About This Guide

This guide covers Case Management in RoadBays — creating cases, finding them again, and working through every tab on an open case. It is written for the people who use RoadBays day to day: dispatchers, maintenance coordinators, fleet managers, and shop staff.

You do not need to read it end to end. Use the table of contents to jump to the screen you are on.

How to read the instructions

What a case is

A case is the record of one repair event on one unit. It holds everything about that repair in one place: which unit, who is responsible, what is wrong, where the unit is, who is fixing it, what it costs, and every note, photo, inspection, fault code, and invoice attached along the way.

Cases are the backbone of RoadBays. Almost everything else in the system — inspections, invoices, fault codes, maintenance history — either starts from a case or reports on one.

Case statuses

Every case carries one of four statuses. You can change it from the case itself or straight from the Case Search list.

Finding Cases

The Case Search screen is where you will spend most of your time. It lists your cases, lets you filter them down to the ones you care about, and lets you make quick changes without opening each case.

Opening Case Search

1. From the main navigation, choose Cases.
2. The Case Search screen opens showing Open cases from the last 30 days.
3. Click any case number to open the full case.

Reading the case list

In List View, each row is one case. The columns are:

Filtering the list

The Filters panel sits on the right-hand side of Case Search. Every filter applies instantly — there is no Apply button.

To clear a filter, set it back to All. To clear the whole set, reload the page or load a saved view.

Searching within the results

The search box above the table searches the rows currently loaded. Use the filters first to pull back the right set of cases, then use this box to jump to one of them by unit number, description, or any other visible value.

Sorting and page size

• Click any column heading to sort by it. Click again to reverse the order. The list opens sorted by case number, newest first.
• Use the Show entries dropdown above the table to change how many cases appear per page. The default is 50.
• Both your sort order and your page size are saved with a saved view, so the list comes back arranged the way you left it.

Changing layouts

The Layout button in the top right switches how results are drawn. Both layouts respect the filters you have set.

1. Click Layout.
2. Choose Card View or List View.
3. The screen redraws using your current filters.

Quick edits from the list

You can make three common changes without opening a case.

Change a case status

1. Click the status value in the Status column.
2. Choose Pending, Open, Complete, or Closed from the dropdown.
3. The status saves immediately and a confirmation appears in the corner of the screen.

Change a date

1. Click into the Est Arrival, Follow Up By, or Est Completion value you want to change.
2. Type the new date and time over the existing one.
3. Click anywhere outside the cell. The new value saves and a confirmation appears.

Delete a case

1. Click Delete at the end of the row, or on the card footer in Card View.
2. Confirm when prompted.

The Global Search Bar

The search bar at the top of every RoadBays screen is the fastest way to reach a case when you already know something about it. You do not have to be on Case Search to use it — it works from anywhere in the application.

Running a search

1. Click the search bar in the page header.
2. Type what you know — a case number, a unit number, an invoice number, a part, a purchase order.
3. Results appear as you type, grouped by the kind of record they are.
4. Click a result to go straight to it.

Global search looks across cases, units, invoices and billing documents, parts, purchase orders, and inspections, so one search finds the record whichever of those it turns out to be.

Narrowing by category

Use the category dropdown attached to the search bar to restrict the search to one kind of record. Setting it to Cases is the quickest way to pull up a case number when a unit number would otherwise return a long list of units, inspections, and invoices alongside it.

Recent searches

Click into the empty search bar to see your recent searches. Click one to run it again. This is useful when you are moving back and forth between the same two or three cases during a shift.

The quick add button

The + button next to the search bar creates a new record from anywhere in RoadBays, including a new case, without navigating to the Case Search screen first.

Saved Views

A saved view remembers a set of filters, your sort order, and your page size under a name you choose. Instead of setting eight filters every morning, you set them once and pick the view from a list.

Views are personal to your login. Saving one does not change what anybody else sees.

What a saved view stores

• All eight filters: Status, Range, Repair Reason, Priority, Facility Location, Maintenance Schedule, User, and Driver.
• The column you sorted by and whether it was ascending or descending.
• How many rows you had set to show per page.

Creating a view

1. Set the filters, sort order, and page size the way you want them.
2. Click the arrow beside Save View and choose Save As….
3. Type a name that says what the view is for — for example Overdue road calls or My open PMs.
4. Click OK. The view is saved and becomes the view you are currently using.

Using a view

1. Click the view name dropdown on the left of the toolbar. It reads Default filters when no view is loaded.
2. Click the view you want.
3. The filters, sort, and page size all change at once and the list reloads.

