Dockwa's Service Module lets your marina raise work orders, break them into jobs, track labor and parts against each one, and invoice the customer when the work is done. This article answers the questions marinas ask most often, grouped by where they come up in the workflow.
Work orders and jobs
Work orders and jobs
Do I need a contract in place to raise a work order?
No. A work order needs a customer and a boat — nothing else. If the customer doesn't exist yet, you can create them and add their boats without leaving the work order screen. Transient and one-off customers work exactly the same way as your long-term contract holders.
Can one work order hold several jobs?
Yes. A work order can hold as many jobs as you need. Each job appears as its own collapsible section, and the status of the work order rolls up from the jobs beneath it.
Can I pause a job that's waiting on parts?
Yes. On hold is a dedicated job status, and you can record why in the job notes.
Can I see who did what and when?
Yes. Every job has an audit and activity feed that records each start, hold, resume, and completion, along with any notes added along the way.
Can I add notes as work progresses?
Yes. You can post a note to a job at any point, and it appears in the activity feed.
Can I build a template out of a job I'm already setting up?
Yes. You can save a job as a template at the moment you create it. This is usually the fastest way to build up your template library — turn the jobs you're already doing into templates as you go, rather than setting them all up in advance.
Can I schedule a work order to start on a future date?
Yes — for the current day or any date ahead. You can also filter the work order index by scheduled and unscheduled.
One thing to know: a work order can only be scheduled while it's in Open status.
How do I find a work order?
Search by work order ID, customer name, or boat name. You can also filter the list by status.
Can I see the boat's insurance and registration from the work order?
Yes. The boat photo, registration, insurance, and vessel details all carry through from the customer record and stay visible on the work order.
Items, labor, parts, and tax
Items, labor, parts, and tax
Can I charge more than one labor rate?
Yes. Labor items support per hour, flat rate, and per foot, and you can have as many labor items as you need. Two is typical — commonly a yard rate and a mechanical rate.
Can I add fuel to a job?
Yes. Fuel items carry parts availability by default and appear under parts on the job.
Is there a limit on how many items my marina can have?
Yes, depending on your plan. If you're on POS Lite rather than the full Point of Sale module, your catalog is capped at 100 items. Service shares the same catalog as Point of Sale, so that ceiling covers all your parts and labor items too.
Worth checking your item count early: if your yard carries several hundred part numbers, you'll need the full Point of Sale module.
Do I need to enable my existing items for service one by one?
No. Standard and fuel items are given parts availability automatically when Service is turned on for your marina, and that includes a backfill of your existing catalog. You can also set availability through the item import.
Labor items are the exception — those are created new as part of your Service setup.
Can I sell a part I don't currently have in stock?
Yes. Items can go into negative inventory and will show as negative. Service doesn't check stock levels or stop you at zero.
How is tax handled?
Per line item, based on each product's own tax configuration. There's no tax setting on the work order itself — every line inherits whatever its item is set up with, which means taxable and non-taxable items can sit side by side on the same job.
Invoicing and payments
Invoicing and payments
Can I invoice some jobs on a work order but not others?
Yes. Any job in Work complete status can be invoiced on its own, or combined with other completed jobs onto a single invoice, while the rest of the work order stays open.
Can I invoice a job before it's finished?
No. The job has to be in Work complete status before you can invoice it.
Can I set up autopay?
Yes, at either work order level or invoice level. Invoices inherit the work order setting, and you can override an individual invoice if you need to.
Can I take a card-present payment for service?
Yes, using the same card reader hardware you use elsewhere in Dockwa.
Note that tipping isn't enabled on service invoices — that's Point of Sale only.
Can customers make partial payments?
Yes, through the standard settle flow.
Are there service-specific reports?
There are no reports built specifically for Service. Your existing Dockwa reports work as expected and will include service activity.
Refunds and changes after invoicing
Refunds and changes after invoicing
How do refunds work?
At item level. On a job whose invoice has already been settled, removing an individual item from the job automatically triggers a refund for the value of that item. There's no whole-invoice refund.
How do I refund an entire job?
Remove the items one at a time until nothing is left to refund. Each removal generates its own refund invoice, and these can't currently be combined into a single refund.
What if I need to change a job after invoicing it?
Reopen it. You can reopen a job any time up until the invoice is paid, and doing so voids that invoice. Make your changes, mark the job complete again, and generate a new invoice.
What your boater sees
What your boater sees
Does the boater receive the invoice as soon as I generate it?
Only if the Email to boater checkbox is left checked when you generate it. If a customer tells you they never received an invoice, this is the first thing to check.
If that box was unchecked, does the boater ever get the invoice?
Yes. Unchecking the box only skips the immediate send — it doesn't take the invoice out of your normal billing emails. The invoice still picks up:
an upcoming invoice email once there's a balance due within five days, and
a past due email 10 or more days after the due date.
Both of these run daily at 8am. There's no additional service-specific automated send beyond those, and you can send the invoice manually from the Dockwa interface at any time.
Can the boater see or pay a service invoice online?
Boaters interact with Service only through the invoice — by email, and in the Invoices & Payments section of their account. There's no work order view for boaters, and online payment isn't available for service invoices yet, so your marina settles payment on your side.
Printing and paperwork
Printing and paperwork
Is there anything I can hand a technician?
Yes — the technician worksheet. It prints one job per page with the work order details at the top, plus space for extra line items, time logging, and notes.
Does the customer copy printout change once I invoice?
Partially. The header always reads WORK ORDER, no matter the status. What changes is the total label and the disclaimer text: they show estimate language while any job on the work order is still uninvoiced, and switch to final-bill language only once every job has been invoiced.
What Service doesn't do yet
What Service doesn't do yet
Can I send an estimate for the customer to approve or decline?
Not digitally. For now, print or PDF the customer copy of the work order, send it to the customer, and record their confirmation manually.
Can I assign a technician to a job?
No. There's no technician assignment in Dockwa. Write the technician's name on the printed worksheet.
Can I track technician time or schedule technicians?
No. Hours are tracked against the job, not against a person, and technician scheduling happens outside Dockwa. For the same reason, you can't track hours in progress on a multi-day job.
Can I attach photos or files to a work order?
No. The notes field is the only place to record this, so it won't cover before-and-after or damage documentation.
Can I message a boater from a work order?
No.
Can a boater request work, or can a lead become a work order?
No. Work orders are created marina-side only.
Can I apply a discount to an invoice?
Not as an invoice-level discount. The workaround is to add a discounted SKU as a line item.
Are there service-specific user permissions?
Not yet.
Are there job categories or departments?
No.
Do work orders have a name or title field?
No. Work orders are identified by their sequential ID, the customer, and the boat.
Can I see a customer's work orders on their contact record?
Not yet. For now, find them through work order search.
Can I tell the technician where the boat physically is?
There's nothing built in for this. Use the job notes.
Can I edit the request description on a work order?
No.
Can I bill a subcontractor's work?
You can bill the boater in Dockwa with margin applied on the quote, but the vendor is paid through QuickBooks. Dockwa doesn't manage subcontractor payouts, and