Data Files samples / Repair shop
Ironbridge Repairs
Jobs, devices, quotes, parts, invoices, warranties and payments for a shop that mends phones, tablets, laptops and small appliances.
Overview
Ironbridge Repairs is an invented repair shop on a high street in Bristol. Three technicians work at the bench and one assistant runs the counter, where customers book in a phone with a cracked screen or a coffee machine that has stopped pumping, and come back later to collect it. A handful of local businesses have an account: their staff bring work in, and the shop invoices the business and sends it a statement.
Every job is one record with its own number, JOB-2026-0042. It starts as Booked in, is diagnosed, gets a quote, waits for the customer to approve it, waits for a part if the shelf has none, is repaired and is marked Ready, then Collected. A job can also end as Unrepairable, or Ready with the quote turned down and a small diagnosis charge. The parts and labour each job used are its Job Lines, so the charge can be explained line by line; every payment, deposits included, is recorded against its job.
Prices are shown to customers with VAT included, as a high-street shop shows them. Each line keeps its VAT rate, and the quote, the invoice and the receipt work out the VAT inside each line and add it up, so the VAT on the invoice and in the VAT by month query agree to the penny.
The records cover about fifteen months up to the day the file is made. Phones come in more in the summer holidays and laptops when the school year starts; kitchen appliances pick up before the year ends. Some jobs are waiting on parts today, some customers have not picked up their devices after weeks, a few repairs have come back under warranty, an account or two is behind with its invoices, and the parts shelf has items at or below their reorder level, one of them held up because the supplier has it on back order.
In Rutba Data Files, choose Repair shop on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.
It suits, with small changes
- A phone and tablet repair kiosk
- A computer support firm that takes machines in
- A bike shop workshop, with bikes as the devices
- A watch and jewellery repairer
- An appliance engineer who also visits homes
- A musical instrument or audio repair bench
Read on
- Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 7 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
- Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 16 tables, and how they are related.
- Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.
Things you should know
- Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
- The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
- To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
- Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
- Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
- Prices are typed with VAT included, as the customer sees them: a phone screen at 79.00 is 65.83 and 13.17 VAT. The VAT is worked out inside each line and rounded to the penny, then added up, so an invoice's Tax is the sum of its lines and not 20 percent of its total worked out once.
- The numbers on jobs, quotes, invoices, warranties and receipts (JOB-, QUO-, INV-, WTY-, RCP-) are typed, not made by Data Files. Keep each run in date order and start again at 0001 each January. The record number (ID) is separate and is what Part Orders shows in For Job.
- An invoice's lines are the job's own lines, Job Lines, pointed at the invoice once it is raised. Do not add lines to a job after its invoice is made; raise a second invoice for extra work.
- A print template prints every record of its table. The Booking-in receipt and the Collection receipt print from Jobs and the Account statement from Accounts, so choose the record you want (or print from the form with it on screen) rather than printing them all.
- The Account statement lists every invoice the business has ever had, the paid ones with the day they were paid; the Owing column counts only those still unpaid.
- A job that is beyond economic repair, a warranty return and a declined quote still have lines, at nought or at the diagnosis charge, so the bench time is recorded even when nothing is charged.
- Customers who bring work for a business point at its Accounts record. The invoice is made out to the account and its balance is paid by transfer, not at the counter, so Accounts to chase is the list to watch.
Starting with your own records
Start with Business, your own name, address, VAT number and payment details, which every document prints. Then Staff, then Suppliers, then Parts (each part pointing at its supplier, with Stocked set to No for parts you only order in), and Accounts for any businesses you invoice. When a customer comes to the counter, add them to Customers, add their device to Devices, then open a Job for that device with its number, the fault, the technician and the promised date. As the job moves on, change its Status, fill in the quote (and a record in Quotes when it is written), and add its parts and labour in Job Lines. When it is finished, raise its Invoice and its Warranty, record each payment in Payments as it is taken, and put Finished and Collected on the job when they happen.
Making it yours
Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.
- For a bike workshop, use Devices for bikes (Kind as Road, Mountain, Hybrid, E-bike; Serial as the frame number) and add a Booked For date for the day the customer wants it back.
- For an engineer who visits homes, add Visit Date and Visit Address to Jobs and a call-out line in Job Lines, and make a query of visits in the next 7 days ordered by postcode.
- Add a Courier Reference to Part Orders, and a query of orders past their Expected date, to chase late suppliers.
- Add a status such as Sent to maker for repairs sent away, and add it to the Stage calculation in the Job board query so it sorts in the right place.
- Add a Disposal Date to Jobs for devices never collected, and a query of devices uncollected for 90 days or more, if your terms say you may then recycle or sell them.
- If you are not registered for VAT, set Tax Rate to 0 in the Business record and on new lines; the documents then show no VAT, and the heading of the Invoice template can be changed from VAT invoice to Invoice.
- Add Passcode Given (Yes/No) and Data Backed Up (Yes/No) to Jobs, so the bench knows what it can test before starting, and add them to the Booking-in receipt.
Questions people ask
- How do I print an older invoice or quote?
- Open the print template Invoice (or Quote) and choose the record you want by its number; every invoice ever raised is there. To find the number, look the job up on the Jobs form or in the query Job board.
- A customer has lost their receipt. How do I find their device?
- Open the Customers form and find them by name or phone, then look at their devices and jobs. The query Ready for collection lists every finished device still on the shelf with its customer.
- Is this device still under warranty?
- Open the query Under warranty and look for the customer or the serial. If the job is there, its Days Left is how long the cover has to run. Book the return in as a new job with Warranty Of set to the first job and nothing to pay.
- Why does the invoice say less VAT than 20 percent of the total?
- The prices include VAT, so the VAT is one sixth of each line, not a fifth: 20 percent of the price without VAT. On a total of 112.75 the VAT is 18.79.
- How do I change the bench rate or the VAT rate?
- The rate per hour is whatever you type in Unit Price on each labour line, so a new rate applies from the next job. The VAT rate is in the Business record (Tax Rate) and on each line; old lines keep the rate they were charged at.
- How do I see what an account owes?
- Open the query Accounts to chase, or print the Account statement for that business. Both show only invoices without a Paid On date.
- Can I start with my own shop instead of Ironbridge?
- Yes. Make the database empty from the sample, fill in the Business record with your own name, address, VAT number and bank details, and every document prints with them.
The other samples
- Shop
- Food and beverages
- Cafe or restaurant
- Takeaway
- Florist
- Pharmacy counter
- Wholesale and trading
- Workshop or maker
- Builder
- Used car dealer
- Salon
- Barber shop
- Garage and MOT centre
- Cleaning company
- Consultancy or agency
- Gym and fitness studio
- Clinic
- School or training centre
- Charity or club
- Property rentals
- Estate and letting agent
- Guest house or B and B
- Building front desk
- HR, payroll and timesheets