Leads, projects, the machine schedule and the billing behind them — one system, built for shops that don’t run on inventory, they run on jobs. Know what the waterjet is cutting today, where every project stands, and what’s finished but not yet billed.
Most shops track leads wherever they landed, price every job through one bottleneck, and learn what happened today by asking. Shop Manager makes it one system — the lead becomes the project, the project fills the machine lanes, and the day reports itself.
the inquiry that died in an inbox
Every lead lands in one funnel
Calls, emails and website requests arrive in one list, flagged until they’re quoted — so the job you never priced stops being the job you never won.
every quote waiting on one person
Quote per job, off your own rates
Projects break into jobs and each job prices from the shop’s own rate card — the paint quote goes out without waiting on the engine estimate, and winning one job never holds up another.
the schedule in one person’s head
Machine lanes anyone can read
The waterjet, the brake, the bays and the crane on one week grid. Give a job its expected start and finish and the schedule draws itself.
“what did the guys do today?”
The day reports itself
Crew hours and field updates with photos land on the job they belong to. The owner reads the day — job by job, with pictures — instead of chasing it.
The engagement is the project; the jobs are the scopes your crew actually works, numbered the way shops already talk — 1.0, 2.0 — each carrying its own dates, notes and money. Nothing is billed twice, and nothing done goes unbilled.
2.0 is engine removal: it has an owner, a window, notes and money of its own — and rolls up to the project with everything else.
Price and win jobs separately — the customer approves the paint work without holding up the fabrication.
Expected start and finish on every job paint the project timeline and the machine lanes — one entry, both views.
Every job walks a ladder — lead, quoted, approved, in progress, ready to bill, billed, paid. “Ready to bill” is a list on a screen.
Notes on a job become a status report or completion report the customer can actually read — sent straight from the record.
Bill job by job as work completes, or roll the project up — either way the invoice assembles from work already on the record.
Some shops never do the same job twice: name the job, date it, work it — the system keeps up. Others standardize: define your own job types once — 1.0 is always waterjet — and pick from a list, so the numbers mean the same thing on every project and the history starts teaching you what work actually pays. Start loose, tighten when you’re ready.
One forwarding rule sends a copy of every inquiry from your existing address into the funnel. Your website’s quote form posts straight in. Every lead carries where it came from — so you also learn which channel actually brings the work.
Every lead answered, every quote out the door, every machine scheduled, every finished hour billed.