Weekly Get in the habit of doing (1) item every day of the week.

If your store's techs are properly trained, this should not take the Store Manager or Assistant Manager any daily effort to "keep up" on.

Work orders can be put on an improper Next Update time, never closed due to tickets, ect. The overall goal is to close work orders that are very obviously no longer in-store and/or don't need attention. If these work orders are "randomly" closed by corporate, it triggers the buyback from that date, so we would much rather close these ourselves.

An example of some of the common ways to audit work orders is below:
  • Go to the Work Orders page.
  • Click Active Work Orders.
  • Sort by Next Update (ascending so arrow is facing up).
  • Open all Work Orders in new tab if Next Update date is in the past.
  • Determine whether they need Help Desk tickets, are abandoned, just need Sale Completed, ect. and close appropriately.
    • Be sure the device is not in-store if you are closing as Sale Completed.
  • Sort by Next Update (descending so arrow is facing down).
  • Open all Work Orders in new tab if Next Update date is far in the future.
  • Determine whether they need Help Desk tickets, if a tech made a mistake, if device is even in-store, ect.
    • Be sure the device is not in-store if you are closing as Sale Completed.
  • After closing those Work Orders, sort by Created (ascending so arrow is facing up).
  • Are there Work Orders that have been in the system for an extended period of time (ex. 30+ days)?
    • Determine if they've been forgotten, missed, if repair needs reverted, marked abandoned, ect.
  • Compile a list of any Remote Tech Work Orders, and send to Robby.
  • Compile a list of any in-store Work Orders that you have questions and send to JB3.
Help with Samsung WO in RFP that Needs Part Removed
  • Set the price of the repair to $0 and Sale Complete the WO.
  • Do a $0 return of the part back into inventory.
  • During the return, set the part as Defective (OCTA F) and RMA this part.
  • Submit the following ticket and request that the buyback request for this part be removed from Distro for this part.

Buybacks are required for Samsung/Google U-Class parts and OEM iPhone glass/LCD's. They are not to be sent together, so it is recommended to alternate weeks (Samsung/Google buyback on week 1, iPhone on week 2, Samsung on week 3, ect.).

This can be delegated to a senior technician who wants additional responsibility (and hourly pay increase) as long as they're properly trained notifies the Store Manager of any issues.

Keep these two (2) things in mind:
  • The bottom of the buyback page shows you what has and hasn't been scanned. In a perfect scenario, after scanning all items, you will have green checks next to every part, all the way down the left side. Therefore, if your buyback bin is empty, but you still have several parts on the buyback page without the green check, you have a problem.
  • You have to watch for the "Part Added" popup on the computer when you scan every part. Yes that is tedious, but you can't "fix" this later. There are too many buybacks to count the items as you go and ensure it matches the "parts on buyback" number at the top. Therefore, if you watch each popup to ensure it was added and never put the part into the shipping box unless you've seen that popup, then you will have much more success. Remember, any sales that aren't completed won't show up on buybacks. If you scan one of these parts, it won't get added to the buyback, you will put it in the box and ship it, and then when it is sale completed you will no longer have tha part.

Weekly bank deposit and drawer balancing to be trained with current Store Manager or in-person with me. Always check to see if you need to balance the drawer (i.e. get more $1's and whatever change you need) at the same time as the weekly deposit, so you can minimize needing to make an emergency trip.

Even if your store does not take in a lot of cash, all deposits absolutely must be done before the end of each month.

At minimum, you need to do Custom Count > OEM Vendors > Samsung, Custom Count > OEM Vendors > Apple, and Custom Count > OEM Vendors > Google each month. The ideal is one (1) count each for Google, Samsung, and Apple OEM and (1) Custom Count > non-OEM Vendors each month. A full inventory count should be done twice (2) a year.

If you pay attention to the Upcoming Consignment Charges dashboard widget you should have a clear indication of what needs to be counted.

This can be delegated to a non-probationary technician, as long as they're properly trained, and they do not submit the final count (unless the variance is at zero). If there is variance, and this technician cannot account for those items, it is up to the manager to confirm those pieces of inventory are missing, and submit the final count.

