Help & Guides

The Dealership Companion App (DCA) is a field-service operations platform built for equipment dealers. It covers the full workflow from quoting through to job completion, parts fulfilment, invoicing and financial reporting.

DCA consists of two applications that work together:

• Office Web Portal — used by office staff, managers and administrators to manage quotes, jobs, customers, parts, stock, invoicing and scheduling.
• Engineer Mobile App — used by field engineers to view assigned jobs, capture evidence (photos, signatures, readings), complete workflow steps and submit field reports.

Signing In

Navigate to your organisation's DCA URL and enter your email and password. If your organisation uses invite-based sign-up, you will receive an email invitation with a link to set your password.

Roles

DCA has the following user roles, each with different access levels:

• Owner — full access including organisation settings, user management and billing.
• Admin — full access except billing and ownership transfer.
• Manager — access to all operational features plus workflow builders and settings.
• Office — access to quotes, jobs, customers, parts, stock, scheduling and invoicing.
• Engineer — mobile-focused: sees assigned jobs, dashboard and schedule only.

The dashboard is the first screen you see after signing in. It provides a high-level overview of your organisation's activity.

KPI Cards

The top row shows key performance indicators: active jobs, quotes in progress, jobs awaiting review, and revenue figures. Each card is clickable and navigates to the relevant list view.

Activity Chart

The chart shows job and quote activity over the last 30 days, helping you spot trends in workload and sales pipeline.

Recent Activity

Below the chart, the recent activity feed shows the latest actions across the organisation — new quotes created, jobs submitted, invoices raised, and more.

The schedule view shows all engineer visits in a calendar layout. Use it to plan and manage field work.

Views

Switch between day, week and month views using the buttons in the top-right corner. Each view shows scheduled visits as colour-coded cards.

Engineer Filter

Use the engineer dropdown to filter the calendar to a specific engineer or view all engineers at once.

Unscheduled Jobs

The sidebar panel lists jobs that have been assigned to engineers but don't yet have a scheduled date. Drag them onto the calendar or click to schedule.

The quotes module manages your entire sales pipeline — from initial enquiry through to accepted orders ready for fulfilment.

Creating a Quote

Click New Quote to open the quote creation wizard. The wizard walks you through:

1. Select or create a customer (or enter a manual customer name).
2. Choose the quote type (Service, Repair, Parts, etc.).
3. Optionally select a machine from the customer's fleet or add a new one.
4. Enter contact details (name, phone, email).
5. Fill in intake fields: job title, priority, assigned engineers, target date, reported issue.

Adding Lines (Parts, Kits, Labour)

On the quote detail page, use the Add Line button to add:

• Parts — search the parts catalogue or enter a custom part. Quantity, unit price and cost are pulled from the catalogue.
• Kits — select a pre-built kit. All component parts are added as individual lines with their quantities expanded.
• Labour & Travel — enter hours/miles and the rate is applied from your pricing configuration.
• Extras — free-text line items such as carriage, disposal fees, or ad-hoc charges.

Preview & Inline Editing

The quote detail page shows a live preview of the quote document. All fields and line items are editable inline — click any value to edit it. Changes are saved automatically.

Issuing & Re-issuing

When a quote is ready to send to the customer, click Issue Quote. This:

• Assigns an issue number (increments with each re-issue).
• Records the issued date and locks the snapshot.
• Generates a PDF for download or email.

If you need to change an issued quote, edit the lines and click Re-issue. The issue number increments and the customer sees the updated version.

Email Draft

Click Email Draft to open your default mail client (Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) with a pre-drafted email. The recipient is pre-filled with the customer's email address, the subject includes the quote reference, and the body contains a summary with the total. You can review and edit everything — including changing the recipient (e.g. to an accounts department) — before sending. Attach the quote PDF manually using the separate PDF download button.

Pipeline Order

The quote pipeline tiles at the top of the quotes list follow the logical process order: Draft → Issued → Accepted stages → Fulfilment Created → Released → Lost. This makes it easy to see where quotes sit in the sales process at a glance.

Accepting a Quote

Once the customer confirms, click Accept and choose the acceptance method:

• Purchase Order (PO) — enter the customer's PO number. The order gate tracks PO receipt.
• Proforma — for prepayment scenarios. The order gate tracks payment receipt.

