Customer Approvals: Getting Started

Article 1.1: Customer Approvals Overview

Customer Approvals allows you to create digital estimates, share them with your customers via a secure link, and receive approvals, rejections, and feedback in real time — all without your customer needing an EBIS account.

What You Can Do with Customer Approvals

With Customer Approvals, you can:

• Build an estimate from your work order line items and generate a shareable link
• Send that link to your customer via email, text, or any method you prefer
• Your customer opens the link on any device (phone, tablet, or computer), verifies their identity with a one-time passcode, and can approve or reject individual line items
• Your customer can also send messages on specific line items to ask questions or provide feedback
• Approval and rejection statuses flow back into EBIS in real time — approved items immediately unlock for technician time tracking and parts ordering

How It Fits into Your Workflow

Customer Approvals lives within the work order as a dedicated tab. It works with both Quotes and Work Orders. The typical flow is:

1. Build your work order and add line items as usual
2. Use the Customer Approvals tab to review and stage items before sending them to the customer
3. Generate an estimate link and send it to your customer
4. Your customer reviews, approves or rejects items, and submits
5. Statuses update in EBIS automatically

This process is iterative — as technicians discover new findings during an inspection, you can send additional estimate links for just the new items. Each new estimate includes a Previous History section so your customer always has the full picture.

Key Concepts

Internal staging workflow: Items added to the work order are not visible to the customer until you explicitly move them through the staging process and send an estimate. This gives your team time to review, add estimates, attach photos, and clean up write-ups before anything reaches the customer.

One-time passcode (OTP) access: Your customers do not need an EBIS account. When they open the estimate link, they verify their identity with a 6-digit code sent to their email address. No passwords, no account creation.

Line-item granularity: Customers approve or reject individual items, not the entire estimate. This means you can proceed with approved work immediately, even if some items are still pending or rejected.

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Article 1.2: Setting Up Customer Approvals

Before your team can start using Customer Approvals, there are a few configuration steps to complete.

Step 1: Configure User Profile Permissions

Where: Config → User Profiles → [Profile Name] → Access Levels → Portal

There are five permissions that control access to Customer Approvals features. Enable the ones appropriate for each user profile:

• Set Portal Item Internal Status — Allows the user to change a portal item's status to internal statuses (Internal: New, Internal: Review, Internal: Ready to Send). Enable this for anyone who will be part of the staging and review workflow.

• Set Portal Item All Statuses — Allows the user to change a portal item's status to any status, including customer-facing statuses (Customer: Sent for Approval, Customer: Needs Review, Customer: Approved, Customer: Rejected). This is useful for administrators who may need to manually adjust a status — for example, if a customer accidentally rejects an item.

• Show/Hide Media on Portal Estimate — Allows the user to toggle photo visibility on the customer-facing estimate. When enabled, the user can use the eyeball icon on each image in the item's Media tab to control whether it appears on the estimate.

• Allow Generation of Portal Estimate — Allows the user to click the Preview & Send button and go through the estimate generation process. Without this permission, the user can view the Customer Approvals tab but cannot create or send estimates.

• Manage Customer Portal Estimate Links — Allows the user to delete estimate links from the Customer Preview tab. This is important if a link needs to be revoked — for example, if it was sent to the wrong email address.

• Recommended setup: For most shops, enable "Set Portal Item Internal Status" for all users involved in the workflow, and "Allow Generation of Portal Estimate" for lead technicians, CSRs, or anyone responsible for sending estimates to customers. Reserve "Set Portal Item All Statuses" and "Manage Customer Portal Estimate Links" for administrators.

 

Step 2: Configure City-Level Portal Settings

Where: Config → Cities → [City Name] → Options → Work Orders → Portal

These settings control what information appears on the customer-facing estimate. Review each one and configure based on your shop's preferences.

Display / Hiding options:

• Hide flat or N/C wording on flat rate items — On flat rate or no-charge items, replaces "Flat" or "N/C" under estimated hours with a dash.
• Hide additional charges if blank — If there are no additional charges, hides the Additional Charges line from the estimate totals.
• Hide list of taxable items at the bottom of estimate — Removes the taxable items breakdown from the bottom of the estimate.
• Never Show Parts — Hides all part numbers and descriptions from the estimate. Dollar totals still display.
• Hide Misc Charge Summary — Hides the detailed breakdown of miscellaneous charges.

