Printing a job card for the workshop

Summary

Some technicians work from paper. Print job card gives you a sheet to hand them. It carries the vehicle, the work, the planned time for each task and the parts with their part numbers. It never shows prices. There are boxes to write in the actual time, the mileage and any extra parts used, and the back of a normal job is left blank for drawings. The sheet prints in the technician’s own language, and a QR code on it opens the job in Torqueflow. You can print from the work order page or from the technician’s job card.

Prerequisites

• Office staff need access to work orders. Owners, managers and service advisors have it by default.
• Technicians need access to My Jobs. Technicians, and anyone with the Can work as Technician flag, have it by default.
• A printer connected to the computer you are using. Torqueflow uses your browser’s normal print window.

Steps

Print the job card

1. Open the job. From the office, open the work order page. On the workshop floor, open the job from My Jobs.
2. Find Print job card in the header. On the work order page it sits with the other actions, after the invoice button. On the job card it sits in the header, next to the clock.
3. Check the language shown in the dropdown beside the button. See “Choose the language” below.
4. Click Print job card. A new tab opens and says “Preparing job card…”. After a moment the job card appears in it.
5. Check the sheet, then print it from that tab. Use the print button in the PDF viewer, or press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac).

The print window does not open by itself. The new tab lets you check the language and the number of pages before you use any paper.

Choose the language

The dropdown beside the button is labelled Print language. It is set for you each time the page opens:

1. If one technician is booked on the job, it uses the language they chose for themselves. The option says so, for example “Polski (Pawel’s language)”.
2. If nobody is booked, or more than one technician is, it uses the language of the bay’s default technician, if the bay has one.
3. Otherwise it uses your garage’s language, for example “English (Garage language)”. This includes a booked technician who has never chosen a language.

To print in a different language, pick it from the dropdown, then click Print job card. Changing the dropdown does not print anything. The choice is not remembered, so the next job starts again from its own technician.

You can print in English, Polski or Română. Română is offered here even though it is not yet in the language menu. The language changes the printed labels only. Dates, times and numbers always follow your garage’s format settings, and anything people typed prints as they wrote it.

What is on the sheet

At the top:

• Your garage name, the title “Job card” and the job reference in large print.
• A QR code. Scanning it opens this job in Torqueflow. It does not sign anyone in. A person still needs their own Torqueflow login, and a technician lands on their job card.
• “Printed [date and time] by [name]”. This shows how old a paper copy is, so an out-of-date sheet is easy to spot.

Vehicle and customer:

• The registration in large bold text, make, model, year, colour, fuel type, engine size and the VIN if one is recorded.
• The mileage recorded on this job. If none is recorded, there is a box to write it in.
• The customer’s name only. The customer’s phone number, email and home address are never printed.
• For mobile work, the job site address, postcode and what3words, because that is where the technician has to go.
• Appointments: one line for each booking on the job, with the date, start and end time, how long it is, the bay and the technician. Cancelled bookings are left out.
• Customer says and Job description, when they are filled in.

Tasks:

• Each task has a tick box, which is already ticked if the task is done.
• Safety-critical tasks carry a bold boxed SAFETY tag.
• The Planned column shows the task’s estimated time. If a task has no estimate, there is a line to write one in. Tasks added by hand or from a quote often have no estimate.
• The Actual column is left blank for the technician to fill in.
• Task notes print under the task.
• Under the table, a line adds up the planned time, for example “Planned time: 2 h 30 min (3 of 4 tasks estimated)”.

Parts:

• Each part shows its name, part number, quantity and any notes.
• Five blank rows headed Extra parts and consumables used finish the table. The technician writes down anything else they used there.

Notes: a block of ruled lines at the bottom for anything else, such as torque settings.

A job with no tasks or no parts still prints. The empty section shows blank rows to write in.

What is left off

Torqueflow never puts a price on the sheet. That means no part prices, labour rates, costs, discounts, VAT, line totals or job totals. It also leaves off stock levels and staff pay rates.

These are left off too:

• the customer’s phone number, email and home address;
• internal notes on the work order;
• completion notes, findings and health check results;
• time logged on the job;
• booking notes.

Text on the job prints exactly as written. That covers the job description, task descriptions and notes. If someone typed a price into a note, it appears on the sheet. A labour task brought over from a quote can also carry its price in the task description. Check the tasks before you hand over a sheet for a job that came from a quote.

Expected Outcome

• A PDF of the job card opens in a new tab, in the language shown in the dropdown.
• A normal job fits on one side of A4. About eight tasks and six parts with short descriptions fit. Longer jobs run onto more pages.
• Every page has a footer with the job reference, the registration and “Page x of y”.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
”Pop-up blocked. Allow pop-ups for this site to print the job card.”	Your browser blocked the new tab.	Allow pop-ups for Torqueflow in your browser settings, then click Print job card again.
”Could not prepare the job card. Please try again.”	The sheet could not be made this time.	Click Print job card again. If it keeps happening, contact support.
”You have been signed out. Sign in again to print the job card.”	Your session ended.	Sign in again, open the job and print.
”You do not have permission to print this job card.”	Your role has neither work order access nor My Jobs access.	Ask the owner to check your role.
”This job no longer exists, or you cannot see it.”	The job was deleted.	Refresh the page and check the job is still there.
No Print job card button	Your role cannot open the job, or the button could not load this time.	Refresh the page. If it is still missing, ask the owner to check your role.
The sheet is in the wrong language	The dropdown follows the booked technician. A different technician may now be doing the job, or the page was opened before the booking changed.	Pick the right language from the dropdown before you click Print job card, or refresh the page.
A long job runs onto a second page	Long task descriptions, many tasks or many parts.	Nothing to fix. The footer shows the page count, so the technician knows another page follows. Print single-sided if they need the back for drawings.
The column headings do not appear at the top of the second page	They only print once, at the start of each table.	Read the second page against the headings on the first.

Notes

• Print a fresh sheet when the job changes. The sheet is made new each time you click the button and is not saved anywhere, so an old copy does not update. Check its “Printed” line if you are not sure how old it is.
• The QR code is a shortcut, not a key. It points at the job’s normal page in Torqueflow and only works for someone who can already sign in and see that job.
• A work order prints whatever its status, including finished jobs. A finished job’s sheet still picks up the technician it was booked to.
• Garages using US or Canadian formats get US Letter paper instead of A4.

Permissions

• Work order page: anyone with work order access (work_orders.access). Owners, managers and service advisors have it by default.
• Technician job card: anyone with My Jobs access (my_jobs.access). Technicians see the same tasks and part numbers on screen already, so printing shows them nothing new.