Creating a Job from a Quote

Once accepted and the order gate is satisfied, click Create Job. DCA will:

1. Create a new job with the quote type as the job/workflow type.
2. Carry across all intake details (title, priority, engineers, reported issue).
3. Create a customer record if a manual name was used.
4. Create a machine record from new-machine fields.
5. Copy accepted quote lines as job parts with pricing.
6. Assign listed engineers (first as lead).
7. Attach the published workflow snapshot for the job type.

Parts Fulfilment from a Quote

For quotes that require parts to be ordered/picked before a job starts, click Create Fulfilment. This creates a parts fulfilment order with the accepted quote lines, tracked through the pick/order/ receive/ready stages.

Marking Lost & Copying

If a customer declines, click Mark Lost to move the quote out of the active pipeline. You can also Copy any quote to create a new one with the same lines and details — useful for repeat work or revisions.

The customers section maintains your client database. Each customer can have addresses, machines (fleet), and a full activity history of quotes and jobs.

Customer Detail

Click any customer to see their detail page, which includes:

• Contact information and addresses.
• Machine fleet — all machines registered to this customer.
• Activity history — every quote and job linked to this customer.

Fleet Import

To bulk-add machines to a customer, use the Import Fleet button on the customer detail page. Upload a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel) with columns for model, serial number, fleet reference, and other machine fields. DCA validates and imports all rows in one batch.

The Machine Sales module is a dedicated sales pipeline for tracking new machine enquiries, cold-call outreach, and sold machines. It replaces the previous Excel-based workflow, making every machine enquiry individually filterable and reportable.

Enquiries Pipeline

The enquiries list is the main hub. At the top, pipeline cards show counts for each status — click any card to filter the list to that status. Below, the table shows every enquiry with its reference, customer, machines, status, assigned sales lead, quote reference and date.

Enquiry statuses:

• Enquiry — initial contact, not yet quoted.
• Quoted — a DCA quote has been created from this enquiry.
• Sent — quote has been sent to the customer.
• Sent (Revised) — a revised quote has been sent.
• Sold — the deal is closed and a sold machine record has been created.
• No Sale — the customer declined.
• Lost — the enquiry was lost to a competitor or abandoned.

Click New Enquiry to create one. Enter the customer name, phone, email, assigned sales lead and any notes. After creation, you are taken to the detail page to add machine lines.

Machine Lines & Configurations

Each enquiry can have multiple machine lines. This is the key improvement over the old Excel — instead of cramming "1X DX25Z-7 1X DX27Z-7" into a single cell, each machine is a separate, filterable record.

On the enquiry detail page, click Add Machine to add a line. Each line captures:

• Machine model — e.g. DX27Z-7, DX140LCR-7.
• Quantity — defaults to 1.
• Configuration — e.g. "rotation lines, quick hitch". This is what makes each enquiry truly filterable by spec.
• Notes — any additional detail for this line.

The enquiries list table shows a Machines column that combines the model and configuration — for example: DX27Z-7 (rotation lines), DX25Z-7.

Filtering & Search

The enquiries list provides three filter controls:

• Status filter — multi-select dropdown to show only enquiries at specific stages (Quoted, Sent, Sold, etc.).
• Machine filter — multi-select dropdown listing every machine model across all enquiries. Select one or more models to see only enquiries containing those machines.
• Configuration filter — multi-select dropdown listing every configuration. Filter by specific specs like "quick hitch" or "rotation lines".

The text search box searches across customer name, enquiry reference, machine models, assigned sales lead, phone and email.

Creating a DCA Quote

From the enquiry detail page, click Create DCA Quote to generate a formal quote in the DCA quoting system. This:

1. Creates a new quote of type "Machine Sales" with the customer details pre-filled.
2. Copies each machine line to the quote as a line item (e.g. "DX27Z-7 — rotation lines, quick hitch").
3. Links the enquiry to the quote — a "View Linked Quote" button appears on the enquiry.
4. Updates the enquiry status to "Quoted" (if it was still at "Enquiry").

From there, you can edit the quote lines, add pricing, issue the quote and follow the normal DCA quoting workflow.

