Sometimes a job does not happen. The customer calls off the install, reschedules to a date you have not set yet, or never brings the vehicle in. Cancel the work order so it stops sitting in your open work.

**How to cancel**

Open the work order (Service > Work Orders, or click its card on the Job Board) and click Cancel Work Order. You are asked to confirm, then given the option to type a short reason such as "customer cancelled" or "rescheduled, waiting on parts". The reason is optional, but it is worth filling in: months later it is the only thing that explains why the job stopped.

You can cancel from any live stage, whether the vehicle never arrived or the job was already in the bay: Check-In, In Progress, or Quality Check.

**What cancelling does**

  • The work order drops off the Job Board and out of your open work order list.
  • It does not count as completed work. It stays out of the Work Order Summary report and out of technician job counts and labor numbers, which is the important difference between cancelling a job and closing it.
  • Any appointment booked for it is cancelled too, so the bay is free again for someone else.
  • The work order is not deleted. It stays on the customer record and the vehicle history, showing as Cancelled with the date and reason, so the record of what was booked and called off survives.
  • Technicians cannot work it on the Mobile Bay app. Scanning it there shows a summary instead of the check-in screen.

**Finding a cancelled work order later**

Go to Service > Work Orders and set the Status filter to Cancelled. It is also on the customer record and the vehicle's service history as normal.

**If the customer changes their mind**

Open the cancelled work order and click Reopen Work Order. It goes back to Check-In, the cancellation date and reason are cleared, and any appointment that was cancelled with it returns to your calendar as Scheduled. Confirm the time with the customer, since a cancelled slot may well have been given away.

**When you cannot cancel**

Cancelling is refused once the invoice has been paid or posted. At that point the money is in and walking the job back is a refund conversation, not a cancellation. Issue a refund on the invoice instead. See How Invoice Statuses Work.

**Who can cancel**

Cancelling is limited to owners, store managers, office managers, and installation managers by default, because it also removes the customer's appointment from the calendar. If you want your counter staff to be able to cancel, turn on the "Cancel work orders" permission for that employee under Employees > edit > Permissions. It is a separate permission from "Close / mark complete", so you can let someone close finished jobs without letting them cancel booked ones.

**Cancelling versus deleting the invoice**

If you delete an invoice that has a work order attached, that work order is cancelled automatically, and the confirmation box tells you so before you go ahead. Be aware that deleting an invoice is permanent and leaves no record. If you want the paperwork to survive, void the invoice instead of deleting it, and cancel the work order yourself.

Related: How to Create a Work Order, How to Use the Job Board, How Invoice Statuses Work.