Updating a view

Once you change any filter, sort, or page size while a view is loaded, the view name shows (unsaved changes). You then have two choices:

Setting a default view

Your default view loads automatically every time you open Case Search.

1. Load the view you want as your default.
2. Click Set Default.
3. A Default badge appears beside that view in the dropdown.

Deleting a view

1. Open the view name dropdown.
2. Click the trash icon on the right of the view you want to remove.
3. Confirm when prompted.

Adding a Case

A new case starts as a header — the unit, the person responsible, and what is wrong. Once the header is saved, the rest of the case opens up.

Creating the case

1. On Case Search, click New Case. (You can also use the + quick add button in the page header from anywhere in RoadBays.)
2. In Repaired Unit, start typing the unit number and pick the unit from the list that appears.
3. Choose an Assigned User — the person responsible for seeing this repair through.
4. Type a Repair Description explaining what is wrong.
5. Fill in anything else you already know. Everything except the three fields above can be added later.
6. Click Save Header.

Required fields

Three fields are marked with an asterisk and must be filled in before the header will save:

Adding a unit that is not in RoadBays yet

If the unit you need does not come up in the Repaired Unit search, you can create it from the case using its VIN.

1. Click the New badge next to the Repaired Unit label.
2. Type or paste the full 17-character VIN.
3. Click Unit Lookup.
4. RoadBays decodes the VIN and creates the unit with the year, make, model, and specifications it returns.
5. Close the window and pick your new unit in Repaired Unit.

Duplicating an existing case

When a unit comes back in for the same problem, or you are raising several near-identical cases, copy an existing one.

1. Open the case you want to copy.
2. Click the paperclip button in the toolbar at the top right of the Case tab.
3. A new case is created carrying the same header details. Adjust what is different and save.

The Case Tab

The Case tab is the first tab on every case and holds the repair record itself. This section walks through it top to bottom.

The case toolbar

A row of buttons sits at the top right of the Case tab.

Unit and people

Dates and status

Est Arrival, Est Completion, Follow Up By, Date Rolling, and Date Paid all open a calendar with a time picker when you click into them.

Complaint, Cause, and Correction

These three fields are the standard "three Cs" of a repair record. Filling them in consistently is what makes your repair history worth reporting on later.

Priority, odometer, and facility

Where the unit is

This group tells everyone — including the shop you are sending — exactly where the unit is sitting.

Costs and contract

Repair Description

The required description of the work. This is the text that appears in the Description column on Case Search and on case cards, so write it so it makes sense to somebody scanning a list of forty cases — "No start, no crank" beats "see notes".

Maintenance and the Maintenance Board

Posting a case to the maintenance board

The maintenance board is the shared view of work that needs attention — the digital version of the whiteboard in the shop. Posting a case to it makes that case visible to everybody watching the board, not just the assigned user.

1. Open the case.
2. Tick the Maintenance Board checkbox near the bottom of the Case tab.
3. Click Save Header.

To take a case back off the board, untick the box and save again.

Saving your changes

Click Save Header at the bottom of the Case tab to save everything above it. Case notes, and everything on the other tabs, save on their own — Save Header covers the header fields only.

Case Notes

The Comments section at the bottom of the Case tab is the running conversation about the repair — the calls you made, what the shop said, what you are waiting on. Notes are stamped with your name and the date and time, and they are what turns a case into a record somebody else can pick up cold.

Posting a note

1. Scroll to Comments at the bottom of the Case tab.
2. Type into the Add a comment box. The box grows as you type, so long notes stay readable.
3. Click Post.

The note appears at the top of the list below. The newest note is always first.

Editing a note

You can edit notes you wrote yourself. An Edit button appears on your own notes only — you cannot change somebody else's.

1. Find your note and click Edit.
2. Change the text.
3. Click Save, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

Links in notes

Paste a web address into a note and RoadBays turns it into a clickable link automatically. Use this for parts listings, supplier quotes, or a shared document about the repair.

Notifications

The Notifications tab keeps people outside RoadBays informed about this case automatically. Use it to keep a driver, a customer, a manager, or a shop contact updated without having to remember to email them.

Notifications set here apply to this case only. Notifications you want on every case are set once under Settings > Notifications.

Adding a notification

1. Open the case and click the Notifications tab.
2. Tick Case Header Notifications to alert this person when the case header changes — status, dates, assignment.
3. Tick Case Notes Notifications to alert them when somebody posts a note on the case.
4. Choose a Notification Type: Email or Text.
5. Enter the Recipient — an email address for Email, a mobile number for Text.
6. Click Add Notification.