Marking Sold

When a deal closes, click Mark as Sold on the enquiry detail page. A form captures the sale details:

• Serial number, equipment number and year.
• Net value, retail date and delivery date.
• Warranty start date and extended warranty terms.
• Dealer name, postcode, town/city and shipping address.

This creates a record in the Sold Machines database with a link back to the original enquiry. The enquiry status changes to "Sold" and the sold machine appears in the "Sold Machines" card at the bottom of the enquiry detail page.

Call Sheet

The call sheet is a log for cold-call outreach. Each entry records:

• Date and assigned sales rep.
• Company name, contact name and phone.
• Address.
• Machine interest (e.g. "MICRO, 3T, 14T").
• Outcome and notes.

Click New Entry to log a call, or click any row to edit an existing entry.

Sold Machines Database

The sold machines page is a comprehensive database of all completed sales. Each record captures the full sale lifecycle — machine details, customer information, financial data, warranty terms and delivery info.

Click View on any row to see the full detail page, which includes:

• Machine details — model, serial, equipment number, year.
• Sale information — customer, net value, retail date, delivery date, dealer, job segment.
• Customer contact — phone, email, postcode, town/city, shipping address.
• Warranty — start date and extended warranty terms.
• Linked enquiry — if the sale originated from an enquiry, a link back to it.
• Fleet machine — if the serial number matches a machine in your fleet, a link to its service history.

Click Add Sold Machine to manually add a record, or click any row to edit an existing one.

Sales Reports

The sales reports page provides analytics across all machine enquiries:

• Summary cards — total enquiries, sold, open and no-sale counts.
• Most enquired models — ranked table showing which machine models are most commonly enquired about, with bar charts for visual comparison.
• Most common configurations — ranked table showing which configurations (e.g. "rotation lines", "quick hitch") appear most often.
• Status funnel — count of enquiries at each pipeline stage.
• Sales lead performance — per-person breakdown showing total enquiries, quoted, sold and conversion rate.

Importing from Excel

If you have existing data in a spreadsheet, click Import on the enquiries list page to open the import wizard. Upload an Excel file (.xlsx) containing up to three sheets:

1. Enquiries — customer details, machines, status, quote references. The importer automatically splits multi-machine cells (e.g. "1X DX25Z-7 1X DX27Z-7") into individual machine lines.
2. Call Sheet — cold call records with company, contact, outcome.
3. Sold Machines — completed sales with serial numbers, warranty dates, financial data.

Each sheet can be imported independently. The importer deduplicates by quote reference (enquiries) and serial number (sold machines) to prevent double-imports.

Jobs are the core operational unit in DCA. A job tracks a piece of work from creation through field execution to invoicing.

Creating a Job

Jobs are typically created from accepted quotes (see Quotes section). You can also create standalone jobs by clicking New Job on the jobs list page. The New Job drawer lets you enter:

• Customer, machine, title, type and priority.
• Commercial basis and target date.
• Assigned engineer(s).
• Reported issue / scope.

When you select a customer, a Site address & contact section appears directly below the customer field. This is pre-filled from the customer's default delivery address. If the customer has multiple addresses, a dropdown lets you pick which one to use. All fields (address, postcode, contact name, phone, email) remain editable so you can adjust for a different site or contact.

Job Detail

The job detail page has multiple tabs and sections:

• Overview — job info, customer, machine, site address, status, linked quote.
• Workflow — the step-by-step workflow the engineer follows in the field.
• Assignments — which engineers are assigned and their scheduled visit dates.
• Parts — parts used or allocated to this job.
• Evidence — photos, signatures and other evidence captured in the field.
• History — audit trail of all actions taken on the job.

Assigning & Scheduling

In the Assignments tab, click Assign Engineer to add engineers to the job. Set each engineer's scheduled date to plan their visit. The first engineer assigned is automatically the lead.

Evidence Review

After an engineer submits a job, the office reviews the captured evidence (photos, signatures, readings). Each evidence item can be:

• Accepted — the evidence meets quality standards.
• Rejected — the engineer needs to re-capture or provide clarification.
• Waived — the evidence requirement is waived for this job.

Reviewing & Approving

Once all evidence is reviewed, use the Review Decision panel to approve or return the submission. Approving the review advances the job but does not finalise the service report — those are separate steps.

