back to you before doing anything else". One line, and it removes most of the friction at collection.

Unapproved work is your risk

Where a price has not been agreed, a consumer is required to pay a reasonable price and no more (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 51). Where work was not authorised at all, the position is worse for the garage: a customer who did not ask for it and did not agree to it has a strong argument for not paying for it, and you have already bought the parts.

A broad authority helps only if you actually have one. Where a customer has genuinely said to do whatever is needed, work that was necessary at a reasonable price is generally payable. That is a much narrower protection than garages assume, and it depends on being able to show the customer said it.

Which turns the whole thing into a records question. The technical judgement is usually sound. What is missing is evidence of the conversation, and a phone call at 11am remembered differently by two people is not evidence.

What an approval has to capture

Four things, and a message thread captures all of them naturally if you structure it.

What work. Itemised, in language a customer can match to the invoice later. "Front brake pads and discs" rather than "brakes".

At what price. Per item, with VAT stated, so the total is checkable.

Agreed by whom. The person authorising should be the person responsible for the vehicle, which is not always the person who dropped it off.

When. The timestamp matters when the argument is about whether you did the work before or after they answered.

Store all four against the job in your management system rather than leaving them in the thread. A record that requires somebody to scroll a phone is a record that will not be found.

The shape of a message that gets answered

The customer is at work. They will read this in thirty seconds and answer with one word or not at all.

Lead with the vehicle. Registration first, because people own more than one.

Number the items. Numbered items make partial approval possible in a single reply.

Price each one, inclusive of VAT. A total with no breakdown invites a phone call, which is the thing you were avoiding.

Separate what is necessary from what is advisory. A customer who cannot tell which is which assumes all of it is padding. This single distinction does more for trust than any wording change.

Say what happens next. Whether the car can be finished today if they answer now, stated as a fact rather than as pressure.

Give one way to say no. An approval flow with no easy decline produces silence, and silence is the expensive outcome.

Building it with CodeWords

CodeWords connects to more than 3,000 integrations, and the connection is made once and reused.

1. Open CodeWords and start a new automation.
2. Describe what should happen in plain language to Cody, the automation builder: when the estimate goes out, what it contains, how replies map to approved items, and what is written back to the job.
3. Authorize the connections to your garage management system, your parts ordering, and your WhatsApp Business Platform account.
4. Describe the exceptions: a partial approval, a question, a decline, a customer who does not answer before the end of the day, additional work found mid-job.
5. Run it alongside the phone for a fortnight, and check that what landed on the job record matches what the customer actually said.

You describe the outcome; Cody builds it, connects it, and deploys it. The free plan covers light use, with Pro at $39 per month and Business at $100 per month as usage grows; details are on the pricing page.

Partial approvals, which are the normal case

Most customers approve some of it. The brakes yes, the air filter another time.

Two things make this work cleanly. The items have to be numbered so the reply is unambiguous, and the confirmation back has to restate what was approved in words rather than acknowledging the numbers. "Confirmed: front pads and discs, £180 including VAT. We have not included the air filter." That sentence is the record, and it is also the last chance for the customer to correct a misread reply before you order parts.

The declined items are worth keeping rather than discarding. A customer who declined rear tyres in March is a genuine reason to contact them in September, and it is a far better reason than a generic reminder.

Work found after the job started

This is where most disputes are born: the car is in pieces, something else is wrong, and the technician wants to get on with it.

Treat it as a new approval rather than an extension of the old one. New message, what was found, what it costs, what happens if it is left. The temptation to fold it into the existing total and explain at collection is the single most reliable way to produce an argument about a bill.

Include the option to decline and to be advised at collection, because some of what is found is not urgent, and a customer who feels they were given a real choice pays the invoice they did agree to without complaint.

If the customer cannot be reached and the vehicle cannot safely be returned to the road, that is a phone call to a person, then a note on the job explaining what was decided and why.

Photographs, and what they can and cannot do

A photograph of a worn disc is the most persuasive thing in the whole exchange. It converts a customer's suspicion that they are being sold something into a decision they can understand.

Two cautions. A photograph is evidence of a condition, not a diagnosis, and a message implying otherwise creates an expectation you may not be able to meet. And a customer sending you a photograph of a noise, which happens constantly, cannot be answered with a quote. The honest reply is that it needs looking at, with a price for the diagnostic time, which is a better conversation than a guess.

When the answer is no

A decline is a good outcome compared with silence, and it should be handled as one.

Confirm what is not being done, in writing. Where an item affects roadworthiness, say so plainly and record that you said so, without prediction or exaggeration. Then put the declined item on the vehicle's record so the next visit starts from something better than a blank sheet.

Handled like that, the customer who declined half the work this time is materially more likely to come back than one who felt pressured into all of it.

Making it survive

Write the approval to the job record, not just the thread.

Confirm in words what a numbered reply meant, before ordering anything.

Treat additional work as a new approval, every time.

Keep declined items against the vehicle for the next visit.

Give an unanswered estimate an owner and a cut-off time, because a car waiting on silence is a bay nobody is managing.

Limits worth knowing about

A faster answer does not remove the need for authority. Speed and record-keeping are separate problems, and only one of them shows up in a dispute.

Some customers will not answer by message, and for them the phone is still the process.

A photograph is not a diagnosis, and a quote given from one is a promise you may not be able to keep.

Parts availability can invalidate an approval agreed an hour earlier, which needs its own message rather than a surprise at collection.

Nothing here replaces the technical judgement, it records the decision that followed it.

What to build first

The confirmation back. Before any automated sending, make sure that every approval, however it arrives, produces a written line stating the items and the total and is filed against the job. That one habit resolves almost every argument a garage has about a bill.

Two habits make the difference. Separate the necessary from the advisory in everything you send, because a customer who cannot tell them apart treats the whole list as a negotiation. And handle anything found mid-job as a fresh approval, since the bill nobody agreed to is the one that ends a relationship that took four years to build.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an estimate and a quote?

A quote is a fixed price for defined work. An estimate is a projection that may change, and it only behaves that way if you said so and said what would change it. Say which one you are sending.

Can a garage charge for work the customer did not approve?

It is a weak position. Where no price was agreed the customer owes a reasonable price and no more, and where the work was not authorised at all they have a strong argument for not paying. A broad authority to do what is needed helps only if you can show it was given.

What should an approval record contain?

The itemised work, the price of each item including VAT, who approved it, and when. All four against the job record rather than in a message thread.

How should the message be laid out?

Registration first, numbered items, each priced, with necessary work separated from advisory, what happens next, and an easy way to decline.

How do partial approvals work?

Number the items so a one-word reply is unambiguous, then confirm back in words what was approved and what was not before ordering parts. That confirmation is the record.

What about work found after the job started?

Send it as a new approval with its own price and its own decline option. Folding it into the existing total and explaining at collection is the most reliable way to cause a dispute.

Are photographs useful?

Very, for showing a condition. They do not constitute a diagnosis, and a customer's photograph of a noise cannot be answered with a price. Quote the diagnostic time instead.

What should happen when a customer declines?

Confirm in writing what is not being done, say plainly where something affects roadworthiness, record that you said it, and keep the item against the vehicle for next time.

What if the customer does not reply at all?

Give unanswered estimates an owner and a cut-off, then ring. A vehicle sitting on a ramp waiting for silence is the most expensive state in the workshop.

Does approval by message hold up?

A timestamped exchange showing the itemised work, the price and the customer's agreement is a considerably better record than a remembered phone call, provided it is filed against the job rather than left on a handset.

Related reading

• MOT reminders and the due-date list
• What the garage diary actually sells
• Keeping customers informed during the job