Join the waitlist

The bench

Instruments are released when they are paid for.

Intake to pickup on one board. Release is tied to payment, because an instrument in a customer’s hands is no longer collateral.

Why repairs aren’t on the monthly cycle.

The whole repair module is built around this decision.

Lessons add up through the month and are invoiced at the end, on terms. That works because the service has already been delivered and the relationship continues.

A repair is different. The customer is standing at the counter, and the instrument is the only leverage in the transaction. You can’t hand back a guitar against an invoice that isn’t due for three weeks, so a repair gets its own invoice, issued and payable when the work is collected.

Releasing an instrument is its own permission. Not everyone who can look at a repair can hand it over, and the system won’t release one against an unpaid invoice.

Both invoices still appear on the same account.

The board.

Six stages from intake to pickup. A job can also end as declined or abandoned.

  1. 1IntakeSerial number, condition, promised date, technician
  2. 2QuotedParts and labor, priced from the catalog
  3. 3ApprovedThe customer’s approval, recorded against the quote
  4. 4In progressOn the bench
  5. 5Ready for pickupInvoiced, and due now
  6. 6Picked upReleased once it is paid

Document the repair.

Most repair disputes are about what the instrument looked like when it arrived, not about the work.

A repair carries photographs, checkpoints and measurements, each pinned to the moment it belongs to: arrival, on the bench, ready, collected. A crack photographed at intake and a crack photographed at pickup are different facts, and the record keeps them apart.

The customer takes part in that record. They can be sent a photo link before they leave the house, and at handover they type their own name against the checkpoint.

Measurements name the instrument they were taken with, and that instrument carries its own calibration date. A reading is only as good as the meter behind it.

The instrument nobody came back for.

Every shop has a shelf of them. Almost no software has a way to handle it.

An uncollected instrument starts accruing storage after a number of free days you set, at a daily rate you set. It is posted to the account as it accrues, not invented in one lump months later.

Selling someone’s property to recover what you’re owed is a different matter, and it is the one a shop’s own agreement usually gets wrong. Telling the customer isn’t the same act as posting a public notice, and a shop that treats them as one can end up with a sale it believes is lawful and isn’t. The two are tracked separately: the public notice, with where it was posted and for how long, and the owner, told in a separate step with its own evidence.

Two different people. One member of staff proposes a disposal and a different one decides it. The balance owed and the days uncollected are frozen when it is proposed, and so is the earliest lawful sale date. A setting corrected afterward can’t move a date the shop has already acted on.

The waiting period, the notice days, how many places the notice must be posted and what share of a surplus goes to the clerk are all settings. They default to one state’s procedure, so check them with your own lawyer for your state.

Details that matter at the counter.

  • Walk-ins get an account too

    Someone who has never taken a lesson still needs somewhere to bill. A repair creates or attaches a billing account, so the one-account rule holds even for a one-off customer.

  • The quote belongs to the customer

    Parts and labor are quoted, and the customer’s approval is recorded against that quote. What was agreed is on record and doesn’t depend on anyone’s recollection.

  • Paid at the counter or on the account

    Take a card at pickup, or put it on the family’s account if they have one. Either way the repair has its own invoice and doesn’t join next month’s lesson bill.

  • Declined and abandoned are states

    A quote the customer turned down and an instrument nobody came back for are both outcomes the system records. Neither leaves a job stuck on the board forever.

  • Photos from whoever holds the phone

    A photo link can go to a technician, or to a customer standing in their own hallway before drop-off. Each link knows which stage it is for, so nobody has to choose between six options. Links are stored hashed, so a copy of the table yields nothing that works.

  • Readings tied to a checkpoint

    Output, resistance, relief and action are measured in the shop’s own words and attached to a checkpoint, so a reading on arrival can’t be confused with the same reading after the work.

  • Test gear with a calibration date

    The meters and tuners a shop measures with are recorded too: when they were last calibrated, by whom, and when the next calibration is due. A number is only as good as the instrument that produced it.

  • Who was there

    At handover and at pickup, the customer types their own name against the checkpoint. A staff member doesn’t tick a box on their behalf.

Not open to new studios yet.

B♭ Studio runs a working music studio today. If you run one too, join the waitlist and we’ll be in touch when there is something to show you.

Join the waitlist