Content visibility options:

• Show corrective action — Displays the Corrective Action field from each work order line item on the estimate.
• Show Discount Off Retail — If you use a parts discount percentage, this shows the "% off retail" in the part description on the estimate.
• Show Item Notes — Displays item notes on the estimate for all items. Note: You can also control this per item using the "Always Show Notes" toggle on individual line items.
• Always show OSR Vendor on portal preview — Displays the outside repair vendor on the estimate. Off by default.

Tax and financial display options:

• Show tax break down — Breaks out individual tax lines at the bottom of the estimate.
• Rename Portal Estimate Tax — Lets you customize the label for the tax line on the estimate (e.g., change "Estimated Tax" to your preferred wording).
• Rename Portal Estimate ACF — Lets you customize the label for the ACF (Airport Concession Fee) line on the estimate.
• Combine Tax + ACF in totals — Combines tax and ACF into a single line in the estimate totals.

 

Step 3: Set Up Terms & Conditions

Where: Config → Lists → Instructions

The Terms & Conditions text that appears at the bottom of the customer-facing estimate is managed here. This is the same location used for the existing printable estimate Terms & Conditions. Review the text to ensure it reflects what you want your customers to see when they approve an estimate.

 

Step 4: Verify Customer Email Addresses

Customer Approvals uses a one-time passcode (OTP) sent via email to verify the customer's identity. Make sure your customer records have accurate email addresses on file. The email address can also be overridden during the Preview & Send process if needed.

 

Step 5: Confirm Shop Branding

Your shop logo and billing information (address, phone, website) appear on the customer-facing estimate. Verify this information is up to date so the estimate looks professional when your customers receive it.

To configure the logo that appears on the portal estimate:

1. Upload the logo: Go to Config → All City Options → Media and add your logo image.
2. Apply the logo at the company level: Go to Config → All City Options → Company and click the "View Logo Options" button next to the Company Name field. Select the logo you uploaded.
3. If the logo is managed at the city level: Go to Config → Cities → [Select City] → Main Info and click the "View Logo Options" button next to the Company Name field. Select the logo from there.

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Article 1.3: Quick Start — Sending Your First Estimate

This article walks you through sending your first customer estimate using Customer Approvals.

Step 1: Build Your Work Order

Create a work order (or quote) and add your line items as usual. For each item, fill in the discrepancy, category, billing method, estimated hours, and any parts. If you want photos to appear on the estimate, go to the item's Media tab, upload the photos, and click the eyeball icon to make them visible.

 

Step 2: Go to the Customer Approvals Tab

In the left navigation of the work order, click Customer Approvals. You'll see the Approval Items tab, which lists all items on the work order. New items will show a status of Internal: New.

 

Step 3: Stage Your Items

You can update items individually by clicking the edit pencil icon, or update multiple items at once:

1. Check the boxes next to the items you want to update (or check the header checkbox to select all)
2. Click Batch Update in the top right
3. Set the Portal: Customer Status to Internal: Ready to Send
4. Click Save

If your shop uses a review process, you can first move items to Internal: Review, have someone review them, and then move them to Internal: Ready to Send.

 

Step 4: Preview and Send

1. Click Preview & Send in the top right
2. Step 1 of the wizard: Confirm the Selection (Customer Estimate), Customer, and Email address. The email address defaults to what's on the customer record but can be overridden. The Customer Status will show "Internal: Ready to Send" — only items in this status will be included.
3. Step 2: Review the validation results. This checks for potential issues like parts missing markups or items with hourly billing but 0 estimated hours. Address any issues and continue.
4. Step 3: Review the full estimate preview. This is exactly what your customer will see — including your logo, billing info, aircraft details, line items, photos, parts, pricing, and totals.

 

Step 5: Create the Estimate

Click Create Estimate at the bottom of the preview. This generates a shareable link.

 

Step 6: Copy and Send the Link

You'll be taken to the Customer Preview tab. You'll see a row with your customer's name, email, item count, created date, expiration date, and the link. Click the link to copy it to your clipboard, then send it to your customer via email, text, or your preferred method.

The link is not automatically emailed by the system — you control how and when it's delivered.

 

What Happens Next

Your customer will open the link, verify with a one-time passcode, review the estimate, approve or reject items, and submit. Once they submit, the statuses will update automatically in EBIS on the Customer Approvals tab.

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Related Articles:

• Using Customer Approvals
• Customer Approvals: Customer Experience
• Customer Approvals: Troubleshooting & FAQ