Quote, cost and bill a repair
Everything a repair costs — parts, labour, vendor fees, freight, an assessment fee — lands on one Costs & billing tab, next to the quotes you send the customer for anything they're paying for.
Before you begin
- You need the Bench permission to add or delete a cost, or change who pays. Changing or deleting a cost that's already posted needs the Edit posted costs permission as well.
- You need the Send & accept quotes permission to create, send, accept, decline or void a quote.
- The repair must be open — closed, rejected and canceled repairs refuse all of these with "This repair is closed. Reopen it first."
1. Read the cost summary
Six figures sit across the top of the tab, each with a tooltip explaining exactly what it counts:
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Warranty | Your cost for covered work. |
| Goodwill | Free work you chose to do outside the policy. |
| Billable | What the customer is charged. |
| Paid | What the customer has paid so far. |
| Expected recovery | Supplier-fault costs you can claim back. |
| Planned | Estimated costs not posted yet. |
2. Read the cost record
The Cost record table lists every line against the case or a specific unit — Type, Description, Unit, Qty, Unit cost, Total, Billed, Bill to, its State (Posted — in the ledger, and in stock for a part; or Planned — an estimate that's changed nothing yet), and whatever it's Linked to, as a short link: Journal (hover it for the full journal reference, its status and amount), Movement, PO, Shipment, or the supplier recovery Claim. Each row ends with a ⋮ menu holding its actions. Parts, labour and freight add themselves as the work happens; use Add cost for anything else. A long Description ends with an ellipsis; hover it to read the full text.
A line shows a Billed amount only when it carries its own price to the customer. Once the customer accepts a quote, the quote's total is what they're billed, and quote prices aren't split across the cost lines. So the Billed total at the foot of the table can be higher than the lines above it. When it is, Accepted quote appears under the amount, and its help icon explains the difference — for example, "The customer accepted a quote for $35.00, so that is what they are billed. Quote prices aren't split across these cost lines, which only show a billed amount when they carry their own bill price ($0.00 here)."
If any of the five repair accounts aren't mapped yet, a warning names which ones, for example: "Repair costs can't post to the ledger until these accounts are mapped: Warranty expense, Warranty reserve, Goodwill repair expense, Repair revenue, Repair cost of sales." Its Map accounts button opens Accounting → Settings → Nominal Code Mappings, where you map them. See Chart of accounts reference.
3. Add a cost
Click Add cost and fill in:
- Type — Part, Labour, Vendor service (for example, plating), Freight in, Freight out, Assessment fee, or Other.
- Unit — the piece it's against, or Whole case.
- For a Part, also pick the Part (the empty field reads Search by SKU or name; once picked it shows the product's name, with its SKU under each option) and the Warehouse it comes from — both are required, so the cost record always knows exactly which stock a part cost came out of. Warehouse starts on the repair's own warehouse, by name; type to search your other warehouses and 3PLs.
- Description, Quantity and Unit cost — the last two share a row with Bill to.
- Bill to — left blank, it falls back to the chosen unit's coverage, and the empty field says so — for example Warranty (from coverage) or Customer (from coverage), the same wording as the Resolve dialog.
- Price to customer (each) — shown only when Bill to is Customer.
Click the dialog's Add cost button, and a confirmation names the new line by its description — for example "The Cost 'Ultrasonic clean' created successfully."
4. Change who pays
Open the ⋮ menu at the end of a cost line and choose Change who pays to reassign its Bill to (Warranty, Goodwill, Customer or Supplier). On a line that's already posted, the ledger journal is reversed and reposted to the new account, and you need a reason — "Give a reason for changing who pays for a posted cost" blocks it without one — plus the Edit posted costs permission, not just Bench: "Changing who pays for a posted part/cost needs the 'Repairs: manage costs' permission."
5. Delete a cost line
Open the ⋮ menu at the end of a cost line and choose Delete cost. When either action is blocked — no permission, or a labour line — it stays in the menu, greyed out, with the reason in grey text under it. Deleting a posted cost un-consumes any part stock first (returned at the cost it was consumed at) and reverses its ledger journal. A few lines can't be deleted this way at all:
- Labour — "Labour comes from time entries. Delete the time entry on the unit instead."
