Digital Vehicle Inspection (DVI)

What Is a DVI?

A Digital Vehicle Inspection (DVI) is a structured walk-around of a vehicle conducted on the mobile app. Each inspection point is rated Good, Advisory, or Needs Attention. Notes and photos can be added to any item. When complete, the inspection is sent to the customer’s portal so they can review the results before approving any additional work.

DVIs are attached to a Repair Order. Both the Advisor App and the Technician App can start, continue, and complete an inspection on the same RO.

Starting an Inspection

Open a Repair Order in either the Advisor App or Technician App. On the Details tab, tap Start Inspection. CSM creates the inspection using the shop’s default template and opens the inspection form immediately.

If an inspection is already in progress on this RO, the button label changes to Continue Inspection and links to the existing record. Only one inspection can be active per RO at a time.

Conducting the Inspection

The inspection form steps through each category in the template. For every item, tap one of the three rating buttons:

Good — item is in acceptable condition
Advisory — item should be monitored; no immediate action required
Needs Attention — item requires service and should be presented to the customer

After rating an item you can optionally add a note and attach a photo from the phone camera. Tap Next to move to the next category. The form saves progress automatically so the inspection can be paused and resumed at any time.

Completing the Inspection

After all categories are rated, tap Complete Inspection. This locks the inspection and shows the results summary — counts of Good, Advisory, and Needs Attention items. From the results view, flagged items can be linked to labor presets from the shop’s library to price up the recommended work.

Sending the Inspection to the Customer

Once the inspection is complete you can send results to the customer from either the desktop or the Advisor App. On the desktop, open the RO and go to the Inspections tab — a green Send to Customer → button appears in the completed inspection’s header. In the Advisor App, open the inspection results and tap the same button. The customer receives a push notification (if they have the portal installed) and a message in their inbox. The inspection report appears in their portal immediately.

After sending, the button is replaced by a sent-date badge so you always know when the customer was notified.

What the Customer Sees

The customer opens the Customer Portal and sees the full inspection report under the Repair Order. Every item is listed with its rating (color-coded green, yellow, or red), the tech’s note, and any photos attached. Items rated Needs Attention are grouped at the top. The customer can approve or decline recommended work items directly from their portal.

Inspection Templates

CSM seeds a standard 30-point inspection template automatically when a shop first uses the DVI feature. To customize the template — rename categories, add or remove items, reorder sections — go to Settings → DVI Templates in the desktop interface.

Multiple templates can be created for different job types (e.g., a quick oil change checklist versus a full pre-purchase inspection). When starting an inspection from the mobile app, the shop’s default template is used automatically.