Create a work order

Summary

This article explains how to create a new work order in Torqueflow. You select or create a customer, select or create a vehicle, add an optional job description, and optionally pick services or checklist templates so their checks and parts are on the job from the start. The work order is created with a status of “Booked”.

Prerequisites

• You are signed in to Torqueflow.
• You have permission to create work orders.

Steps

Opening the dialog

1. Navigate to the Work Orders page. To find existing jobs there, see Using the work orders list.
2. Click the New Work Order button.
3. The “Create Work Order” dialog opens.

Selecting or creating a customer

1. Click the Customer dropdown. It shows “Search or create customer…”.
2. Type at least 2 characters to search. The search matches by name, phone, or email.
3. Select a customer from the results. Each result shows the customer’s name, preferred salutation (if set), phone, and email.
4. To clear your selection, click the Clear button below the dropdown.

To create a new customer instead:

5. Click the New Customer button at the bottom of the search dropdown.
6. An inline form appears with the following fields:
   • Title - dropdown with options: None, Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Dr, Rev, Prof. Optional.
   • First Name - required.
   • Last Name - required.
   • Preferred Salutation - free text (e.g. “Bill”, “Mr Smith”). How the customer prefers to be addressed. Optional.
   • Phone - optional.
   • Email - optional.
7. Click Add Customer to save. The new customer is automatically selected.

Selecting or creating a vehicle

1. Once a customer is selected, the Vehicle dropdown loads their existing vehicles. Each vehicle shows its registration plate, make, model, and year.
2. Select a vehicle from the dropdown.

To create a new vehicle instead:

3. Click the New Vehicle button below the vehicle dropdown.
4. An inline form appears with the following fields:
   • Registration - required. Enter the vehicle registration number.
   • Lookup button - click this to look up the vehicle via DVLA. If found, it auto-fills the Make, Model, Year, Colour and Fuel type fields. MOT and tax status badges also appear.
   • Make - required. Auto-filled by lookup or entered manually.
   • Model - required. Auto-filled by lookup if available, otherwise enter manually. A note appears if DVLA did not return a model.
   • Year - optional. Auto-filled by lookup or entered manually.
   • Colour - optional. A dropdown with colour swatches. Auto-filled by lookup or selected manually.
   • Fuel type - optional. Auto-filled by lookup for every fuel, including electric and hybrid, or chosen from the list. The DVLA does not say whether a hybrid is a plug-in, so when a lookup fills in Hybrid the form reminds you to change it to Plug-in hybrid if the car charges from the mains.
5. Click Add Vehicle to save. The new vehicle is automatically selected.

Adding job details

1. Enter a Job Description in the text area. This is optional. It describes the work to be done. If services or templates add tasks to the job, each line you type here becomes a task too, placed first.

Setting the job type (optional)

1. The Job Type select defaults to Customer. Leave it as Customer for normal paid work.
2. Choose Sale-Prep or Internal if this is a car you are preparing to sell, or a job on the garage’s own vehicle. A Recharge to field then appears for you to record who the cost is recharged to.

Sale-Prep and Internal jobs are kept out of customer invoicing and reported separately. See Job types and cost separation for the full picture.

Picking services (optional)

1. Open Services (“Add a service this garage sells”) in the Job Details section. Type to search.
2. Pick up to five services. Each option says what it adds, for example “8 checks, 5 parts”, with a time estimate if its checks carry one.
3. Each picked service lists its parts as “quantity x name”, so you can see what will reach the invoice. Remove a service with the cross on its chip.

When the work order is created, each service’s checks and parts are added to it. Parts from a fixed-price service whose price includes parts are added at no charge and say so in the parts panel. Typed parts with no catalogue link arrive unpriced and appear unticked on the invoice until priced. The picker only lists services that carry parts or a checklist. See Manage Services and Pricing.

Attaching checklist templates (optional)

1. Open Checklist Templates (Optional) (“Select templates (optional)”) and tick the templates you want. Type to search. Picked templates show as chips you can remove.
2. The templates’ tasks are added once the work order exists. A task already added by a service is not added twice.

Saving the work order

1. Click Create Work Order.
2. Torqueflow creates the work order with a status of “Booked” and takes you to the work order detail page.

On the work order page

After you create the work order, its detail page opens. The header actions include Print job card, which prints a paper copy for the technician with no prices on it. See Printing a job card for the workshop.

Two notices can appear near the top.

• From a quote. A job converted from a quote shows a line under the header, for example “From quote Q-0018 - £647.24”. Select the quote number to open the quote. See See what the quote was invoiced as.
• Reminder notice. If this job switched a marked vehicle’s reminders back on, the work order reads “This vehicle was marked [reason] on [date]. This job switched its reminders back on.” If the car really has gone (for example a new keeper booked it in under the old customer), click Keep marked as [reason]. The message “Kept marked - reminders stay off for this vehicle.” confirms it. This needs the vehicles.manage permission. If the vehicle’s owner has changed since the page opened, you see “The owner of this vehicle changed since you opened this page, so its reminders now follow the new owner. Refresh and mark it again if it still applies.” See Which vehicles get reminders.

Expected Outcome

• A new work order is created and linked to the chosen customer and vehicle.
• The work order status is set to “Booked”.
• Any picked services have added their checks and parts.
• Any selected checklist templates are applied as tasks.
• You are redirected to the work order detail page.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Customer search returns no results	Fewer than 2 characters entered, or no match found.	Type at least 2 characters. The search checks name, phone, and email. If the customer does not exist, click New Customer to create one.
Vehicle dropdown is empty	The selected customer has no vehicles on file.	Click New Vehicle to add one.
VRM Lookup button is greyed out	The registration field is empty.	Enter a registration number first, then click Lookup.
Lookup returns “Model not available from DVLA”	DVLA does not always return model data.	Enter the model manually. The other fields (make, year, colour) should still auto-fill.
”Invalid vehicle data” error	A required field (registration, make, or model) is missing.	Fill in all required fields before clicking Add Vehicle.
Cannot click Create Work Order	A customer or vehicle has not been selected. Both are required.	Select or create both a customer and a vehicle before submitting.
A warning says a service’s parts were left off	Your role cannot add parts to a job. The service’s checks were still added.	Ask someone with parts permission to add them on the work order.
A warning says a service “had nothing left to add” or “not all of its checks were added”	A checklist on the service was retired or changed after the list loaded.	Add the missing checks on the work order. The work order itself was created.
A service you expected is not in the picker	It has no parts and no active checklist set up.	Ask an Owner or Manager to set it up under Settings > Services.
An electric or hybrid car was saved with no fuel type	Vehicles added before September 2026 could lose their fuel type on save.	Edit the vehicle and pick the fuel type. New vehicles keep it.
Email capture banner appears after selecting a customer	The selected customer has no email address on file.	You can enter an email address in the banner. It saves automatically when the work order is created. This is optional.

Notes

• The job description has a maximum length of 2,000 characters.
• When you create a new customer via the inline form within this dialog, fewer fields are available than on the full Customers page. You can add extra details (company name, VAT number, marketing consent, etc.) later from the customer’s profile.
• If a customer has no email on file, a yellow banner appears below the customer field. You can add an email there, and it saves when the work order is created.
• Pressing Escape or clicking Cancel closes the dialog without saving.