> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.tiretutor.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Customer authorizations
> Choose how strictly your shop records what a customer approves, and what that changes on the estimate and the work order.
Each shop picks one setting. It decides whether staff record what the customer approved, and which work reaches the invoice.
Four settings below carry a walkthrough. Each video repeats what the text beside it already covers, so you never need sound or picture to follow this page.
The screens come from a demo shop that has not finished its payment setup. A red **Payment setup needs attention** banner sits above some of them, and has nothing to do with authorizations. Their order numbers start with **STAGING-**, which the demo system adds. Your own order numbers do not carry it.
## Before you start
You need the **Admin** permission for this shop to change the setting. Admin for the dealer alone is not enough: the form opens, and TireTutor then refuses **Save**.
Everyone else sees the setting but cannot change it. TireTutor shows **Only a dealer or store admin can change this setting.**
The setting changes what staff see next time they open an estimate. It does not change an estimate that carries a sealed authorization.
Customers do not answer for themselves. The public estimate page carries no approve or decline control, so staff record every answer.
## Compare the settings
Go to **Settings** › **Organization** › **Customer Authorizations**.
Answer **How should this store handle customer authorizations?**
Select **Save**.
The setting applies to that shop only. A dealer with several shops sets each one separately.
| Setting | Work the customer declined | Work nobody asked about | Mileage before completing |
| - | - | - | - |
| [Don't ask](#dont-ask) | Off the invoice, when staff record it | On the invoice | Not required |
| [Record what the customer declines](#record-what-the-customer-declines) | Off the invoice | On the invoice | Not required |
| [Approval before billing](#approval-before-billing) | Off the invoice | Off the invoice | Not required |
| [Approval before billing, California BAR](#approval-before-billing-california-bar) | Off the invoice | Off the invoice | Required |
Only **Don't ask** changes whether TireTutor prompts. The other three all prompt; they differ in what reaches the invoice.
A new shop starts on **Record what the customer declines**.
## Record an authorization
On every setting except **Don't ask**, staff record the customer's answer from the estimate or the work order.
Select **Approve** on a draft estimate.
The dialog asks **What did the customer approve?** Select **Approve** or **Decline** beside each service. Select **Approve all** to approve every service at once.
Select **Continue**.
The dialog asks **How did they approve it?** Choose **In person**, **Phone call**, **Text message**, or **Email**. Then answer **When did they approve it?**
Select **Save authorization**.
TireTutor asks **Start the work order?** Select **Convert to work order** to turn the approved work into a job, or **Not now** to stay on the estimate.
The dialog then shows **Work order created**. Select **View work order** to open the job, or **Close** to stay on the estimate.
A service left on **Pending** has no answer recorded. What happens to it depends on the setting.
**To correct an answer, select the chip beside the service.** It reopens the dialog. TireTutor keeps the earlier record and seals a new one over it, so the history stays intact.
**TireTutor turns the prices in this dialog on per dealer, and leaves them off to begin with.** The price below each service, and the authorized amount it totals, reach a shop only once TireTutor turns them on for that dealer. Until then the same dialog lists the services without money beside them. Ask support to turn them on.
## What the printed documents show
Withheld work does not drop off the paperwork. The printed work order and
the printed invoice each fence it into its own block. The technician sees
what not to touch. The customer sees what the shop offered.
There are two blocks. Which one appears depends on why the work is
withheld.
| Detail | Work the customer declined | Work nobody asked about |
| - | - | - |
| Heading | Declined by customer — do not perform | Do not perform until approved |
| Border | Solid | Dashed |
| Signature line | Yes | No |
| Appears on | Any setting, once staff record a decline | Approval before billing, and California BAR |
The border carries the difference on a black and white printout, where
the two blocks otherwise look alike.
Both blocks follow the sealed record, not the setting the shop is on
today. An order sealed under an older setting keeps the blocks it was
sealed with.
### Work the customer declined
The block reads **Declined by customer — do not perform**, above this
line:
> The customer was offered this work and declined it. Putting it back on
> the job needs a new customer authorization.
It ends with its own signature line. The document reads **I decline the
work listed above**, and labels the rule beneath **Decline**, beside a
**Date**.
The customer signs it. The shop keeps that page as its record that it
offered the work.
### Work nobody asked about
The block reads **Do not perform until approved**, above the line "The
customer has not approved this work, so it is not on the bill. Performing
it needs their approval first."
This block carries no signature line. Nobody has told the shop anything
to sign for.