Finalising the Service Report

After review approval and all required evidence is accepted, click Finalise Service Report. This:

1. Locks the service report content.
2. Records the finalisation date.
3. Generates a branded PDF service report.
4. Advances the job lifecycle to the invoicing stage.

Commercial Review

The commercial review determines how a job is billed. Set the commercial status to:

• Chargeable — the customer will be invoiced.
• Warranty — covered by warranty, no customer charge.
• No Charge — goodwill or other non-chargeable reason.

The engineers page lists all field engineers in your organisation. From here you can create, edit and manage engineer profiles.

Each engineer profile includes their name, contact details and photo. Click New Engineer to add one, or click an existing engineer to edit their profile and upload a photo.

The parts catalogue is your centralised inventory of all parts your organisation works with. It stores part numbers, descriptions, pricing and stock information.

Creating & Editing Parts

Click New Part to add a part manually, or use the Import button to bulk-import from a spreadsheet. Each part has:

• Part number (unique identifier).
• Description.
• Purchase cost, dealer-net price, and list price.
• Current stock level.

Stock management tracks the current inventory levels for all parts. Use it to monitor availability, adjust stock counts and identify parts that need reordering.

Adjusting Stock

Click any part row to adjust its stock level. Enter the new quantity and an optional reason (e.g. "stock take correction"). The adjustment is recorded in the part's history.

Shelf Locations

The shelf locations panel (collapsed by default at the top of the stock page) lets you define named storage locations for your warehouse — bays, shelves, racks, etc. Click the accordion header to expand it.

• Click Add Location to create a new shelf location.
• Hover over a location card to reveal edit and delete buttons.
• Deleting a location automatically clears the location field on any parts that referenced it.
• Use Import from parts to backfill shelf locations from existing part location data.

Each part in the stock table has a Location column. Click the location cell on any row to assign or change a part's shelf location via a dropdown. Custom values from imports are preserved alongside the defined shelf locations.

Low Stock Filter

Use the Low Stock filter to show only parts that are below their reorder threshold. This helps you quickly identify what needs ordering.

Kits are pre-built collections of parts that are commonly used together. When you add a kit to a quote, all its component parts are expanded into individual line items.

Creating a Kit

Click New Kit to create a kit. Add component parts from the catalogue with their quantities. Kits can also have machine-specific variants — different part combinations for different machine models.

Workbook Import

For complex kits with many components, use the Import button to upload a workbook file (Excel/CSV) containing the kit definition and all component rows.

Parts fulfilment tracks the lifecycle of parts orders — from picking stock through ordering, receiving and readying for dispatch. It uses a kanban-style stage board.

Stages

• Pick — parts to be picked from stock.
• Order — parts to be ordered from suppliers.
• Receive — awaiting delivery from suppliers.
• Ready — all parts received and ready for dispatch or collection.

Each line item can be individually moved between stages. Use the action buttons on each line to advance it or mark it complete.

Sorting & Created Date

The fulfilment list defaults to newest first (by creation date). Click the Enquiry, Customer or Created column headers to sort by that field. Click again to reverse the sort direction.

Delivery Notes

Generate delivery notes for fulfilment orders that are being dispatched to the customer or site.

Invoice tracking manages the billing pipeline for completed jobs. It shows which jobs are ready for invoicing, which have been invoiced, and payment status.

Ready for Invoice

Jobs appear here when they are finalised, have a chargeable commercial status, and have valued parts/labour. Each row shows the job reference, customer and total (including VAT).

Xero Integration

If your organisation has connected Xero, invoices can be pushed directly to Xero with a single click. DCA syncs invoice status back so you can see when customers have paid.

The pricing page configures your organisation's default rates for labour, travel and other charges. These rates are applied automatically when adding lines to quotes and jobs.

Configurable Rates

• Labour rate — hourly rate for engineer time.
• Travel rate — per-hour or per-trip charge for travel time.
• Mileage rate — per-mile/km charge.
• Default carriage — standard delivery charge added to quotes.
• Parts markup — default percentage markup on cost price.
• VAT rate — the tax rate applied to totals.

The data export page lets you download your organisation's data in standard formats for reporting, backup or integration with other systems.

Available exports include:

• Jobs (CSV) — all job data with status, dates and totals.
• Quotes (CSV) — all quotes with line items.
• Parts (CSV) — the full parts catalogue.
• Customers (CSV) — customer records.
• Full backup (ZIP) — all of the above in a single download.

