Finding the vehicle

To start the Repair Order (RO), first find the customer's vehicle at your dealership from Workspace, Service Dashboard or Advisor Check-In.

 

Note: If the customer has used Mobile Check-In (MCI), the check-in is considered complete and the technician can start the inspection.

Note: Refer to the "Service Dashboard Help Guide" for more information.

Start the write-up directly from Service Dashboard if either:

  • the dealership has Tire Profiles or Hunter Engineering integration and the vehicle is diagnosed on arrival.
    •  A service lane will have been automatically created in Service Dashboard in Arrived status.
    • Note that any booked appointment for the day is automatically removed from Service Dashboard's appointments list.
  • the customer has a booked appointment for the day.
    • In this case, manually push the appointment to the vehicle queue from the appointments list to create a service lane in Arrived status.

Continue by opening Advisor Check-In from the vehicle's service lane:

Note: When Advisor Check-In is opened from Service Dashboard, it opens to the Customer page.

 

If starting the write-up from Advisor Check-In, use one of the following options to find your vehicle:

In the 'Vehicle VIN' search field, enter:

  • the last 5 or 8 digits of the VIN, or
  • the full 17 character VIN

Click to decode the VIN.

  • If the VIN is not found, an error message appears. Correct the VIN and try again.
  • If the VIN decodes but is not assigned to a customer yet in the Dealer Management System (DMS), the following message appears:

Click "Create New Customer" to continue to the Customer page and set up the customer data, or "Cancel" to change the VIN and try again.

  • If the VIN decodes and the customer is found in the Dealer-FX (DFX) customer/vehicle database or the DMS, Advisor Check-In opens to the Customer page with the vehicle and customer information shown.

Note: For dealers using Auto/Mate, F&I sales customer data is also searched if integration is enabled.

Note: If the VIN is not found in either the DFX or DMS databases, the Maritz National Customer Database is also searched if this integration is enabled at the dealership.

If you have all or part of the customer's name, phone number or license plate:

  1. Enter the name, phone number or license plate (only one) in the corresponding search field.
  2. Click the associated search button:
    1. If there is one or more match in the DFX customer/vehicle database, all records will be listed under the DFX tab. If a customer has multiple vehicles, each is listed on a separate line.

Note: An "Appointment" icon appears beside any vehicle with a booked appointment.

  1. For name and phone number searches only:
    • If there are no results from the customer/vehicle database search, a DMS search is automatically initiated and results matching the search criteria are listed under the DMS tab.
    • If the customer is not in the results returned from the DFX customer/vehicle database, click the DMS tab to review a list of customers matching the search criteria from the DMS.
    • If the name, number or license is not found in the DFX or DMS databases, an error message appears. Change the search data and try again.

Note: The DMS search is not available for SERTI dealers.

  1. To select a record for the write-up, click on the row then click .
    • If there is already a write-up in progress for this vehicle, a warning message appears asking if you want to use that information. Click "Ignore" to start your write-up for the VIN and replace any data previously entered. Alternatively click "Load" to load the existing data.

If Tire Profiles or Hunter Engineering integration is enabled at the dealership, it can be used to register vehicles arriving for service.

Vehicle arrival notifications appear at the top of the Search page and indicate the number of new arrivals that need to be acknowledged.

Note: Arrival notifications only appear in Advisor Check-In if Service Dashboard is not used at the dealership. If Service Dashboard is used, a service lane is created automatically and the write-up should be initiated from there as described previously.

Click the icon to open the Arrivals Notification window:

Select "Click to view arrivals" to see the new arrival(s) along with the vehicle information and associated customer information:

From this window:

  1. Click "Acknowledge Arrival" to start the write-up. The write-up is assigned to your user name and the arrival is removed from the list.

Note: The acknowledgment step should always be used for an arrival that has an arrival notification. If the advisor writes-up the vehicle without first acknowledging the arrival, the notification remains in the arrivals list until it is acknowledged. Unacknowledged arrivals are cleared from the list overnight.

If you acknowledge an arrival at any point after writing-up the vehicle, the usual overwrite message appears as shown in Overwrite warning. Select "Cancel" then return to the vehicle search. This deletes the arrival notice without starting a new RO.

  1. Alternatively, click "View Vehicle" to view the customer and vehicle information without performing the write-up. No updates are saved. "View Vehicle" is useful for greeters who need to view the vehicle information.
  1. Click "Close" to close the window.

You can view Arrival Notifications at any time by clicking the "Arrivals" icon at the top of any page.

 

When a record is selected from the Advisor Check-In search results or arrival notifications, or from the Service Dashboard vehicle queue, the Customer page is opened.

If there is an existing appointment booked for the vehicle, the Existing Appointment Details window appears:

Select which appointment to pre-load, if any. Refer to Existing appointment details for more information.