Did you know that if you’re a Protractor customer you have a fantastic AutoServe1 feature at your disposal? This feature is designed to give your Protractor shop a real productivity boost.
It’s called Protractor Time Clock Interface. With it, your shop’s technicians will be able to sign in, and out of jobs with ease. AutoServe1 will send these events over to Protractor.
This essentially allows Protractor, and your shop management to track your technician’s activities. Shop owners and managers can create reports in Protractor to find out exactly how long techs worked for, and what they worked on.
Diving a little deeper, shops can have the option to have techs only clock in and out for attendance or have them clock in and out of various job activities.
This allows management to see a worker’s performance, and find ways to optimize their workforce. This can help you identify problem areas, and where training and learning opportunities can present themselves.
Setup
This is something that can be set up by the AutoServe1 Customer Success team. We have a Protractor integration portal and can have it done quickly.
Please note when you call be sure to let us know whether you want your techs to clock into each service, or only for the vehicle their working on. Please note this can only be done by AutoServe1 tech support.
How to clock in for attendance
When your technicians go to clock in, they will be able to see the time clock at the top right. Initially, they will be clocked out. To clock in, all they have to do is click the time clock button, then hit “Clock-in”. Once they have hit this button, they are good to go for their workday!
How to clock into an activity
Once your technicians are clocked in, they can then have the option to clock into specific activities or jobs.
All your team will have to do, is click on the time clock control button again. Here they will be able to select an activity that your shop owner or manager has setup in Protractor. For example, they can be things like lunch breaks, shop cleaning, opening, closing, waiting on parts.
At the end of their day, all they have to do is go back to the time clock control button and clock out.
What about work orders?
To clock into a specific job, such as working on a customer vehicle, all you have to do is select a vehicle to work on from the list of vehicles in your shop. After the tech selects a vehicle, they will be taken to the work order view.
Note if you do not have our Protractor Time Clock enabled, it is different. In this case, they would be taken to the inspection view. This allows your techs to select which job on the work order they wish to clock/work on.Should they need to do an inspection, they just have to click the inspection button at the top left of AutoServe1.
At this point all the tech has to do is start the timer to be tracked for the work they are starting. Time is tracked in 1/10’s of an hour and be found in the orange button next to the work order. When it’s time to stop the timer, the tech just needs to select the done button. It’s important to know that starting the timer for another job also stops the timer for the previous job the tech was working on. It does NOT automatically mark that job as “done” and the tech can restart the timer for any job.
Protractor Reporting
Service advisors will be able to track and see which jobs are in progress, and which jobs are complete thanks to technician time clocks.
Below we can see that the green job is done, and the blue job is in progress. Shop managers can also see reports of a technician’s activities.
RECAP:
Automatically pulls Activities defined in Protractor (e.g. “lunch”, “breaks”, etc). This allows techs to clock in and out of activities already defined, no additional setup required in AS1.
Techs can clock out of current jobs by clocking into the next job. This saves time and clicks, as techs don’t need to remember to clock out. They just need to remember to clock into the next job.
Shops can specify whether Tech must clock into each job or just in / out for the day. This gives shops flexibility for owners who may have different needs.
Individual job clocks are shown along with a running total of all jobs. This allows the Techs to track how long they have spent working on a vehicle, compared to the estimate. This can identify training opportunities and areas of improvement that would have otherwise gone unchecked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there an additional cost for this feature?
A: No, there is no additional cost. Go ahead and contact us and start tracking key data in Protractor today!
Q: How do I enable it?
A: Only an AutoServe1 admin can set this feature up for you. Connect with us today by calling 800-268-3437 or by emailing us at: help@autoserve1.com
Q: Can I enable it only for some techs and not others?
A: No, right now you can only set it up for ALL your techs or NONE of your techs.