What this checklist covers
The Body Shop Work-In-Progress Checklist is a 15-point scorecard for job status, pending approvals, parts delays, repair progress, paint queue, delivery commitments, and daily production review. Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5 on what the auditor sees on the day, and every gap goes into an action plan with an owner and a close date.
AutoSmart tip: WIP management is the bodyshop equivalent of workshop controller discipline in the service department — without daily active management of job status, approvals, parts, and paint queue, cycle time extends and customer commitments are missed. The daily production meeting is not a reporting exercise; it is a decision-making session where every overdue job should leave the meeting with a named action and a revised completion date.
The checks
Tap Yes, No or Maybe to try it: your answers stay in this page and clear when you refresh. For a detailed walkthrough, download our PDF or book a demo.
Job status and pending approvals
- Is every vehicle currently in the bodyshop assigned a clear job status — assessment, awaiting approval, parts ordered, in repair, paint, reassembly, quality check, or ready for collection — visible to the production team without needing to physically check the vehicle?
- Are jobs awaiting insurer approval tracked separately, with the date the estimate was submitted and the SLA for approval response visible — allowing escalation before the SLA is breached?
- Is customer authorisation for private pay work or excess amounts tracked separately from insurer authorisation, with no repair commencing until both customer and insurer (where applicable) have authorised in writing?
- Are jobs pending supplementary approval tracked with the date the supplementary was submitted, flagged for escalation if the insurer has not responded within the agreed turnaround time?
Parts delays and repair progress
- Are jobs on hold due to parts availability identified in the daily production review, with the expected parts arrival date and planned restart date confirmed?
- Is the customer proactively informed when a parts delay will push the collection date beyond the originally committed date — before the original date passes, not after the customer calls to enquire?
- Is repair progress for each active job tracked against the planned completion date for that repair stage — with jobs falling behind their plan flagged for production planning intervention?
- Are jobs that have been stationary (no recorded progress) for more than one day investigated in the production review, to identify whether they are genuinely paused for a legitimate reason or have been overlooked?
Paint queue and delivery commitment
- Is a paint queue plan maintained — sequencing vehicles for booth entry based on repair completion stage, colour complexity, and booth cycle time — to ensure the paint booth is continuously utilised without creating a bottleneck?
- Is the committed collection date for each job reviewed daily against actual production progress, with the collection date revised and the customer notified immediately if it cannot be met?
- Are vehicles confirmed as ready for collection but uncollected tracked separately, with courtesy car returns or storage cost implications reviewed where collection is delayed by the customer?
Daily production review and governance
- Is a daily production meeting held — covering all active WIP, jobs entering the bodyshop that day, paint queue, expected completions, and customer communication — attended by the Bodyshop Manager, estimator, and production lead?
- Does the daily production meeting result in documented actions for that day — specific jobs to be expedited, customers to be called, approvals to be chased — not only a status review with no recorded outputs?
- Is WIP data accurate and current at the time of the daily production review — reflecting actual vehicle status, not carried over from the previous day's plan without updating?
- Is WIP performance reviewed weekly at management level — with cycle time trend, jobs overdue against commitment, and approval delay rate all presented alongside revenue and volume metrics?
How to run it
How the scoring works
Before the visit, fill in the dealer or centre, the auditor, the date and the audit cycle. Then score each of the 15 checks from 1 to 5 on what you see on the day, not on what the site aims for, and add them up out of 75.
- 1Not in place
- 2Attempted
- 3Defined
- 4Managed
- 5Fully sustained
- Green60–75 · 80–100%Compliant. Keep the standard.
- Amber38–59 · 50–79%Improvement needed: a structured action plan within 30 days.
- Red0–37 · Below 50%Priority intervention, escalated to regional management.
Then close every gap
Each gap goes into the action plan tracker and moves through four stages until the auditor closes it.
- 1PendingOwner and close date set
- 2In progressWork under way, evidence gathered
- 3CompletedEvidence submitted for review
- 4ApprovedVerified and closed by the auditor
