Understanding job statuses
How statuses work and how to customize them for your workflow.
Every job in Workbench has a status that tells you — and your team — exactly where that piece is in your workflow. Statuses also trigger automatic customer notifications when they change.
Default statuses
Workbench comes with a set of default statuses that cover most shop workflows:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Intake | The piece has arrived and a job has been created |
| In progress | A technician is actively working on it |
| Waiting | Work is paused — awaiting a part, customer decision, or approval |
| Ready for pickup | The job is complete and the customer has been notified |
| Picked up | The customer has collected the piece and the job is closed |
How statuses trigger notifications
When you move a job to Ready for pickup, Workbench automatically sends the customer an SMS and/or email letting them know their piece is ready. This happens the moment you update the status — no extra steps required.
Other status changes are internal by default and do not notify the customer.
See How automatic notifications work for the full list of notification triggers.
Changing a job’s status
Open any job and use the Status dropdown at the top of the job detail page. The change is saved instantly and logged in the job’s activity history with a timestamp.
Customising statuses
You can rename statuses, change their order, or add new ones to match your shop’s specific workflow in Settings → Job statuses.
Tip: Keep your statuses moving — a job sitting in “In progress” for weeks is often a sign that “Waiting” is the more accurate label. Accurate statuses mean accurate customer communication.
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