The recipient is added to the table below, showing when it was created, which notification types are switched on, and the contact used.

Removing a notification

Click Delete on the recipient's row. They stop receiving updates about this case immediately.

Stances

The Stances tab shows the approval positions that apply to this case — who can authorize work, and up to what amount. It is a read-only reference so that whoever is working the case can see the approval chain without having to go and ask.

Fault Codes

The Fault Codes tab holds the diagnostic trouble codes recorded against this case. Codes arrive from the unit automatically, and you can also add codes by hand when a technician reads them off a scan tool.

Reading the fault code list

Pulling the latest codes

Click Refresh Fault Codes to pull the current codes from the unit. Use this after a technician has cleared codes, or when you want to confirm a fault is still active before dispatching somebody.

Looking a code up

Click Fault Code Lookup to look up a code you have in front of you but that is not on the case yet. This is powered by Diesel Laptops.

Adding a code by hand

1. Type the code into Code Label.
2. Type what it means into Code Description.
3. Click Save Fault Code.

The code is added to the table and becomes part of the case record.

Asking the experts

Each code row carries buttons that send it off for a deeper answer:

• Ask AI returns diagnostic guidance for that code, using the unit's year, make, and model for context — so the answer is about your truck, not trucks in general.
• Ask DL sends the code to Diesel Laptops for a diagnostics response from their technicians and knowledge base.

Mileage

The Mileage tab records the unit's odometer readings against this case. Accurate mileage is what drives preventive maintenance scheduling and cost-per-mile reporting, so it is worth getting right.

Recording mileage by hand

1. Type the reading into Current Mileage.
2. Click Save Mileage.

Pulling mileage automatically

Click Update Mileage to pull the unit's latest odometer reading from your connected telematics provider. RoadBays fetches the reading, fills in the Current Mileage box, and adds it to the history.

Mileage history

Every reading is kept, showing when it was recorded, who recorded it, and the mileage. Nothing is overwritten, so you can always see how the readings moved through the repair.

Vendor Search

The Vendor Search tab is a map of repair facilities near the unit. Use it when a unit is down away from home and you need to find somebody who can work on it.

Finding facilities

1. Open the case and click the Vendor Search tab.
2. Type an address, city, or highway exit into the search box on the map — or use Locate Vehicle to center on the unit's own reported position.
3. Facilities appear as pins on the map and as a list down the side.
4. Click a pin or a list entry to see that facility's details.

Map filters

A count under the filters tells you how many facilities match. The Legend panel explains the pin colors: red for a customer vendor, black for a customer shop, blue for a RoadBays vendor.

Facility details

Selecting a facility opens a panel showing its name, address, phone number, ranking, and any note attached to it. Underneath, two tabs hold the conversation about that facility:

Leaving a comment on a facility

1. Select the facility on the map or in the list.
2. Type into the comment box in the facility panel.
3. Tick Internal if the comment should stay inside your organization. Leave it unticked to share with the community.
4. Click the send button.

Inspections

The Inspections tab attaches inspection forms to the case — a pre-repair walkaround, a post-repair quality check, a DOT inspection carried out while the unit was in.

Starting an inspection

1. Open the case and click the Inspections tab.
2. Choose the form you want from the Select Inspection dropdown.
3. Click Create Inspection.

The inspection is created against this case and this unit and appears in the table below.

The inspection list

Invoices

The Invoices tab is where the money side of the case lives. It has two sub-tabs: the Billing Workbench, and Invoices (Legacy).

The Billing Workbench

The workbench carries a repair from estimate through work order to invoice as one connected document, so the lines you quoted become the lines you billed without being retyped.

Creating a workbench

1. Make sure the case has a unit selected and has been saved.
2. Click Create Workbench.
3. The workbench opens in a new tab, ready for you to add lines.

The workbench list

Editing a line

Lines can be edited on the Estimate, Work Order, and Invoice tabs of the workbench. Click the line to open it, change what you need, and save.

Invoices (Legacy)

The Invoices (Legacy) sub-tab holds invoices raised the older way, before the Billing Workbench. Existing invoices stay here and remain fully available; use Add Invoice (Legacy) only if your organization has a reason to keep working this way.

The table shows the invoice number, case number, invoice status, the opened, complete and closed dates, the follow-up and estimated completion dates, and the description.

Bulletins

The Bulletins tab gives you manufacturer service bulletins and reference material without leaving the case, so you can check whether a known issue covers the symptom you are looking at before authorizing a diagnosis.

The content is presented as an embedded report inside the tab. Scroll, filter, and page through it using the controls in the report itself.

