Using Customer Approvals

Article 2.1: The Internal Staging Workflow

The Customer Approvals tab in each work order serves as a staging area for items before they are sent to the customer. Items are never visible to the customer until you explicitly generate an estimate and send the link.

How Staging Works

Every item on the work order appears on the Customer Approvals → Approval Items tab. Each item has a Portal: Customer Status that tracks where it is in the workflow.

The three internal statuses are:

• Internal: New — The default status for any item added to the work order. This means the item has not been reviewed or staged yet.

• Internal: Review — The item is being reviewed internally. Use this status when a lead technician, CSR, or other team member needs to check the write-up, add estimated hours, attach photos, or add notes before the item is ready for the customer.

• Internal: Ready to Send — The item has been reviewed and is ready to be included in the next customer estimate.

Updating Item Statuses

Individually: Click the edit pencil icon on any item. In the edit modal, you can change the Portal: Customer Status, update billing, add estimated hours, enter notes, toggle "Always Show Notes," and change the billing customer or warranty vendor.

In bulk: Check the boxes next to multiple items (or use the header checkbox to select all), click Batch Update, and set the Portal: Customer Status for all selected items at once.

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Article 2.2: Creating and Sending Estimates

Once your items are staged and ready, you can generate a customer estimate and share it via a secure link.

Generating the Estimate

1. Go to the Customer Approvals tab in the work order
2. Click Preview & Send in the top right corner
3. Complete the 3-step wizard:
   1. Step 1: Confirm the selection type (Customer Estimate), the customer, and the email address. The email address is used for OTP verification when the customer accesses the estimate. It defaults to the email on the customer record but can be overridden.
   2. Step 2: Review validation results. The system runs the same checks used in the existing PDF estimate flow — flagging issues like parts missing markups, items with hourly billing and 0 estimated hours, and similar data quality items.
   3. Step 3: Preview the estimate. Review what your customer will see: your shop logo, bill from/to information, aircraft details, each line item with discrepancy, estimated hours, labor and parts costs, photos, and totals. If you've set a minimum deposit amount (Config & Billing tab), it will appear at the bottom.
4. Click Create Estimate to generate the link.

 

Sending the Link

After creating the estimate, you'll be on the Customer Preview tab. This tab shows all estimate links generated for this work order. Each row displays the customer name, email, item details, signed date, e-sign status, created date, expiration date, and the link.

Click the link to copy it to your clipboard. Send it to your customer via email, text, or any other method.

 

Managing Estimate Links

The Customer Preview tab is your central view for all estimate links on a work order. From here you can:

• See which estimates have been signed and which are still pending
• See when each estimate was created and when it expires
• Copy any link to share it again
• Delete a link if needed (requires the "Manage Customer Portal Estimate Links" permission) — select the checkbox next to the link and click the delete icon in the top right

Setting a Minimum Deposit Amount

If you want to require a minimum deposit, go to the work order's Config & Billing tab. Under the Billing section, you'll find the Minimum Deposit Amount Type setting. You can choose Flat Amount or Percentage of Invoice and enter the value. This will appear at the bottom of the customer-facing estimate.

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Article 2.3: Sending Additional Findings for Approval

As technicians work on an aircraft, they may discover additional items that need customer approval. Customer Approvals supports an iterative process — you can send new findings to the customer as many times as needed, and each estimate link captures only the new items while maintaining a complete history.

Adding New Findings

Technicians add new items to the work order as usual — entering the discrepancy, attaching photos, adding parts, etc. These new items automatically appear on the Customer Approvals → Approval Items tab with a status of Internal: New.

You'll see them listed alongside the items from previous rounds, which will show their current statuses (e.g., Customer: Approved, Customer: Rejected).

 

Staging New Findings

Review the new items, add estimated hours and notes as needed, and move them to Internal: Ready to Send — either individually or using Batch Update. Items that were previously sent and already have a customer-facing status are not affected.

 

Sending the New Estimate

Click Preview & Send and go through the same wizard. The system will only pull in items that are at Internal: Ready to Send — your previously approved or rejected items will not be included in this new estimate.

The estimate preview will display as a Partial Estimate, reflecting that it contains only the new findings and not the full work order.

 

What Your Customer Sees

When your customer opens the new estimate link:

• They see the new items with approve, reject, and needs review buttons
• A Previous History section at the top allows them to expand and view all previously approved and rejected items as read-only
• When they expand the Previous History, the totals at the bottom update from Partial Estimate to Total Estimate, showing the complete financial picture across all rounds
• The new items also display the line-item messaging (chat) icons

 

Tracking Multiple Estimates

Each estimate link is tracked as a separate row on the Customer Preview tab. You can see at a glance which estimates have been signed, how many items each contains, and the relevant dates.

