Job Card Format: What to Put on a Workshop Job Card (with Free Template)

A job card is the record that travels with a job from the moment it arrives to the moment it's invoiced. Get the format right and it captures everything you need to do the work, bill it accurately, and answer questions about it months later. Get it wrong — too sparse, too cluttered, or badly laid out — and it gets half-filled, lost, or ignored.

This post sets out a job card format that works for a reactive workshop: every field worth having, why it's there, and what to leave off. There's a free template at the end to start from.

The Two Halves of a Job Card

Every workshop job card has two distinct stages. Designing the format around them keeps it logical to fill in:

1. Intake — the details captured when the work arrives, usually by whoever's at the counter or on the phone.
2. Work — the details captured by the technician as the job is done and signed off.

Treating these as two blocks, rather than one long form, means the right person fills in the right part at the right time — and nothing gets left blank because it was buried in the wrong section.

Intake Fields: Captured When the Job Arrives

These are the fields that turn a phone call or a walk-in into a trackable job.

Job number. A unique reference for the job. Use a simple sequence (JC-001, JC-002) or a date-based scheme (2607-001 for the first job in July). This is the single most important field for finding the job again — make it prominent.

Date received and how it arrived. When the work came in, and whether by phone, walk-in, or breakdown. The date tells you how long a job has been sitting; the source helps you understand where your work comes from.

Customer details. Name, phone number, and address. Keep the format consistent so you can look up a customer's history later.

Machine details. Make, model, and serial or registration number. This is what lets a job card double as a service history — search a machine's serial and you see every job you've done on it.

Reported fault. What the customer says is wrong, in their words. This is the starting point for diagnosis and a useful record if the actual fault turns out to be something else.

Work Fields: Captured as the Job Is Done

These fields are filled in by the technician and used to bill the job.

Work carried out. What was actually done — the diagnosis and the repair. This is the heart of the record and the answer to "what did we do?" when the customer calls back.

Parts used. Each part with a description, quantity, and cost. A table works best — one row per part. This feeds straight into the invoice and, if you track cost versus charge, your margin.

Labour. The technician's name and hours worked. With your charge-out rate, this gives you the labour line on the invoice.

Additional faults and authorisation. Anything found beyond the reported fault, and a note that the customer authorised the extra work. This is the field that prevents disputes over an unexpected bill.

Completion and sign-off. The completion date, a technician sign-off, and the job total (parts plus labour). Sign-off marks the job ready to invoice.

What to Leave Off

A common mistake is bolting on fields "for completeness" that nobody fills in. A job card with twenty fields, half of them blank, is harder to read and slower to complete than a lean one. Skip:

• Scheduling or appointment fields — a reactive workshop doesn't book work in advance, so a "scheduled date" field is dead space.
• Anything you won't act on — if you never review "how the customer heard about us" on a job card, it doesn't belong there.
• Duplicated customer data — capture it once and reference it, rather than rewriting full address details on every card.

The right format is the shortest one that still captures everything you need to do, bill, and recall the job. Anything beyond that costs you completion rates.

Job Card vs Work Order: A Quick Note

The two terms get used interchangeably, but there's a useful distinction. A work order is typically the authorisation to do a job — it says "this work is approved, go ahead." A job card is the working record of the job itself — what was done, what parts, how long. In a small reactive workshop the job card usually does both: it authorises the work and records it.

A Free Template to Start From

You don't have to design a job card format from scratch. A few ready-made options:

• Our interactive workshop job card template tool lets you fill in the fields above and download a formatted PDF — useful for seeing a complete card in one view.
• Our free job sheet template for workshops covers how to customise a template for your trade.

• If you prefer to build your own document, our job sheet template for Word and job card template for Excel guides give you copy-ready structures.

For mechanic-specific workshops, our mechanic job card template has parts and labour fields tailored to that workflow. And if you're weighing whether to keep job cards on paper or move to mobile, our guide to what a workshop app should actually do covers the on-the-floor side.

When a Paper Format Isn't the Limit

Getting the format right is the first step. The format is the same whether you use paper, a document, a spreadsheet, or an app — but the medium decides what the job card can do. A paper card captures one job in one moment. A digital job card with the same fields can be searched, totalled automatically, and synced to your accounts. Our complete guide to workshop job sheets and step-by-step guide to replacing paper job cards cover the move from a paper format to a digital one without changing how your team works.

This guide covers workshop job card formats for UK reactive workshops as of mid-2026. We're building JobCardApp as a digital job card system that keeps the format you know — instant job creation, parts and labour per job, machine history by serial — and adds a shared board and QuickBooks/Xero sync. Join the waitlist for early access.