Files

The Files tab holds everything attached to the case: photos of the damage, the shop's quote, a scanned invoice, a voice memo from the driver, a video of the fault happening.

Uploading a file

1. Open the case and click the Files tab.
2. Click Choose file and pick the file from your device. On a phone, this lets you take a photo directly.
3. Click Save Attachment.

The file appears in the Uploaded Files grid below, with the date it was uploaded.

What you can upload

RoadBays checks the file before it uploads. If the type is not allowed or the file is too big, a message appears straight away and the Save Attachment button is disabled until you pick a different file.

Working with uploaded files

Each file shows as a card. Images show a thumbnail; other files show a type label such as PDF, DOC, XLS, AUD, or VID. Every card carries three buttons:

Sharing a Case

Share Case produces a link to this case that you can send to somebody — a shop, a driver, a manager, a customer.

1. Open the case and click Share Case in the toolbar at the top right of the Case tab.
2. Click Copy to copy the link.
3. Paste it into an email, a text message, or a chat.

Unit Info and VIN Decode

The Info badge next to Repaired Unit opens a window with everything RoadBays knows about the unit on the case, without you having to leave the case to go and look.

Unit Info

The Unit Info tab shows the unit's details as they are held in RoadBays — the record your own team has built up.

VIN Decode

The VIN Decode tab shows what the manufacturer encoded into the unit's VIN: year, make, model, engine, and specifications. This is decoded through the Diesel Laptops Diesel Decoder integration.

Use it when you need to tell a parts counter exactly what the truck is, or when the unit record in RoadBays is thin and you want the authoritative specification.

Ask AI

Ask AI answers repair and diagnostic questions in plain English, from inside the case. It is there for the moment when you need to know something quickly and the person who would know is not available.

Asking a question

1. Open the case and click the question mark button in the toolbar at the top right.
2. Tick Include asset year, make, model in question to have RoadBays add the unit's details to your question automatically.
3. Type your question.
4. Click Ask.

The answer appears below the question. You can keep asking follow-up questions in the same window.

The kinds of questions it handles

• How to do a regen for a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia?
• How to solve code SPN 168 FMI 2 on a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia?
• What is a gladhand?

Case History and Invoice History

Two buttons in the case toolbar open the audit trail for the case.

Case History

Click the briefcase icon to see every status change on this case, with the date and a description of what changed. This answers questions like "how long did this sit in Pending?" and "when was this actually approved?"

Invoice History

Click the pencil icon to see the status history of invoices raised against this case — the same audit trail, on the billing side.

Location History

Click the History badge beside the Latitude field to see every position reported for this unit against this case: the date, when the unit last reported, who requested the position, and the resolved location.

Common Workflows

Putting the pieces together — the sequences you will run most often.

A unit breaks down on the road

1. Create a new case. Select the unit, assign yourself, and describe the symptom.
2. Set the Driver so the driver is on the record.
3. Click Save Header.
4. On the Case tab, click Refresh beside Latitude to pull the unit's position, and add anything the driver tells you to Location Description.
5. Check the Fault Codes tab. Click Refresh Fault Codes, then use Ask AI on anything you do not recognize to judge whether the unit can move.
6. Go to Vendor Search. Set a radius, find a facility, and check the Community and Internal comments on it before you call.
7. Set the Repair Facility on the Case tab and set Est Arrival and Follow Up By.
8. On the Notifications tab, add the driver so they get told when the dates move.
9. Post a case note with who you called and what they said.

A scheduled preventive maintenance visit

1. Create a case for the unit with a Repair Reason of preventive maintenance.
2. Under Maintenance Schedules, tick the PM schedules this visit covers.
3. Set Services Needed and the Repair Facility, and set Est Arrival.
4. Save Header.
5. On the Inspections tab, create the inspection form the technician will complete.
6. When the work is done, record the Closing Odometer on the Case tab so the next PM is scheduled from the right reading.
7. On the Mileage tab, click Update Mileage to confirm the reading against telematics.
8. Set the status to Complete.

Working your follow-ups each morning

1. Open Case Search.
2. Set the Status filter to Open and the User filter to yourself.
3. Sort by Follow Up By, oldest first.
4. Click the arrow beside Save View, choose Save As…, and name it My follow-ups.
5. Click Set Default so it loads every time you open Case Search.
6. Each morning, work down the amber badges — those are the cases whose follow-up date has passed.

Troubleshooting

Glossary

Need More Help?

If something in Case Management is not working the way this page describes, email support@roadbays.com or submit a question from the Help page.