- Anything whose journal sits in a locked accounting period — deleting, changing, un-consuming or re-billing it is refused outright. See Month-end close.
6. Quote the customer
The Quotes card lists every version of every quote on the repair — its Status, Total (with a note that tax is an estimate until the charge order exists), Payment timing, Expires date (the date only, for example Nov 22, 2026; hover it for the time), and a link to its Charge order and payment status.
Create or edit a quote
Click New quote. Its lines start from the piece's customer-billable cost lines and flat issue prices — edit or replace them freely, and add anything else (a replating fee, for example). If there's nothing billed to the customer yet, you'll see "Nothing on this repair is billed to the customer yet. Add parts or labour billed to the customer, or add a fee line." instead.
Choose when the customer pays — Before work, Before return, or On account — an expiry (14 days by default), and terms text shown on the quote itself. Only a Draft quote can be edited directly (Edit draft); any other quote is revised with New version, which supersedes it once sent.
Send, accept, decline and void
A quote's row menu lists only the actions that still apply to its status:
| Status | Actions |
|---|---|
| Draft | Edit draft, Send to customer, Accept (phone / in person), Decline, Void |
| Sent | New version, Resend to customer, Accept (phone / in person), Decline, Void |
| Accepted | New version, Void |
| Declined, Expired, Superseded or Void | New version |
- Send to customer (or Resend to customer, once already sent) — emails the quote and moves its pieces to Awaiting approval.
- Accept (phone / in person) — records the customer's approval by phone or in person, and creates the repair's charge order (plus a payment request, if payment is due first) exactly as a portal acceptance would.
- Decline — sends the piece back to Diagnosing, ready to resolve as declined.
- Void — withdraws the quote. On an accepted quote, the confirmation explains that its unpaid charge order is withdrawn and the quoted units go back to Diagnosing. Once the customer has paid the charge order, Void is greyed out: "The customer has paid on
<charge order>. Refund the payment before voiding the quote."
An action that's listed but blocked right now — Accept or Decline on a draft ("Send the quote first."), or anything you lack the permission for — stays in the menu, greyed out, with its reason in grey text under its name.
Expired and superseded quotes
Besides Draft, Sent, Accepted, Declined and Void, a sent quote nobody answers expires on its own on the expiry date (after any reminder steps your SLA policies set — only the last one reached sends, once). Editing or resending a quote creates a new version and marks the one before it Superseded rather than overwriting it.
Next steps
- Resolve a unit — the outcomes that add cost lines to this tab in the first place.
- Ship repairs and manage loaners — every freight label you buy posts its own cost line here.
- How repair costs reach the ledger — how warranty, goodwill and billable costs post to your books.
- Set SLA policies and labour/bill rates — the labour and bill rates a cost line can draw from.
- Chart of accounts reference — the five repair accounts and what each one holds.
Video transcript
In the navigation sidebar on the left, expand Orders, then Repairs, and finally click List. Every case appears here, with the newest at the top. Search by repair number, customer, or order number. Press Enter to narrow the table to matching cases. Open a repair by clicking its number in the list. Tabs across the top split the record, starting with Overview. Select the Costs and billing tab at the top of the record. It lists every charge, and the quotes you send the customer. These cards across the top summarise the repair's whole cost record. Hover any info icon for its exact definition. Every cost line lists its type, who pays for it, and its state. Under the Billed total, a note says it comes from the accepted quote. Click Add cost above the table to start a new cost line. Open the Type menu to choose the kind of charge. Choose Part when the cost is a component, like a clasp, from your own stock. Two more fields then appear: the item and its warehouse. Both are required, and the location fills in from this repair's record. Click Cancel to leave the dialog without adding a cost line. Click the menu at the right end of any cost line. Change who pays reassigns that charge to another payer. Delete cost removes the line and reverses its ledger entry. Find the Quotes card below the cost record. Click New quote to start from the charges billed to the customer. Choose when the customer pays: before work, before return, or on account. Set when it expires, then click Create draft to save the quote. Cancel discards it and closes the dialog. Click the menu at the far right end of a quote's row. It shows only the steps that still apply to this status. New version revises the quote for the customer. Void withdraws its unpaid charge order, and the units return to diagnosis.