Job cards¶
A job card follows one car through your workshop, from the booking you accepted to handing the keys back. It shows where the car is, what you found when it came in, the photos you took and the estimates you sent.
Not every business has job cards yet
Job cards are for workshops only, and we switch them on business by business. If there is no Jobs item in the side menu of the Provider Portal (on a phone: no Jobs card at the top of Bookings), they are not on for your business yet — ask us. Car washes and logistics providers do not get job cards.
What a job card is¶
- One card per booking. If two people at your desk open one at the same moment, only one card is created.
- It sits alongside the booking, not instead of it. A job card is a separate record linked to one booking. The booking stays Confirmed while the car is with you, and changes when you mark the card Collected or close it without work, or if the customer cancels the booking or someone uses Mark completed in Bookings (both covered below).
Where to find it¶
On a computer or tablet, Jobs is in the menu down the side of the Provider Portal, right after Bookings. On a phone that menu is hidden, so a Jobs card with an Open button sits at the top of the Bookings screen instead.
The Jobs screen has two filters, Active and Closed. Each card in the list shows the plate (or No plate), the current stage, the car, the customer's name, whether it is a Walk-in or an Online booking, and the booked time. Tap a card to open it.
The list refreshes itself when you come back to the tab or the app, and on a timer while it is open. The card screen itself does not update while you are on it. Open it again to see a change someone else made.
Opening a card¶
- On Jobs, tap New job.
- The Open a job card panel lists your accepted bookings that do not have a card yet.
- Tap Open job card beside the booking the car belongs to.
The card opens at Checked in. The plate and odometer are filled in already when the booking or the customer's saved car has them.
Only an accepted booking can get a card. A pending request, or a booking that is declined, cancelled or completed, cannot. You open cards from Jobs only. The Bookings table has no job-card button.
Walk-in customers¶
A customer who drives in needs a booking first. From Bookings, use Log walk-in service and set Job status to In progress. The walk-in then appears in the Open a job card list like any online booking.
A walk-in logged as Finished is recorded as already completed, so it cannot get a card.
What you fill in at intake¶
The top of the card shows the plate, the car, the customer and when the card was opened. When we have the customer's number, a phone button (Call the customer) appears there too. Tap Edit details to fill in or correct:
- Plate: saved in capitals, up to 16 characters.
- Odometer: in whole kilometres.
- Complaint: what the customer says is wrong, up to 2,000 characters.
- Technician note: what your team found, up to 2,000 characters.
Then tap Save. You can still correct these details after the card is closed.
Moving the car through the stages¶
A rail on the card shows the stages in order: Checked in → On lift → Parts → Approval → Ready → Collected. The buttons and the stage label use the full names, such as Awaiting parts, Awaiting approval and Ready for pickup.
Under Next step, the big button is the main step forward: Ready for pickup, and then Collected once the car is ready. The other stages you can move to sit below it as smaller buttons. The card shows buttons only for allowed moves, and the server checks every move. If a move is refused, the card stays as it was.
| From | You can move to |
|---|---|
| Checked in | On lift, Awaiting parts, Awaiting approval, Ready for pickup |
| On lift | Awaiting parts, Awaiting approval, Ready for pickup |
| Awaiting parts | On lift, Awaiting approval, Ready for pickup |
| Awaiting approval | On lift, Awaiting parts, Ready for pickup |
| Ready for pickup | Collected, On lift |
So:
- The three middle stages are optional. Skip any you do not need, and go back to one when you do, for example back to On lift once the parts arrive.
- Nothing goes back to Checked in.
- Collected can only be reached from Ready for pickup.
Collected completes the booking¶
Tapping Collected asks Mark as collected? and shows an Odometer now (km) box filled with the intake reading. Change it if the reading has moved, then tap Confirm collected. If you leave the box empty, the intake reading is used.
This does exactly what Mark completed does in your Bookings history. The booking becomes completed and the odometer reading is recorded with the booking. If the booking is for a car the customer saved in their account, and your reading is higher than the one on that car, the car's odometer is updated too. A customer with an account is also told in the app and invited to leave feedback. See Reviews & completed jobs.
Collected cannot be undone. The card closes with the banner Collected — the booking is completed.
Mark completed collects the card too
If someone presses Mark completed (in your Bookings history or in the Calendar) for a booking whose job card is still open, the booking completes and the card moves to Collected at the same moment, from whatever stage it was in. The card's History shows the move with the note "Booking marked completed." If you leave its odometer box empty, the reading taken at intake is used, just as with Collected. Either way, the booking and its card finish together.
