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Send an estimate for approval and read the answer

Make an approval link for an estimate, email it to the customer, and see which lines they approved or declined, with their signature record.

For
Service advisorOwnerTechnician
Hosting
Any hosting
Devices
All devices
Business
Repair shop

Checked against Pop Dispatch 0.1.0

The customer opens a link on their phone, sees your estimate in your name, logo and colors, approves or declines each line, types their name as a signature and sends. You see the answer on the order at once, with a record of when and from where it came.

Before you start #

  • You need the owner, manager, advisor or technician role.
  • Save your public base address in settings, so the link works from outside your office.
  • To email the link, save your office mail settings (see the mail settings in dispatch). Without them the email stays held for you to send.
  • The order needs at least one line still waiting for an answer.

Steps #

  1. Make the approval link for the estimate. Ask to email it, or copy the link and send it yourself. A new link replaces any open one.
  2. The customer opens the link. The page lists each line with its price, an Approve choice and a Decline choice, the estimate total, a box for their full name and a tick box that confirms the typed name is their signature.
  3. The customer sends their answer. Every line needs a choice, a name and the tick. The page tells them what is missing and keeps what they typed.
  4. Read the result on the order. Approved and declined lines show on each line. The order's approval status becomes approved when at least one line is approved, and declined when all are declined. The approval shows "link" as how it was given, with the signer's name and address.
  5. Open the link history to see each step: created, emailed, opened, answered or turned away, with times, network addresses and devices.
  6. Stop a link at any time. A stopped, expired or answered link takes no further answers.
Technical details
  • Staff routes: POST /shop/orders/:id/approval-link (add send_email and optionally to_email), GET for the history, DELETE to stop open links. They need the Shop group of roles.
  • Customer page: GET /approve/:token and POST /approve/:token. No sign-in. The token is 32 hexadecimal characters; only its hash is stored. A link works for 14 days and takes one answer.
  • The answer writes each line's decision, the order's approval fields, a signature record (time, address, device, a hash of the lines shown and a hash of the signature) and entries in the order history and audit log.
  • The page uses no script and works at phone width with large touch targets.
  • Text messages wait for a messaging connector.

If something goes wrong #

  • "Nothing is waiting for approval": add lines first, or the customer has already answered every line.
  • "Set the public base address in settings first": the email would hold a link that opens only inside the office.
  • The customer sees "This link has expired" or "replaced or stopped": make a new link.
  • The email shows as held: the office mail host has no value yet. Save it, then send the link again.