Recommended setup

Live in Lightspeed

Install the extension on every shop computer and keep bike.tools signed in in the same Chrome. Then presets are on every workorder (turn on status buttons and the bike card under Settings → Lightspeed extension → Modules if you want them), Receive is where the bike is, and whoever is logged in to Lightspeed is who adds the work.

A status mapping that works

Customers see eight states; your Lightspeed statuses can be any number. A mapping most shops land on:

Map every status, even the odd ones (an unmapped status reads as "In progress"). Use custom wording where your customers would say it differently ("At the shop" instead of "Checked in"), and give your team a colour for each so the Workorders page reads at a glance.

Presets for the jobs you do every day

Build a preset for each job you write up ten times a week (a tune-up with its usual parts, a brake bleed, a tubeless setup) from the Lightspeed items you'd ring up anyway, with honest minutes. Then the workorder is one click from right, and AI Quick Book can use them too.

Print tags, scan, snap a photo

Print the shop tag for every bike as it comes in: its QR code takes a mechanic's phone to the job, its torque specs and its photos. With the Phone tools, take a photo or two of the bike's condition at check-in with Photos, so nobody argues about a scratch later, scan parts as you pull them, and read the serial from your phone rather than typing it.

An appointment status of its own

Give bookings a status that nothing else uses, usually "Appointment", and make it the booking status of every location. Then the Receive button means something: a bike still in Appointment hasn't arrived, and one press at the counter moves it on. It also keeps booked-but-not-here bikes out of your "open" view in Lightspeed.

Teach Quick Book your shop

With AI integration, add your shop shorthand under Quick Book → Settings. Learning from your workorders runs when you first turn it on; read the style guide it writes and fix anything it got wrong; drafts follow it. Learn again after you change how you write tickets.

Roles and hours

Give every mechanic a role that takes work and real hours, including lunch as a split shift, so bookings land on someone who's in and the schedule shows true booked time. Give the people at the counter a role that writes service, so they're first in every picker. Link each employee to their bike.tools account (same email does it), so "Mine" means the same on both sides.

The next three are for shops with the Booking page.

Limits that match the bench

Start with booked minutes per day rather than a number of bookings: three tune-ups and three flat fixes aren't the same afternoon. Set it to what your mechanics actually clear in a day, and remember workorders you create in Lightspeed count against it. Give yourself a lead time of a day so the morning isn't a surprise, and close the days you're closed so nobody books for a Monday you're shut.

When you have more than one mechanic with regular hours, try booking by schedule: capacity then follows who's in, and days off take care of themselves.

Keep turnaround honest

The turnaround figure is a promise shown on your booking page. Update it the moment the queue grows; the location page suggests what your last 90 days actually took. A real ETA set on the workorder in Lightspeed always wins over the estimate, so set one when you check a bike in.

A short menu

Customers book better from a dozen clear services than from fifty. Build each from the Lightspeed labor item you'd ring up anyway, so the workorder arrives ready to work; give it honest minutes, because they drive your daily limit and the schedule; and write a one-line description where the name alone doesn't say what's included.

Look like your shop

Write a short note for customers under Settings → Branding (hours, where to leave the bike); it shows on your booking and status pages. With Custom branding, set your accent colour and logo there too, and your own address under Settings → Your own booking address. Embed the booking form on your site, so customers never need to know bike.tools exists.

Once a week

• Glance at Change requests for anything waiting.
• Check the turnaround figure against the week ahead.
• Look at the Reports preview on the dashboard; with the Booking page, the full page shows what to fix.
• Press Refresh from Lightspeed after adding a status, a shop or an employee there.