Approve or decline a quote in the customer portal

Summary

When a technician inspects a vehicle and finds additional work, the garage prepares a quote. The customer receives a notification (email, SMS, or WhatsApp) with a link to review the quote in the portal. Each item can be individually approved or declined. Decisions are saved locally as the customer works through the list, then submitted all at once with a single confirmation.

Prerequisites

• The customer has a portal account and can sign in.
• A technician has logged findings against the customer’s work order.
• The garage has prepared the quote (moved it from “preparing” to “ready” status).

Steps

Receiving the quote

1. The customer receives a notification with a link to the quote page.
2. They click the link or navigate to their portal, open the relevant job, and tap the quote review banner if one is shown.

Reviewing quote items

1. The quote page heading reads Quote for your [make] [model] with the vehicle registration plate and job reference (e.g. WO-TANGO-1234).
2. An introduction line reads: “[Technician name] has inspected your car and found a few things:”.
3. Each quote item is displayed as a card showing:
   • Category badge - one of:
     • Safety Item (red badge with shield icon) - affects vehicle safety.
     • Recommended (amber badge with spanner icon) - advisable work.
     • Optional (green badge with lightbulb icon) - nice-to-have.
   • Estimated amount in pounds.
   • Description of the work.
   • Photo thumbnails - tap to open a full-screen lightbox with swipe navigation on mobile and arrow keys on desktop.
   • Technician notes - displayed under “What [technician name] found:” if different from the description.
   • Cost breakdown - labour hours and rate, plus individual parts with quantities and line totals.
   • Social proof (safety items only) - shows “[X]% of our customers approve this fix”.

Approving an item

1. Click Go ahead with the fix on the item card.
2. A toast notification confirms: “Great choice! [Technician name] will get started on this shortly.”
3. The card updates to show a green Approved badge with a Change button.

Declining an item

1. For recommended or optional items, click Skip for now. A toast confirms: “No problem. We’ll proceed with the other work.”
2. For safety items, the button reads I’ll take the risk. Clicking it opens a Safety Item Warning dialog that:
   • Explains the item has been flagged as a safety concern.
   • States that declining may affect the vehicle’s safety or lead to more expensive repairs.
   • Requires the customer to tick a checkbox reading: “I understand that declining this safety repair may affect my vehicle’s safety and I accept full responsibility”.
   • Has a Decline anyway button (disabled until the checkbox is ticked) and a Go back button.
3. After declining, the card shows an amber Skipped badge with a Change button.

Changing a decision

1. Click Change on any decided item to reset it to pending and choose again.

Submitting decisions

1. A sticky footer at the bottom of the page shows:
   • Your selections total (ex VAT if the garage is VAT registered).
   • VAT line with rate percentage (if applicable).
   • Total including VAT (if applicable).
   • A pending items counter: “[X] item(s) need your decision”.
   • The Confirm Choices button, which is disabled until all items have a decision.
2. Click Confirm Choices to submit. A toast confirms: “All sorted! We’ll get started on the approved work.” The portal redirects to the job status page.

Expected Outcome

• All quote decisions are saved to the system.
• The garage team is notified of the customer’s choices.
• Approved work proceeds. Declined work is recorded but not actioned.
• The customer can return to the quote page later to see a read-only summary of their decisions.

What the customer sees after submission

A green banner reads Your choices have been submitted with the submission date and time. Below it:

• A Your Summary card shows the approved total and declined total (including VAT if applicable) with item counts.
• An Items Reviewed list shows each item with its category badge, amount, and an Approved or Declined indicator.
• A View Job Status button links back to the status page.

Special states

Quote being prepared

If the garage has not finished preparing the quote, the customer sees “Your quote is being prepared” with the message “Our team at [garage name] is preparing your quote. We’ll notify you as soon as it’s ready for your review.” If the garage has a phone number on file, a “Questions? Call us at [number]” link is shown.

No additional work found

If the technician found nothing beyond the original booking, the customer sees “No additional work found” with the message “Great news! [Technician name] didn’t find anything that needs attention beyond your original booking.” A Back to job status button returns to the status page.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Customer sees “Your quote is being prepared” but the garage has finished it.	The quote status has not been moved from “preparing” to “ready”.	In Torqueflow, open the work order and publish the quote so it becomes visible to the customer.
Confirm Choices button is greyed out.	One or more items still need a decision.	The footer shows how many items are pending. The customer needs to approve or decline every item before submitting.
Customer wants to change their mind after submission.	Decisions are final once submitted. The quote page becomes read-only.	Contact the garage directly. The garage can discuss changes and update the work order manually.
VAT is not showing on the quote.	The organisation is not marked as VAT registered.	Check the VAT registration setting in Torqueflow organisation settings.

Notes

• Decisions are held locally in the browser until the customer clicks Confirm Choices. Nothing is saved to the database until submission.
• Quote items are sorted by severity: safety first, then recommended, then optional.
• The quote page is mobile-responsive with full-width buttons on small screens and a sticky footer that adapts to the layout.