This mainly consists of one (1) projection purchase order and one (1) reorder points purchase order. While this may take a few orders to get used to, after a couple weeks this process should not take more than 30 minutes. If it continues to take an inordinate amount of time, contact me and let me know what aspect is taking so long, so we can alleviate it.

Reorder Points Overview and Process
As of 12/31/22, reorder points for all stores are set to minimum amounts on all parts necessary to receive partner claims and ensure proper parts on hand for the most common OOW repairs. These points are universal, although you may wish to set additional reorder points for repairs your store commonly encounters.

  • Create a Reorder Points Purchase Order (generally early in the week).
  • Remove parts that are out of stock on Distro (i.e. "red bubble").
    • You may wish to have an additional tab with an open Custom Purchase Order for these items, which you can add these items to, as these parts may be necessary in-store.
  • Adjust quantities of parts that currently have a Store Quantity of 0 (i.e. first column).
    • For example, you generally want more than one (1) in stock of the current generation of Samsung devices in the popular colors (ex. black).
Throughout the week, as you get NTO’s for Distro. parts, consider creating a Reorder Points Purchase Order, and adding that special order part. As the reorder points are set to the minimum, doing more than one (1) Reorder Points Purchase Order per week can help ensure we always have at least one (1) of the necessary parts on hand. In turn, this will also make your weekly Projections order more accurate.

Projections Overview and Process
Your weekly projections order tries to stock a rolling 28-days based on the last 60-days of sales.

  • Create a Projections Points Purchase Order on Thursday for free fusion with Asurion auto-order shipping.
  • Remove non-Distro parts (i.e. no price listed, no truck icon).
    • You may wish to have an additional tab with an open Custom Purchase Order for these items, which you can add these items to, as these parts may be necessary in-store.
  • For any parts out of stock on Distro. confirm there is no availability of an alternative SKU.
  • Confirm the DOH (Days on Hand) column is greater than seven (7) days. If not, adjust quantity up one (1).
After consistently doing Reorder Points Purchase Orders for 4-6 weeks you should see a drastic decrease in the amount of parts on each order. At that point, simply doing the Reorder Points order when doing a Distro. NTO or with the weekly Projection order is acceptable.

The following sheets can be imported into Portal to confirm accurate inventory levels & reorder points on OEM items.
To use these, just download each sheet as a .csv, and import them into Portal by going to Create New PO > Custom > Import PO from .CSV.


Add CSV Ordering stuff

Timely return of defective parts is extremely important. It is recommended to alternate weeks (Distro RMA's on week 1, 3rd party RMA's on week 2, Distro RMA's on week 3, ect.). This goes extremely quickly if it is attended to on a weekly basis. Don't forget to that if there is a warranty or re-repair the original part may need returned! See "Active Work Orders" above for steps.

Special Order Parts Returns
There are times where we will order a part for a customer, but the customer either declines the repair after the part arrives, or simply never returns to the store with the device. Oftentimes, these are very niche parts (ex. laptop screens) that will not be used in another repair. If work orders are actively updated and kept in the correct status, then prior to the return window closing managers should attempt to return these parts.

The following steps are an overview of the process:
  • At week 2 of a work order being in "Awaiting Device" with no customer contact, please call and inform the customer that if they are unable to come in for their repair within the next week (7 days), then we will be returning their part.
    • Work order notes should include something to the effect of "If this is in Update Today, please mark as "Declined - RFP". Next Update time should be set to one (1) week from this final contact.
  • If the device is not in-store, no customer contact, and the work order is in Update Today, staff should mark the part defective, set the work order to "Declined - RFP", and Sale Complete.
  • Return process should be initiated through the vendor, and the part returned.

Store Managers are notified of timeoff requests via email. These should be approved ASAP, so the technician is not accidentally scheduled for a day they are requesting off. For that reason, it is recommended to copy the "standard" schedule on Monday for the following week. This gives ample time to make any necessary changes to ensure proper staffing. Store Managers should change the schedule in instances where a timeoff request makes the store shorthanded for that particular day [or set of days].

It is highly advised to schedule staff with a specific role, in order to eliminate any confusion about what they will be responsible for. See Store Roles for clarification.