Car workshop job card format: what a job card must carry, and why

A job card is a contract, not a form

A job card is the record of what car came in, in what condition, with what inside it, what the customer asked for, what was agreed, who worked on it and when it left. Read that sentence again and you have the format. Every dispute a workshop ever has — the scratch that was already there, the fuel that was fuller, the spare wheel that was in the boot, the job that was never asked for — is a field that was blank or missing. The format below is the one Kenro builds, but the fields are the fields whatever you write them on.

The fields, and the argument each one ends

• 1. Customer name and phoneWho to call when the estimate is ready, and the key that ties this visit to every earlier one. In Kenro the customer is searched by name or phone and the full service history comes with them.
• 2. Vehicle: make, model, year, registration numberThe car, not the customer, owns the history — the same customer may bring three cars. Kenro reads the number plate from a photo and picks an existing vehicle so the record stays with the car.
• 3. Odometer readingSettles “you drove my car” in one line and gives the next service-due reminder a number to count from.
• 4. Fuel levelThe cheapest argument in the trade to avoid. A quarter-tank noted at intake is a quarter-tank at delivery.
• 5. Intake photos and a walkaround videoCondition on record before a spanner is lifted. Kenro takes up to ten intake photos and a walkaround video, and the card is built from them rather than typed.
• 6. Belongings and fitment checklistRC book, insurance copy, FASTag, key fobs, spare tyre, jack, wheel wrench, tool kit, floor mats, mud flaps, both number plates, wiper blades, antenna, first-aid kit, fire extinguisher, warning triangle. Tick what is present. Kenro carries this exact list.
• 7. Existing damagePins on a vehicle diagram plus a line describing the condition. A photo shows the scratch; the pin says you both saw it.
• 8. Advisor notes, with an internal flagWhat the customer said, in their words. Kenro lets the advisor mark a note internal so it never appears on the customer's tracking link, and shows it to the floor.
• 9. Services and parts, each with its own checklistEvery line the customer is paying for, and under each one the steps that count as done. Nothing moves to Ready with a box unticked.
• 10. Estimated delivery dateKenro will not create a card without one. A card with no date is a promise nobody made.
• 11. BayWhere the car physically is. Kenro assigns it from Bay Management and the bay board shows every car, every stage, at a glance.
• 12. Stage, with historyReceived, Estimated, Approved, In Progress, Quality Check, Ready, Delivered. Kenro keeps who moved it and when, so “it has been in QC since Tuesday” is a fact, not a memory.
• 13. Customer approvalThe estimate the customer approved, and when. In Kenro the quote goes to their phone and the tap is recorded.
• 14. Mid-job findsThe worn pad you discovered after the wheel came off. Kenro attaches a labelled photo to the card and shows it on the tracking link, so the extra line on the bill is never a surprise.
• 15. The invoice it becomesThe job card should end as the bill, not be retyped into one. Kenro raises the GST invoice, or a Bill of Supply where GST does not apply, from the card itself.

Paper, Excel or software: same fields, different failures

A printed job card fails at field five: you cannot staple a walkaround video to a carbon copy, and photos on somebody's phone are not on the card. Excel fails at field eleven: one file, one person editing it, and the floor cannot see it. Software wins only if it is faster than a pen at the gate, which is why Kenro builds the card from photos, reads the plate, and pre-fills repeat jobs from a template that already carries the services, checklist, notes and delivery estimate.

If you are staying on paper for now

Print the fifteen fields above in that order on one A4 sheet with a carbon copy, put the belongings checklist as tick boxes, and leave a box for the customer's signature under the damage notes. Photograph the car anyway and save the photos under the registration number. That will settle most arguments. The ones it will not settle are the ones about time and stage, and that is where a shared screen starts to earn its keep.

Where Kenro fits

Kenro Workshop is job cards built from photos, the bay board, quotes the customer approves from their phone, GST invoices from the card and WhatsApp updates drafted for you to send. The job card page below walks through it screen by screen.