The settings area is available to owners, admins and managers. It covers organisation branding, team management and workflow configuration.

Org Branding

Upload your organisation's logo and dark-mode logo. Set your org code — a short uppercase code (e.g. "GOS") used in quote and job reference numbers. The code must be globally unique.

Job Workflow Builder

The workflow builder lets managers define the step-by-step workflows that engineers follow in the field. Each workflow type (Service, Repair, etc.) can have its own set of steps.

Each step can contain:

• Dynamic fields — text, number, checkbox, textarea inputs (required or optional).
• Evidence items — photos, signatures, documents (required or optional).

Publish a workflow version to make it active. New jobs automatically receive the latest published version. Existing jobs keep their original workflow snapshot (immutable once assigned).

Quote Workflow Builder

The quote workflow builder configures quote types and their lifecycle stages. Define what stages a quote passes through (Draft, Issued, Accepted, etc.) and what actions are available at each stage.

You can create new quote types, rename stages, toggle actions (create job, create fulfilment, mark lost), and skip stages that don't apply to certain quote types.

The profile page lets you manage your personal account settings: update your name, upload an avatar and change your password.

The DCA Engineer app is available for iOS and Android. Download it from the App Store or Google Play, then sign in with the same email and password you use for the web portal.

Organisation Selection

If you belong to multiple organisations, you'll be prompted to select which one to work in. You can switch organisations at any time from the profile screen.

The home screen shows a summary of your current day: today's assigned jobs, any rejection alerts, and a preview of your upcoming schedule.

Continue Card

If you have an in-progress job, a "Continue" card appears at the top so you can quickly resume where you left off.

Rejection Alerts

When the office rejects evidence or returns a submission, an alert badge appears on the home screen so you know to take action.

The My Tasks screen lists all jobs assigned to you. Filter by status:

• All — every assigned job.
• In Progress — jobs you've started but not yet submitted.
• Office Review — jobs submitted and awaiting office review.

Tap a job to see its full detail: customer and machine info, the assigned workflow, evidence status and parts list.

The workflow progress bar at the top shows which steps are complete, in progress or pending. Tap Start or Continue to open the workflow.

The workflow is the step-by-step process an engineer follows to complete a job. Each step is defined by the office in the workflow builder and may contain fields, evidence requirements or both.

GPS & Arrival

When you arrive at site, the app captures your GPS location automatically. This is recorded as proof of attendance on the service report.

Dynamic Fields

Workflow steps may include text inputs, number fields, checkboxes and text areas. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*) and must be completed before submission.

Photos & Evidence

Tap the camera button to capture photos directly or select from your gallery. Each photo is tagged with the step and evidence item it belongs to. Required evidence items must be completed before submission.

Customer Signature

At the end of the workflow, capture the customer's signature on the device screen. The signature is embedded in the service report PDF.

Submitting the Job

Once all required fields and evidence are complete, tap Submit. The app validates that all requirements are met, then uploads the submission to the office for review.

The mobile schedule shows your upcoming visits in a weekly timeline. Swipe left/right to navigate between weeks. Each day shows your scheduled jobs with times and customer names.

Tap any scheduled visit to jump to that job's detail.

The statistics screen gives you a personal performance summary:

• Today's tasks — completed vs remaining.
• Overdue jobs — jobs past their target date.
• Weekly summary — jobs completed this week.
• Completion rate — your submission success rate.

From the profile screen you can update your name, upload a profile photo, change your password, switch organisations or sign out.

The DCA engineer app is built for offline-first operation. Here's how it works:

How Offline Sync Works

1. When online, the app downloads your assigned jobs and workflow data.
2. Changes you make (field values, photos, signatures) are saved locally.
3. When offline, you can continue working — all data is stored on-device.
4. When connectivity returns, the outbox queue automatically syncs changes to the server.
5. Conflicts are resolved using idempotency keys to prevent duplicates.

Pending Badges

When there are unsynced changes, a badge appears on the relevant job and on the app tab bar. This tells you changes are queued for upload.

Dead-Letter Handling

If a sync attempt fails repeatedly (e.g. a server-side validation error), the change is moved to a dead-letter queue. You'll see an alert and can retry or discard the failed action.