thread Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

Travelingbags — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 21:30:09 GMT

We own/ run a store that does both Retail & Repair services.
Square has been great with the POS and Online store but as we continue to grow the repair side of our business we need to find some software that will integrate with Square...
DOes anyone out there know of anything? Have any Ideas...

Here are my must haves as far as integrations
+ Customer information
+ Invoicing through Square
+ Payments through Square

Things I would really desire to have:
+ ability for customer to be able to track status of the repair...

I'm not even sure what Square allows or is possible as far as integrations but I am searching..
I don't expect square to provide this, but as our society because more and more service base economy I would think someone out there could help. I am willing to be a guinea pig, tester whatever to get help make this happen !
This software exists in many levels of complexity but I see nothing to integrate and thus I would have to have two systems UGGH ! trying to avoid this for work flow and cost reasons.

Re: HELP! Repair Center Looking for Integrations

isabelle — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 21:23:12 GMT

Hey @Travelingbags! 💼

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community and welcome back ✨

Going to go ahead and lean on our Super Sellers for this one:

@alexandriak @AmyB1 @bagelboss @dasap1234 @DaveMellow @Dbw2048 @Donnie-M @GoGoGuest @GourmetOnWheels @HC_Charlie @JamesSandbar @jjgard @LocavoreStore @londontea @MAXSDELI @MichiganFarmsta @mooretoys @pessosices @pieous @porktaco @Ravenssong69 @ryanwanner @VanKalkerFarms @vinesandrushes

Hopefully they'll have some suggestions. If not - I'll circle back with what I came up with for recs on my end.

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

pessosices — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 21:33:49 GMT

Hey @Travelingbags

Any reason you're searching for an integration for your 3 must haves, when you can use Square Invoices & Customers & Payments?

Have you tried those included features yet?

As far as Repair Status, yes, unless there's an awesome work around that we can think of, you'd have to find an integration - but for the other 3 main points, Square's built in stuff should do the trick, unless there are features that you're missing?

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

Travelingbags — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 22:30:49 GMT

Those are just my needs for Integrations.... The Repair side software does much more like track statues of repair, parts used, and more all automated, most lso allow customers to check on their repair status and most will also send update automatically when status changes happen... for example a typical cycle muighjt invlove many steps,
Check in,
FCreat estimate
Send Estinmate
Estimate Approval
Order Parts
Start Repair
Repair Complete
Billed / Invoiced
Paid
Item Picked up / shipped

Right now I do this all manually and just invoice at the end in square... Lots of time to save if I can streamline the process, and when we have gone from taking in 3 repairs a day to nearly 15... it's getting critical...

Re: HELP! Repair Center Looking for Integrations

Travelingbags — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 22:31:02 GMT

Thank You...

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

Donnie-M — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 10:11:29 GMT

@Travelingbags The steps that you could look at automating would be creating an estimate sending estimate estimate approval. I know with square invoices you can send estimates for approval and even request deposits. What I would do as a work around is use the ability to update invoices and e-mail the customer. It is not real time tracking, but it would allow you to notify them somewhat. I would create items with 0.00 price where you create an proposal/estimate for the customer. 1st item would be "Check In" and put an item note with the date (this carries over to the invoice), 2nd I would send the estimate as the software does for approval, the customer approves, then the proposal is converted to invoice.

I would then have items for Order Parts, Start Repair, Repair Complete. Each time you add these zero dollar items to an invoice it will ask you if you want to e-mail the customer an updated invoice and you can just say yes. You still are keeping all of your tasks in one software program and as long as you or your techs are diligent about entering the 0.00 items and making the date/time note which takes 30 seconds the billing payment shipping would be a breeze.

It isn't maybe as perfect or as automated, but to a customer it would look really professional and integrated. I currently do some account billing daily and then add all of the tickets to an invoice and send this way. You get prompts, reminders, etc. Also you could quickly pull up any customer's invoice and see the status pretty quick by looking for those 0.00 items.

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

Minion — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 11:05:43 GMT

Posting this to follow, I looked around for something similar to your needs before joining up with Square. I'm more on the customization side of vehicle repair but I was looking into building an app of some sort for the exact process that you have described. At the time I couldn't justify the cost of the app/vs the customer using it etc. Your post has gotten me back to thinking about that process. I did a quick google search and RepairShopr seams to be integrated with square and looks to have all the features that you are looking for as for an all in one place, which I believe I will be looking into myself as well.

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

AmyB1 — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:48:14 GMT

Your three must haves can be found in Invoices on the Square Dashboard. And they have several options to chose from under settings.

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

Travelingbags — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:57:11 GMT

Yeah... No thanks... But Thank you for the idea

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

AmyB1 — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 17:16:15 GMT

I was thinking when I told them the same that since they need their email to do an invoice that they could set up a couple of time frames and have them ready to email to the customer.

Re: Repair Center Looking for Integration Suggestions

AmyB1 — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 17:19:15 GMT

Pretty much everything in that list can be done through Square Invoices. If you can not find a way in Square Invoices to update them it could be done through email or text. Those can usually be created a head of time and sent as needed.