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Article 2.4: Understanding Portal Statuses

Each item on the Customer Approvals tab has a Portal: Customer Status that indicates where it is in the approval workflow. Here is a reference for all available statuses.

Internal Statuses

These statuses are only visible within EBIS. Items in these statuses are never shown to the customer.

• Internal: New — Default status for any item added to the work order. The item has not been reviewed or staged.

• Internal: Review — The item is being reviewed internally by a lead technician, CSR, or other team member.

• Internal: Ready to Send — The item has been approved internally and will be included in the next customer estimate generated via Preview & Send.

 

Customer-Facing Statuses

These statuses reflect actions taken by the customer or the estimate generation process.

• Customer: Sent for Approval — An estimate containing this item has been generated and a link has been created. The customer has not yet taken action on this item.

• Customer: Needs Review — The customer has flagged this item as needing further review, rather than approving or rejecting it.

• Customer: Approved — The customer has approved this item. Approved items unlock for technician time tracking and parts ordering.

• Customer: Rejected — The customer has rejected this item. This status also activates the rejected item automation within the work order line item.

 

Changing Statuses Manually

Users with the Set Portal Item Internal Status permission can change items to any of the three internal statuses. Users with the Set Portal Item All Statuses permission can change items to any status, including customer-facing statuses. This can be useful for correcting mistakes — for example, if a customer accidentally rejects an item.

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Article 2.5: Setting Up Notifications for Customer Approvals

EBIS includes a Notification Events feature that allows you to set up custom notifications at your user account level. You can be notified when customers submit estimates, when item statuses change, or when a customer sends a message — via in-app notifications, email, or both.

Where to Find Notification Events

1. Click your username in the top-right corner of EBIS
2. Click My Account
3. Click the Notification Events tab in the left navigation
4. Click the plus (+) button in the top right to create a new notification event

 

Portal Notification Events

When creating a notification event, you'll see an Event Name dropdown with a list of available events. The four events related to Customer Approvals are:

• Portal: Customer Estimate Submission — Triggers when a customer submits an estimate (clicks the "Approve Estimate" button). This is the most common notification to set up — it tells you immediately when a customer has responded to an estimate you sent.

• Portal: Item Status Changed - Customer — Triggers when a customer-side portal item status changes. Use this if you want to be notified when specific items move to a particular status (e.g., Customer: Approved or Customer: Rejected).

• Portal: Item Status Changed - Warranty — Similar to the above, but for warranty-related portal item status changes.

• Portal: New Customer Message — Triggers when a customer sends a message on an estimate line item. Useful for anyone who needs to respond to customer questions quickly.

 

Notification Channels

For each event, you can enable one or more notification channels:

• Notify (EBIS) — Sends a notification through the in-app bell icon in the top-right corner of EBIS
• Notify (Email) — Sends a notification to your email address
• Notify (Push) — Push notification option

 

Filters

You can narrow down when the notification triggers by adding filters. Available filters vary by event but may include options such as City, Include Quotes, and other criteria. For example, if you only want to be notified about estimate submissions for a specific city or for quotes specifically, you can set that here.

 

Customizing the Subject and Body

For email notifications, you can customize the Subject and Body using markup tags. Click + Add Markup Tag to insert dynamic values that will be populated when the notification fires.

Available markup tags vary by event but may include:

• Customer — The customer name
• Work Order — The work order number
• Registration No. — The aircraft registration number
• Estimate URL — A direct link to the customer estimate
• List of Items Needs Review — Items the customer marked as Needs Review
• List of Items Approved — Items the customer approved
• List of Items Rejected — Items the customer rejected

 

Example: Customer Estimate Submission Notification

Here is an example setup for a "Portal: Customer Estimate Submission" notification:

Notification channels: Notify (EBIS) and Notify (Email) both enabled

Filter: Include Quotes

Subject: [Customer] submitted Estimate [Work Order] for [Registration No.]

Body: [Customer] submitted an estimate for [Registration No.]: [Estimate URL] Needs Review: [List of Items Needs Review] Approved: [List of Items Approved] Rejected: [List of Items Rejected]

With this setup, when a customer submits an estimate, you receive an email with the customer name, work order number, and tail number in the subject line. The body includes a direct link to the estimate and a breakdown of which items were approved, rejected, or flagged for review — so you can see exactly what happened without opening EBIS first.

 

Delay (Minutes)

Each notification event includes an optional Delay (Minutes) setting. If set to 0, the notification is sent immediately. You can increase the delay if you prefer to batch or delay notifications.

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Related Articles:

• Customer Approvals: Getting Started
• Customer Approvals: Customer Experience
• Customer Approvals: Troubleshooting & FAQ