Closing without work¶
Close without work… is available at every open stage. Tap it, choose a Reason, add a Note (optional) if it helps, and tap Close job.
| Reason | The card becomes |
|---|---|
| The customer didn't show | Closed — no-show |
| The customer declined the work | Closed — declined |
| The car was returned without work | Closed — returned |
The card shows a banner with the reason and your note. A closed card cannot be reopened or moved.
The booking is cancelled along with the card, and a customer with an account gets a "Visit closed" message in the app. In your Bookings table the booking then reads Cancelled; the job card keeps the real reason.
You can also write down a Diagnosis fee to record (AED, optional), up to AED 50,000. It is kept with the job only. Nothing charges it, no invoice is made, and it does not appear on the card afterwards.
If the customer cancels¶
If the customer cancels an accepted booking that has an open card, the card closes itself as Closed — declined. Its History shows the move made by Platform, with the note "Booking cancelled by the customer."
History¶
The History section at the bottom of the card lists when the card was opened, each move (Moved to …), and each estimate sent or answered, all with the date and time. A move the system made by itself is marked Platform. The history does not say which member of your staff made a move.
Intake photos¶
Before work starts, walk round the car and photograph any scratches, dents and the dashboard. In the card's Intake photos section:
- Take a photo opens the phone's rear camera. Choose from gallery picks a photo you already took.
- Large photos are shrunk on your phone or computer before they are sent, so they upload quickly.
- Photos need signal to upload. Nothing is saved offline to send later, and the screen tells you so. If an upload fails, try again once you have signal.
- A photo can be up to 8 MB, and a card holds up to 24 photos.
While the card is open you can add photos, or remove one: tap the bin button on its thumbnail (Remove photo), then confirm Remove this photo?. Once the card is closed, nobody at your business can add or remove its photos.
Some photos cannot be removed
You cannot remove a photo that was on the card when an answer to an estimate was recorded, even while the card is open. That covers an answer the customer gave from the link or the app, and one you recorded yourself with Record the customer's answer. The photo is part of the record of what was approved or declined.
Who can see them¶
Intake photos are private. They are never shown on your public page or anywhere people can browse to. They can be seen by:
- the account that manages your business;
- Markaba AI's own administrators;
- anyone who opens an estimate link you sent for that job, while the link still works. They see every photo on the card. The link needs no sign-in, so share it only with the customer;
- a customer with an account, while viewing an estimate for that job in their app.
Each photo is shown only within its own job.
What the customer is told¶
Customers with a Markaba AI account get a message in the app at these points:
| When the card… | The customer sees |
|---|---|
| first reaches On lift | Work has started on your car |
| first reaches Awaiting parts | Your car is waiting for parts |
| reaches Ready for pickup (every time) | Your car is ready |
| is closed without work | Visit closed |
| is marked Collected | Booking completed, with an invitation to leave feedback |
- The first two are sent once per card. A car going back on the lift after its parts arrive does not send a second message.
- Opening the card and moving it to Awaiting approval send nothing. The estimate you send has its own message. See Estimates.
- These messages appear in the app only, and they are written in English.
- Walk-in customers and customers who booked without an account are not told anything.
- A customer who cancels the booking themselves gets no message about the card closing.
"Longer than usual"¶
When an open card stays in one stage longer than that stage's limit, the Jobs list shows an amber line, such as "Awaiting parts: longer than usual (3 days)". The card shows an amber banner too.
| Stage | Flagged after |
|---|---|
| Checked in | 2 hours |
| On lift | 4 hours |
| Awaiting parts | 48 hours |
| Awaiting approval | 24 hours |
| Ready for pickup | 24 hours |
These are starting values and may change.
- The clock restarts whenever the card moves to another stage. Editing details or adding photos does not restart it.
- The time is shown in hours, and in days once it reaches 48 hours.
- The warning appears only on your own Jobs screens. Nobody is messaged about it, neither you nor the customer.
- Closed cards are never flagged.
Cards that need you come first¶
The Jobs list puts these cards at the top:
- the customer has approved or declined an estimate;
- the estimate link has run out (Estimate link out of date — send it again);
- the card has been in its stage longer than usual.
Within each group, the newest cards come first. Each card shows one reason: the customer's answer or an out-of-date estimate link first, then "longer than usual", then Waiting for the customer's answer. A card that is only waiting for an answer shows a grey line and stays where it is in the list. An answer stays flagged until you next move the card.
Estimates¶
Each card has an Estimates section where you write an estimate and tap Send to customer for their approval. Each time you send a new estimate (not when you use Send again (new link)), the card moves to Awaiting approval for you if that move is allowed from its current stage. The full guide is on Estimates.
Job cards and money¶
Job cards do not handle money. An estimate records what was agreed, and a diagnosis fee is only written down. Nothing is charged and no invoice is made.
Behaviour checked against Markaba AI v0.194.0 · reviewed 2026-10-06