### What the invoice adds
The printed work order gives each withheld service its hours or quantity,
and nothing else. It carries no **DONE** column for that work, so nobody
can tick it off.
The printed invoice adds **PRICE** and **SUBTOTAL**, struck through. The
customer sees what the work would have cost. Neither figure reaches the
order total.
## Don't ask
This is the quiet version of **Record what the customer declines**. Staff can still record an authorization, but TireTutor stops asking for one.
A service nobody answered for shows no **Pending** chip, so an order stays clean at a shop that records approvals only now and then.
Staff can still record one when a customer volunteers an answer. **More Options** on the order carries a **Record customer authorization** item, which opens the same dialog. The item sits on a draft estimate and on a work order in progress, once the order carries at least one service. An order that already carries a record still shows it, and each recorded verdict keeps its chip. Work the customer declined still drops off the invoice.
Select **Approve** on an estimate and TireTutor converts it to a work order straight away, without asking first. The **Approve** button then becomes **View Work Order**.
Choose this setting when the shop wants the record available but not the prompt.
## Record what the customer declines
This is the setting a new shop starts on.
Work the customer turned down stays off the invoice. Work nobody asked them about is billable.
On the estimate, an approved service keeps an **Approved** chip. A declined one moves into a **Declined by customer — do not perform** section, struck through and marked **Rejected by customer**. The subtotal, fees, and tax all follow the answers.
The work order repeats the split on screen, so whoever performs the job sees what not to touch. The printed copy fences it — see [What the printed documents show](#what-the-printed-documents-show).
Choose this setting when the shop wants a record of refusals, and treats silence as permission.
## Approval before billing
Everything from **Record what the customer declines**, and one addition: work the customer never answered stays off the invoice too.
That closes the gap where a service nobody raised with the customer reaches the bill by accident. A service left on **Pending** is withheld exactly as a declined one is.
The estimate and the work order look the same as on the previous setting. The difference is in the total.
Choose this setting when the shop bills only what it can show the customer agreed to.
## Approval before billing, California BAR
Everything from **Approval before billing**, and two additions.
**Mileage In and Mileage Out are required.** Staff cannot complete a work order until they record both readings on the vehicle. TireTutor blocks completion and shows **Mileage In and Mileage Out are required before completing this work order.**
TireTutor stops asking on two orders that have no vehicle to read: an order with no vehicle on it, and a delivery order. It still refuses to complete either one until both readings exist. Each one gets out a different way — see [When it does not work](#when-it-does-not-work).
**TireTutor discloses the authorized amount.** The dialog totals the services the customer approved, wherever TireTutor has turned the prices on for that dealer. The printed invoice and the printed estimate carry that disclosure. The printed work order does not.
The authorized amount covers the approved work only. TireTutor adds shop fees to the order total, so they sit outside it.
**The work order shows what moved after the customer agreed.** The Payment Summary carries an **Authorized total** row. Open it to see the change snapshot.
The snapshot lists every service, the customer's decision on it, and whether it has moved since. TireTutor groups later additions under **Added since authorization** and marks them **Not authorized**.
The **Authorized total** sums the approved services only. The line under it repeats that taxes and fees sit outside that figure.
**Settings** opens the authorization rules in a new tab, so the order stays where it is.
Choose this setting when the shop is subject to the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.
## When it does not work
**The work order stays In Progress after the customer has paid.** On **Approval before billing, California BAR**, TireTutor takes the payment and still refuses to complete the job while a reading is missing. Record **Mileage In** and **Mileage Out** on the vehicle. The work order then completes. To reach a job that has already closed, see [Reopening work orders](/dealers/pos/reopening-work-orders).
**The message asks for a VIN as well.** A shop connected to CARFAX sees **VIN, Mileage In, and Mileage Out are required before completing this work order.** Record the VIN on the vehicle alongside both readings.
**A reading of 0 does not count.** TireTutor treats zero as no reading at all, and asks again. Record the reading as it shows on the vehicle.
**The order has no vehicle on it.** A work order with no vehicle cannot take a reading, so a California BAR shop cannot complete it. Add a vehicle to the order. Staff can then record both readings against it.
**A delivery order does not complete.** A California BAR shop needs both readings on a delivery order too, and TireTutor never asks for them. Where the order carries a vehicle, record them as usual. Where it carries none, and the order takes no vehicle, contact support: the job cannot close on its own.
## Where to go next
Email or text a read-only estimate to a customer.
Understand how estimates, work orders, and payments fit together.
### Work nobody asked about
The block reads **Do not perform until approved**, above the line "The
customer has not approved this work, so it is not on the bill. Performing
it needs their approval first."
