Swapping in inventory in a work order

Step 1: Setting the Price on Your Menu Service

Open Menu Services and select the menu service you want to price, or create a new one. Enter the sell price for each line on the service. For example, a front brake package might have front brake pads at a sell price of $80.95 and front brake pad labor at $109.00, which gives you a $189.95 package price. Click Save. This is the price the work order will use when a service writer adds the menu service to a job, and it does not change based on which specific part gets installed.

Open the work order for the vehicle and click Add Service, then select your menu service. The line items and the prices you set in Menu Services carry over onto the work order — for the front brake package above, you'll see the $80.95 part line and the $109.00 labor line, for a $189.95 package price. At this point no specific part from your inventory is attached to the service yet; the part line is holding your package price.

On the part line of the menu service, click Swap to pull in the actual part you're installing from inventory, and search for the part by name or number. The swap panel shows the fuller inventory view rather than a condensed list, so you can check the details on a part before you bring it onto the job. Before you confirm the swap, look at the Use inventory sell price when swapping toggle.

If you leave the toggle on, the part's inventory sell price replaces your menu service price on the work order. This is the default.

If you turn the toggle off, your menu service price stays exactly as you set it — $80.95 on the front brake package example — while the part you selected is still attached to the line and its cost still comes over from inventory. Turn the toggle off any time you sell a service at a set package price and don't want that price changing based on which part gets installed.

When you swap a part in with the Use inventory sell price when swapping toggle turned off, the sell price on the work order stays at your menu service price and the system continues to track the cost recorded in inventory for the part you selected. Because both numbers are kept, gross profit on the job reflects what you actually paid for the part. Your service writer doesn't need to look up the package price and type it back in, which is where set package prices usually get lost.

You can now sell menu services at a set package price, swap in whichever part the vehicle needs, and keep both your price and your true part cost intact. The toggle is set per swap, so you can hold the package price on the services that are priced as packages and let the inventory sell price come through on everything else.