Using the Workshop Kanban Board

Summary

The Workshop Kanban board gives you a live overview of every active work order in the garage, organised by status columns. You can drag cards between columns to update their status. The board includes search, date filters, an awaiting parts filter, vehicle presence tracking, and a configurable view mode. This is the main screen for tracking daily workshop flow.

The board opens in an Active view by default, showing live and recent jobs rather than your whole history. Older jobs are still there under the other views. Jobs that have sat untouched are tagged Stale so they are easy to spot and clear out.

Prerequisites

You are signed in as an Owner or Manager. Service Advisors and Technicians are blocked from this page and are redirected to the dashboard.
At least one work order exists in the system.

Permissions

Only users with the workshop.access capability can view this page. This is granted to the Owner and Manager roles. Service Advisors and Technicians are redirected automatically.

Steps

Navigate to /workshop using the main menu. The Kanban board loads with columns based on your organisation’s configured statuses. Columns are not hardcoded - they are defined in your workflow settings and can vary between organisations.
Check the count shown at the top of each column. This tells you how many work orders sit in that status.
Read the cards in each column. Every card shows:
- Customer name and reference code (e.g. WO-A1B2C3)
- Vehicle registration plate, colour swatch, make, and model
- A short preview of the job description
- An appointment count badge
- A “Today” badge with time slot if an appointment is booked for today
- A vehicle presence indicator (Not on Site, Checked In, Customer Waiting, Ready for Pickup, Picked Up)
- An “Awaiting Parts” badge if parts are on order (this is a flag on the card, not a separate column)
Use the search bar at the top of the board to filter by customer name, vehicle registration, or description. Search is debounced - results update as you type.
Use the date range filter to narrow the view. Options are:
- All Work Orders (default)
- Booked Today
- Booked This Week
- Booked This Month
Use the Awaiting Parts filter to show only cards awaiting parts, only cards not awaiting parts, or all cards.
To change a work order’s status, drag the card from one column and drop it into another. The card moves immediately (optimistic update). If the server update fails, the card reverts to its original column automatically.
Be aware of drag restrictions:
- Cards in a terminal status column (e.g. Complete) cannot be moved.
- Cards in the initial status cannot skip directly to a workable status if an intermediate status exists. For example, a Pending card cannot jump straight to In Progress - it must go through Scheduled first.
- If a work order has no appointments, dragging it out of the initial status triggers a prompt to schedule an appointment first.
- You can drag cards into and out of any custom status columns you have added in Settings > Workflow (for example “QA” or “Valet”). They behave like the built-in columns.
- Dropping a card into a terminal column (Complete, Cancelled, or a custom terminal status) asks you to confirm first, because that is a one-way move and a Complete can send the customer a “ready for collection” message. Note that custom statuses work on the board, but the work-orders list filter and scheduler toolbar still only recognise the built-in statuses.
To view a work order’s details, click on the customer name on the card. This opens a preview dialog with key information, appointments, and quick action buttons. It does not navigate away from the board.
To access quick actions, click the kebab menu button (three vertical dots) in the top-right corner of the card. Options include:
- Quick View - opens the preview dialog
- Open in New Tab - opens the full work order detail page
- Schedule Appointment - opens the appointment scheduling dialog
- Edit Work Order - opens the edit dialog
To change vehicle presence, click the vehicle presence badge on the card. A dropdown appears with all presence options. Selecting “Checked In” opens a mileage capture dialog.
To toggle the awaiting parts flag, click the Parts badge on the card. It toggles between flagged and unflagged.
Use the view mode toggle in the top-right toolbar to switch between:
- Bound - columns fit within the page container
- Full Width - columns stretch to fill the viewport
- Fullscreen - the board fills the entire screen (press Esc to exit)
The auto-refresh toggle (Live/Paused) in the top-right toolbar controls whether the board refreshes automatically every 30 seconds. Click to toggle it on or off.

Choosing what the board shows

The board has a row of view options. The first two control how much you see, the others are quick clean-up views:

Active (default) - live jobs plus anything recent or booked soon. This hides long-finished and long-untouched jobs so you see today’s work.
All - every work order, the way the board used to open.
Stale Pending - intake jobs that have sat untouched for over 30 days.
Possibly abandoned - jobs untouched for over 60 days with no upcoming appointment. These are the candidates for the bulk clean-up described in Abandoning and cleaning up old work orders.

When you are not on the All view, a line reads “Showing X of Y work orders” with a Show all link. Nothing has been deleted. If you cannot find a job, switch to All or use search, which always looks across everything.

Stale jobs

Jobs that have gone untouched past their status threshold are tagged with a Stale Nd chip (the number of days since they were flagged) and their card is dimmed. The customer name stays fully readable.
Use the stale filter in the toolbar to switch between All, Hide stale, and Stale only. “Hide stale” is the quickest way to cut a cluttered board down to real work.
The moment anyone updates a job or books an appointment on it, the stale tag clears automatically.
An Owner can change how long each status waits before going stale under Settings > Workflow (set the days per status, or leave blank so that status never goes stale). Terminal statuses like Complete never go stale.

Expected Outcome

You can see every active work order at a glance, grouped by status. Dragging cards between columns updates the work order status. Cards with today’s appointments, overdue parts, and vehicle presence states are clearly flagged so nothing gets missed.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Page redirects to the dashboard	Your role does not have the workshop.access capability. Only Owner and Manager roles can access this page.	Ask an Owner to check your role assignment.
Card snaps back to its original column after dragging	The status update failed on the server. This can happen if another user changed the status at the same time, or if your connection dropped.	Refresh the page and try again. If the problem persists, open the work order and change the status from there.
Cannot drag a card from the initial column to In Progress	This is by design. Work orders must pass through intermediate statuses.	Drag the card to Scheduled first, or use the kebab menu to schedule an appointment.
Cannot drag a card from the Complete column	Terminal status cards are locked. This prevents accidental reopening.	If you need to reopen a completed work order, do so from the work order detail page.
Card does not show a “Today” badge but has an appointment today	The appointment may have been created after the board loaded.	Wait for the next auto-refresh (every 30 seconds), or click the Live/Paused button to trigger a refresh.
No results after filtering	The combination of date range, search, and parts filter excludes all work orders.	Clear the search bar and reset filters. The “No matching work orders” message confirms filters are active.
Work orders look like they have disappeared	The board now opens in the Active view, which hides old and long-untouched jobs. Nothing has been deleted.	Switch to the All view, or use the Show all link in the “Showing X of Y” line. Search also looks across every work order.
A card I expected to drag will not drop into a custom column	Older app versions blocked custom statuses. This now works.	Make sure the custom status exists in Settings > Workflow. Dropping into a terminal column will ask you to confirm first.

Notes

The board auto-refreshes every 30 seconds when the Live toggle is enabled. If you see a card move on its own, another user changed its status.
The date range filter defaults to All Work Orders. This shows every active work order regardless of appointment date.
Older completed work orders are automatically hidden from the board. A message tells you how many are hidden and links to the work orders list for historical records.
For multi-location organisations, a location selector appears in the toolbar to filter by site.