This block carries no signature line. Nobody has told the shop anything
to sign for.
### What the invoice adds
The printed work order gives each withheld service its hours or quantity,
and nothing else. It carries no **DONE** column for that work, so nobody
can tick it off.
The printed invoice adds **PRICE** and **SUBTOTAL**, struck through. The
customer sees what the work would have cost. Neither figure reaches the
order total.
## Don't ask
This is the quiet version of **Record what the customer declines**. Staff can still record an authorization, but TireTutor stops asking for one.
A service nobody answered for shows no **Pending** chip, so an order stays clean at a shop that records approvals only now and then.
Staff can still record one when a customer volunteers an answer. **More Options** on the order carries a **Record customer authorization** item, which opens the same dialog. The item sits on a draft estimate and on a work order in progress, once the order carries at least one service. An order that already carries a record still shows it, and each recorded verdict keeps its chip. Work the customer declined still drops off the invoice.
Select **Approve** on an estimate and TireTutor converts it to a work order straight away, without asking first. The **Approve** button then becomes **View Work Order**.
Choose this setting when the shop wants the record available but not the prompt.
## Record what the customer declines
This is the setting a new shop starts on.
Work the customer turned down stays off the invoice. Work nobody asked them about is billable.
On the estimate, an approved service keeps an **Approved** chip. A declined one moves into a **Declined by customer — do not perform** section, struck through and marked **Rejected by customer**. The subtotal, fees, and tax all follow the answers.
The work order repeats the split on screen, so whoever performs the job sees what not to touch. The printed copy fences it — see [What the printed documents show](#what-the-printed-documents-show).
Choose this setting when the shop wants a record of refusals, and treats silence as permission.
## Approval before billing
Everything from **Record what the customer declines**, and one addition: work the customer never answered stays off the invoice too.
That closes the gap where a service nobody raised with the customer reaches the bill by accident. A service left on **Pending** is withheld exactly as a declined one is.
The estimate and the work order look the same as on the previous setting. The difference is in the total.
Choose this setting when the shop bills only what it can show the customer agreed to.
## Approval before billing, California BAR
Everything from **Approval before billing**, and two additions.
**Mileage In and Mileage Out are required.** Staff cannot complete a work order until they record both readings on the vehicle. TireTutor blocks completion and shows **Mileage In and Mileage Out are required before completing this work order.**
TireTutor stops asking on two orders that have no vehicle to read: an order with no vehicle on it, and a delivery order. It still refuses to complete either one until both readings exist. Each one gets out a different way — see [When it does not work](#when-it-does-not-work).
**TireTutor discloses the authorized amount.** The dialog totals the services the customer approved, wherever TireTutor has turned the prices on for that dealer. The printed invoice and the printed estimate carry that disclosure. The printed work order does not.
The authorized amount covers the approved work only. TireTutor adds shop fees to the order total, so they sit outside it.
**The work order shows what moved after the customer agreed.** The Payment Summary carries an **Authorized total** row. Open it to see the change snapshot.
The snapshot lists every service, the customer's decision on it, and whether it has moved since. TireTutor groups later additions under **Added since authorization** and marks them **Not authorized**.
The **Authorized total** sums the approved services only. The line under it repeats that taxes and fees sit outside that figure.
**Settings** opens the authorization rules in a new tab, so the order stays where it is.
Choose this setting when the shop is subject to the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.
## When it does not work
**The work order stays In Progress after the customer has paid.** On **Approval before billing, California BAR**, TireTutor takes the payment and still refuses to complete the job while a reading is missing. Record **Mileage In** and **Mileage Out** on the vehicle. The work order then completes. To reach a job that has already closed, see [Reopening work orders](/dealers/pos/reopening-work-orders).
**The message asks for a VIN as well.** A shop connected to CARFAX sees **VIN, Mileage In, and Mileage Out are required before completing this work order.** Record the VIN on the vehicle alongside both readings.
**A reading of 0 does not count.** TireTutor treats zero as no reading at all, and asks again. Record the reading as it shows on the vehicle.
**The order has no vehicle on it.** A work order with no vehicle cannot take a reading, so a California BAR shop cannot complete it. Add a vehicle to the order. Staff can then record both readings against it.
**A delivery order does not complete.** A California BAR shop needs both readings on a delivery order too, and TireTutor never asks for them. Where the order carries a vehicle, record them as usual. Where it carries none, and the order takes no vehicle, contact support: the job cannot close on its own.
## Where to go next