Technician notes, photos and checklists on a job

Where do a technician's findings go?

Onto the job card, in notes. Findings are what the technician sees: a worn tyre, a leaking seal, a cracked boot on a driveshaft. Written against the card, they stay with the right car and the right visit.

One maker's guide, checked on 9 November 2026, lists technicians "adding labour, parts and notes" to the job¹. Another maker says a card can hold "inspection reports, diagnostic, reported issues" and "pictures of the vehicle"². Reported issues are what the customer said. Findings are what the technician found. Keep them apart.

Why bother with photos?

A photo shows the customer what a technician is describing. It also records the car's state on arrival, such as an existing scratch. One maker's page mentions adding pictures of the vehicle to a card². How many photos, how large, and where they're stored differ by product, so check the maker's help pages.

Photos of a customer's car can show registration plates and sometimes people. Privacy rules differ by country. The ICO in the UK, the OAIC in Australia and the FTC in the US are the places to start, or ask a lawyer.

What is a checklist, and how does it attach to a job?

A checklist, often called an inspection or checksheet, is a fixed list of things to check, such as lights, tyres, brakes and fluids. The technician marks each one.

One maker's help page shows how one inspection product links to a job. Inspections are created from individual services within a job, "not from the job header"³. The job then shows progress as the technician works, with "icons indicating passed, warning, failed, and not applicable checks"³. When it's done, the result appears as "a PASS or FAIL badge alongside the checksheet number"³.

That product is built partly around New Zealand's WOF roadworthiness check, so some of its fields only make sense there. The general idea carries over. A checklist belongs to one job, and the result is visible from the card.

Can the checklist be removed by accident?

The same page says that once an inspection is linked to a service, the Remove service option is disabled, which "prevents services linked to inspections from being removed accidentally"³. To remove the service, the inspection has to be cancelled first³. It's a small guard. It stops a result vanishing from the card.

How do notes help on a later visit?

They're there to be read. One maker's guide suggests staff might "use notes from a previous service to upsell a customer" when the car books in again¹. A fairer way to say it is that earlier findings let the workshop remind a customer about something already spotted, such as tyres nearing the end of their life.

Be careful here. Notes about a car's condition are workshop opinion. Say what was seen and measured, not what the technician guessed.

What about "waiting for parts" and similar flags?

Technicians often need to say why a job has stopped. On one maker's mobile app, clock-off options such as Waiting For Parts or Approval Required "apply tags to the job"⁴. Those tags then show on the workshop board, which is covered on the board page.

If a finding means more work, the next step is the customer's agreement. That's on the approvals page.