We really appreciate the WO "Warning" button that gives the SA an alert that there's something to take care of before posting the WO to Invoice.

Soooo... can we customize our own Warning??

We find that we need a way to remind our SAs to double-check that they've added a "PA State Inspection Due in [MONTH]" Service Package to each work order before they cash the customer out.

There are so many things for the SAs to remember, but this is important. It's tough to implement a workflow change and get consistent results, so we're asking you for a little help from the computer. :)

Here's why we want this:

* PA has annual state inspections

* We take photos of EVERY vehicle's windshield, so we KNOW when the customer's state inspection is due next (even if they're not here for state inspection TODAY)

* We want to send email/text reminders to all of our PA customers reminding them that their state inspection... can be done now (10 months out), is almost due (11 months out), is due this month.

* If we know their future due date, we can still send the reminders! We could GREATLY increase the number of state inspection opportunities we get if we could send reminders to every PA customer rather than just the customers who came in for inspection last year.

* In the past we've allowed our state inspection service packages trigger the reminders. But this is insufficient and problematic. (1) There is not an inspection service package on their WO/Invoice if the inspection wasn't done today, and (2) see below.

Regarding those who came in for inspection last year:

* In PA, customers can come in up to 90 days before expiration to get their inspection done. Their new sticker reflects the same month they were supposed to be due originally; no penalty for coming in early. In other words, a customer can come in on May 1 for their July 31 inspection and still get a July sticker on their windshield.

* But stick with me here: If we just start sending out our reminders 10 months after their last inspection, we could end up sending reminders waaaayyyy too early. If a customer came in last year at the 10-month mark, and then we calculate their "due date" as the same month this year, we have a problem. We're sending them their 10-month reminder at the 8-month mark! We need a better system for managing these timelines.

Our solution was to create unique "Inspection-Due" service packages that could be manually added to the work order. Then we would set up our retention marketing to key off of those "month due" service packages instead of our state inspection service packages. But you can imagine: "manual task" = "hard to remember."

Hence, a request for an option to get the computer to remind us.

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Alternative request: A field on the WO or Vehicle Card that would let us collect the "state inspection due [month]" info in a way that Retention Marketing companies can map & identify... Of course, then we'd ask for a WO Warning to trigger if that field is not completed (not mandatory bc some customers are out of state).

Alternative Alternative Request: A CUSTOMIZABLE MESSAGE BOX that will POP-UP every time the "Post" or "Warnings" buttons are clicked on a WO. Ours would ask, "Did you remember to add a State-Inspection-Due service package?" Maybe other shops can think of other ways they could use a pop-up like that.