A box of laptops and a purchase order number
A local firm, a school or a letting agency sends you broken devices: a couple of phones with cracked screens, a laptop with a dead keyboard, a tablet that will not charge. They have asset tags, and the firm's office manager wants each repair quoted against a purchase order, approved by them, and invoiced once a month.
At the counter each device is booked in as if it were a walk-in customer, with the office manager's name and number. By month end there are a dozen tickets with slightly different company names, three purchase orders scribbled in notes, and an office manager asking why one repair went ahead without their approval.
Business work is squeezed into a consumer process
Repair systems are built around individual customers paying at collection. Business customers need a different shape: an account, devices linked to it, a named approver, spending limits, purchase orders, and invoicing on terms. Without that, the admin falls on the owner at month end.
- Each device is booked in under a person, not a company account.
- Asset tags and purchase orders are recorded in free-text notes.
- Approval limits agreed with the company are not visible to staff.
- Invoices are assembled by hand from many tickets.
- The company cannot see the status of its devices without phoning.
Why business accounts go sour
Business customers bring steady work, but they are unforgiving about admin. An invoice without the right purchase order is not paid until it is corrected. A repair done above the approval limit is disputed. An office manager who cannot get a status update without phoning starts to wonder whether a larger repair company would be easier.
There is a technical side too. Company devices are often managed centrally, with device management profiles, company email and security settings. The office manager may need to know before a device is opened, reset or has its passcode used, and some companies have their own rules about what a repair shop may access. Those rules belong on the account, where every member of staff can see them, not in the memory of whoever took the first call.
Month-end invoicing by hand also eats the owner's time and delays your own cash coming in.
Business accounts built into the repair flow
We build business account handling alongside your repair management system.
- Each business customer has an account with its contacts, approvers, approval limit, invoicing terms and purchase order rules.
- Devices are listed under the account with their asset tag, model and serial or IMEI, so repeat repairs build a history per device.
- At check-in, staff pick the account and device, and the system asks for a purchase order if the account requires one.
- Quotes under the approval limit proceed; anything above it goes to the named approver by email with a link to approve or decline.
- The company's contact can log into a simple portal to see every device in for repair, its status and its quote.
- At month end, invoice lines grouped by purchase order are created in your accounting system, for example Xero or QuickBooks.
| Device | Asset tag | PO | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone, screen | Recorded | Captured | Approved, repairing |
| Laptop, keyboard | Recorded | Captured | Above limit, awaiting approver |
| Tablet, charging port | Recorded | Awaiting PO | Held |
Business work that is easy to keep
Company devices are booked in quickly and correctly. Staff know what they can do without asking. Office managers see status themselves. Invoices go out with the right purchase orders and are paid without queries. And a device history per asset tag lets you tell a company when a device keeps coming back, which is useful advice for them.
Loan devices are worth a mention. If you lend phones or laptops to business customers while theirs are repaired, the account can record which loan device went to which employee and when it came back, so your loan stock does not quietly go missing.
It also makes it easier to take on more business accounts, which is often where a repair shop's steadiest work comes from.
Does business repair work create admin headaches?
- Company devices are booked in under individual names.
- Purchase orders live in ticket notes.
- Repairs have gone ahead above a company's approval limit.
- Month-end invoices take hours to build.
- Business contacts phone for status updates.