What belongs on a phone repair job sheet

• The customer’s own words for the fault, not your diagnosis.
• Condition on arrival, including damage unrelated to the repair.
• Whether it powers on — recorded before you touch it.
• The quote, and what happens if the real cost turns out higher.
• Data and backup: what you will and will not be responsible for.

Record the fault in their words

Write down what the customer said, not what you think is wrong. "Screen went black after I dropped it" and "screen fault" lead to different diagnoses, and the first one tells the technician something the second has thrown away.

Your own diagnosis goes in as a separate note once you have looked at it. Keeping them apart means you can tell later whether the reported fault was actually the fault.

Condition on arrival is the one that saves you

Most repair disputes are about damage the customer believes happened on your bench. A note of the existing cracks, dents and water marks, taken before the device goes anywhere, settles almost all of them.

Record whether it powers on, too. If a device arrives dead, that is a very different conversation from a device that arrives working and leaves dead.

Price, and what happens if it changes

Put the quote on the sheet, and say plainly what happens if the actual cost turns out higher — most shops contact the customer for approval before going ahead, and that expectation is worth stating rather than assuming.

If you charge a diagnostic fee on jobs that turn out unrepairable, say so at book-in. It is a reasonable charge and an unreasonable surprise.

Data, backups and consumer rights

Say what you do about data. Most shops make clear that the customer is responsible for their own backup, which is fair, but it has to be said before the repair rather than after a board fails.

Repairs you carry out are a service under UK consumer law, which carries expectations about reasonable care and skill that you cannot sign away with a line on a job sheet. Take proper advice on your terms rather than copying another shop’s wording.

Keeping it attached to the job

A job sheet in a drawer helps nobody at the counter three weeks later. Keeping it against the repair record means anyone serving the customer can see what was agreed.

Mobile POS books the job against the device and customer with its fault description, condition and quote, and moves it through the bench stages so the history stays with the job.