What is an amended repair order: an open repair order to which work, parts or price have been added or changed after the original authorisation, with the customer's approval for the change recorded against the new lines.
An amended repair order is a repair order that has been changed after the customer approved it: usually extra lines for work identified during inspection or strip-down, occasionally a price change on an existing line or a line removed. The amendment keeps the original RO number and adds to it, so one visit stays one record.
It matters because most of a workshop's identified work arrives after the original approval, when the car is already on the ramp. If that work cannot be added cleanly, it is either done without a recorded yes or it is lost. The same thing is called an RO amendment, an add-on, or added work in dealer workshops; in body repair the equivalent is a supplement; in North America the phrase is amended repair order or RO add-on. The underlying document is explained in repair order.
How an amended repair order works
- Trigger. The technician finds something not on the original job: a worn part on the health check, a second fault behind the first, a seized fastener that doubles the labour.
- New lines. The advisor adds the work as separate lines on the open RO, priced, with the parts and labour shown and the reason recorded. Lines are never edited into an existing approved line, because that destroys the record of what was originally agreed.
- Approval. The customer approves the new lines, by phone, by link with a photo or video, or at the counter. The approval is logged with who, when and how.
- Dispatch. Approved lines go to the technician; declined and deferred lines stay on the RO marked as such.
- Close. The invoice mirrors the RO: original approved lines, added approved lines, and nothing else.
Amended repair order vs a new repair order
Added work found on the same visit belongs on the same RO. Opening a second RO for it splits the history, inflates repair order count, and drags down average repair order and hours per repair order for no reason. A new RO is right when the customer returns on another day, when the work belongs to a different payer (a warranty line alongside customer pay, in most DMS setups), or when the original RO has already been closed and invoiced.
Amended repair order example: a coolant leak that grew
A hatchback is booked for a coolant leak, approved as one hour of diagnosis. The technician traces it to the thermostat housing, which is the expected repair, but on removal finds the housing bolts have corroded into the head and one shears. The original approval covered diagnosis only.
The advisor adds three lines to the open RO: thermostat housing and gasket with labour, a bolt extraction charge at the workshop's stated rate, and a coolant flush. He sends the customer a link with a short video of the sheared bolt and the corroded housing, and a note that the extraction is why the price has moved. The customer approves all three at 11:20, the approval is logged against the added lines, and the invoice at collection shows one hour of diagnosis approved at booking and three lines approved at 11:20. Nothing on the invoice comes as a surprise, and the sheared bolt is on video if anyone asks later.
What an amended repair order is not
- It is not permission. Adding a line to the RO does not authorise it. Each added line needs its own recorded yes.
- It is not a correction tool for the original quote. If the original price was wrong, the honest route is to explain and re-approve, rather than bury the difference in an added line with a vague description.
- It is not a supplement in the body-shop sense. A supplement is a revised estimate to an insurer for damage found after teardown, with its own approval chain. The mechanics are similar; the payer is different.
The mistakes: doing the added work first and amending the RO at the desk; adding work as a single line called "additional repairs" so nobody can tell what was done; skipping the reason, so the warranty query or the customer complaint six months later has no explanation; and a locked RO process that makes amendment so slow that advisors avoid it and identified work goes unsold.
Where the amended repair order lives and who owns it
The record is in the DMS, on the original RO number, with each added line carrying its approval log and, where the workshop uses an electronic vehicle health check, the linked photo or video. The advisor owns the amendment and its approval, the technician owns the finding, and the service manager reads the totals: added lines per RO, the share approved, and their effect on average repair order and sold hours.
Video earns its place at the approval step, because the customer is being asked to pay more than they agreed for something they cannot see. With Venta Video the technician records the finding on a phone, and the customer receives it as a branded page over SMS, WhatsApp or email with approve, book or pay buttons against the added lines. More on how service departments run it on the automotive aftersales page.
