Repair intake form

The intake form is the only document a customer takes away after handing over their device. What it says decides how a dispute at pickup ends. Below is what a job sheet must contain, and how ServiceCenterSoft prints it.

What the form is actually for

Formally it confirms that you have the device. In practice it does three jobs, and all three are only remembered when something has gone wrong.

• Record the condition before the repair. Was the scratch on the lid there before, or did it happen here? Two weeks later nobody will answer that from memory.
• Record what actually came in. Remote, cable, shelf, SIM card, case. Customers usually remember bringing more.
• Record what was agreed. The due date, the estimate, and what happens if the repair turns out to cost more than expected.

Everything else — number, date, signature — exists so those three things can be produced when needed.

What a job sheet must contain

Check your own form against this list. Every item on it is the result of somebody's real dispute.

• Number and intake date. The number must run continuously, with no "#5" twice in a year.
• Who took it in. The name of the person at the desk: in a month the questions go to them.
• Customer details: name, phone, address if relevant. The phone is essential: without it, a device nobody collects becomes your problem.
• What the device is: type, brand, model and serial number or IMEI. The serial number is the key field: only it proves the device handed back is the same one.
• The reported fault — in the customer's words, not your diagnosis. "Won't turn on" and "power controller burnt out" are different things, and at the counter you only know the first.
• Condition. Scratches, chips, dents, cracks, signs of liquid, signs of a previous repair.
• Contents. What arrived with the device and what you are giving back.
• Due date — either a real date, or an honest "diagnosis by the such-and-such".
• The estimate and the rule: up to what amount you proceed without asking, and from what amount you call.
• Storage terms — how long the device sits after it is ready, and what happens then.
• Warranty on the work — how long, and what exactly it covers.
• The customer's signature confirming they have read the condition description and agree with it.

The last point matters most. A job sheet without the customer's signature is a note to yourself, not a document.

Until you print job sheets from software, here is a blank form with exactly these twelve points: fields for condition and accessories, timing, the price limit without approval, the customer’s signature and a collection slip at the bottom. Print as many as you like; write in or stamp the workshop’s name and address.

How it prints from the software

The front desk fills in one form, presses print, and the job sheet comes out on a plain A4 sheet with everything listed above. Nothing is typed twice: all the fields were entered at intake.

Over thirty values are substituted into the form: number and dates, customer with phone, device with serial number, reported fault, condition, contents, repair type, due date, price, the names of the front desk person and the technician, branch details. A placeholder you did not use simply disappears — the customer will not be handed an empty "{model}".

The sheet's dimensions are set in millimetres, so it lands the same way on Windows and on macOS. On a phone the same document simply reads on screen.

The estimated price comes from your price list, not from thin air

The form has an "Estimated price" line, and the worst thing to put in it is a number guessed at the counter. At intake the front desk chooses how to price the job: from the device price list — the repair price from your list; diagnostics only — when the customer still has to decide whether to repair; or a custom price for a particular case. As soon as the device type is chosen, both list prices — repair and diagnostics — are shown next to it, so the figure can be quoted without leaving the customer. For a warranty repair the price comes from the brand's price list.

That amount is fixed on the job. If you raise prices in the list tomorrow, devices already booked in are not repriced: the customer gets what was promised at intake.

And when the repair turns out dearer once the device is open, you do not have to phone and persuade: the estimate goes to the customer as a link by email or Telegram, and they press "I agree" or "I decline" themselves. The answer and its date stay on the job — the same "price limit without approval", only written down rather than said over the phone.

You edit the form yourself

The form is not a file baked into the software but a template in the "Print forms" section. You change anything in it: your logo, your field order, your wording on warranty and storage, the small print at the bottom. The list of available placeholders sits next to the field so you do not have to guess names.

That matters more than it sounds: everyone's rules differ — some take a deposit for a part, some refuse devices without a charger, some give 30 days of warranty and others 90. There is no universal form, only your own.

Two locations, one template

Address, phone, email and opening hours come from the branch that took the device in. So two workshops in different districts print their own correct details from a single template — no need to keep two Word files and mix them up.

Document language, separate from the interface

The language of the job sheet is its own setting, unrelated to the language your staff work in. A service opened by Ukrainians abroad keeps its records in Ukrainian or Russian while printing for the customer in German or English. The same applies to ready-for-pickup emails.

The completion certificate

The second document prints through the same mechanism and from the same job. At its heart is the estimate as a table: the base work on the first line, then lines of "what was done — quantity — price — amount" and the total. Below the table come the work log the technician keeps as the repair goes along, and recommendations for the customer. Nothing has to be recalled at the end: the certificate is built from what is already recorded on the job.

At the bottom is "Amount due", and it is not the whole sum but the balance. If the customer left a prepayment for a part, it is recorded as a payment on the job on the day of intake, and at pickup the certificate shows exactly what is left to pay.

For warranty repairs the certificate is the document the manufacturer pays against, so its form is usually adapted to a specific brand's requirements.

What the software does not do

• No on-screen signature. The customer signs a paper form; signing with a finger on a tablet is not possible.
• The job sheet itself is not sent to a messenger. The customer receives a ready-for-pickup email and Telegram message, and the estimate for approval as a link; the job sheet is print only.
• No ready receipt-printer template. The standard form is designed for A4, but you edit the template yourself and a narrow roll version can be built.

What not to put on the form

Two common mistakes that make a form worse.

Copying the law into it. Half a page of legal text in small print goes unread, and in a dispute what works is not the volume of text but the specific description of the device's condition.

Writing a diagnosis instead of a complaint. "Replace the screen" in the fault field is already a decision. If it turns out after opening the device that the screen was not the problem, you will have to explain why the form says otherwise.

What you get

• A job sheet printed in a minute from data already entered at intake.
• A description of condition and contents with the customer's signature under it.
• An estimated price from your price list that does not change when the list does.
• Your own form with your logo, your terms and your warranty.
• The correct details for each branch from one template.
• A document in the customer's language rather than your staff's.
• A completion certificate with the estimate line by line and the amount due after any prepayment.

What it costs

Printing and editing forms are part of the subscription — there is nothing extra to pay.

You can see the form in action in the demo. Related pages: repair workflow and phone repair shop software.

Frequently asked questions