DRIVE SMS v26.7.0 – Release Notes

This release focuses on stabilizing high-traffic workflows in Sales, Repair Orders, Recommendations, Global Search, printing and PDF output, permissions, scheduling, notifications, and payments. It also includes supporting performance, mobile, and data-integrity improvements.

Sales, Repair Orders & Estimates

• ◆ Improved stability when adding, editing, closing, completing, and converting estimates and repair orders.
• ◆ Corrected several cases involving inaccurate concurrent-editing or unauthorized-access messages.
• ◆ Improved customer editing, vehicle handling, appointment linking, profit analysis, notes, tax handling, discounts, and print actions.
• ◆ Refined closed repair order, invoice conversion, payment, and change-date workflows.
• ◆ View-only behavior is improved when another user already has a repair order open for editing.

Why it matters: Service advisors and managers should encounter fewer interruptions while working in frequently used sales and repair order screens.

Recommendations & Customer Approvals

• ◆ Refined recommendation editing, layout, pricing, margins, line movement, taxable behavior, and status handling.
• ◆ Improved quick recommendation behavior and consistency across edit, review, and print scenarios.
• ◆ Corrected cases where recommendation status did not update properly after pricing or approval changes.
• ◆ Improved approval-link and customer checkout flows, including payments, notifications, and post-approval activity logging.
• ◆ Enhanced printed recommendations with improved visibility, ordering, spacing, and content accuracy. 
• ◆ Added support for printing service recommendations for customers without email.

Why it matters: These refinements create a clearer experience for both the shop team and customers reviewing recommended work.

Global Search

• [PERFORMANCE] Broad optimization work improves search speed and responsiveness.
• ◆ Improved matching behavior, including exact and partial matches, phrase handling, and result clarity.
• ◆ Enhanced results for customers, vehicles, contacts, sales, notes, companies, parts, and suppliers.
• ◆ Corrected missing fields, stale results after switching locations, dark mode rendering, and mobile or iPad layout issues.
• ◆ Improved permission-aware results so inaccessible information is less likely to appear or generate an access error when opened.

Why it matters: Teams can find relevant records more quickly while receiving results that better reflect their location and access permissions.

Printing, PDF & Reporting

• ◆ Corrected spacing, margins, headers, totals, negative currency formatting, and missing fields across printed output.
• ◆ Improved PDF generation for invoices, estimates, repair orders, inspections, statements, reconciliation output, supplier comparisons, and other reports.
• ◆ Selected reporting areas use newer PDF-generation patterns intended to reduce file size and improve performance.
• ◆ Supplier comparison output received improvements to printing, totals, filters, export behavior, dark theme support, and data accuracy.
• ◆ Recommended repair totals on printed invoices receive additional visibility-setting support.

Why it matters: Printed and digital documents should be clearer, more consistent, and easier to share with customers or use internally.

Permissions, Security & Data Integrity

• ◆ Addressed cross-location access and API authorization issues.
• ◆ Improved permission-sensitive user interface behavior so save buttons, actions, and editable controls better align with assigned access.
• ◆ Strengthened location isolation across parts, options, workflow, sales, and related system areas.
• ◆ Included data-integrity fixes for supplier comparison, parts purchasing, sublet and service cleanup, KPI recalculation triggers, and activity logging.

Why it matters: Users see controls and information that more consistently match their assigned permissions and location.

Workflow, Scheduler & Notifications

• ◆ Improved Workflow loading and responsiveness by reducing duplicate or excessive requests.
• ◆ Corrected location switching, workflow tabs, board behavior, and related loading issues.
• ◆ Improved appointment creation and editing, estimate and repair order linking, VIN validation, and customer or vehicle handling.
• ◆ Refined calendar and list views, including filtering, refresh behavior, selected states, drag-and-drop behavior, tooltips, and dark mode.
• ◆ Improved scheduling hours, location hours, special hours, validation, save behavior, and mobile responsiveness. (Support Article)
• ◆ Enhanced out-of-office visibility, editing, timing, notes, and support for multi-day scheduling workflows.(Support Article)
• ◆ Improved customer notifications and selected service advisor notification flows.

Why it matters: Front-desk and management teams gain a more stable foundation for appointments, calendar management, and future work scheduling.

DVI & Technician Experience

• ◆ Resolved selected repair order detail and vehicle-history access errors.
• ◆ Improved inspection-image text clarity and corrected mobile recommendation-grid display issues.
• ◆ Reduced excessive technician notifications and improved workflow-step visibility details.
• ◆ Time clock notes allow technicians to provide context when clocking out of a job.
• ◆ Settings include support for allowing technicians to add vehicle information such as VIN and license plate in DVI.
• ◆ Administrative visibility includes selecting a technician to view that technician’s DVI information.

Why it matters: Technicians and managers receive clearer inspection information, more useful time-clock context, and fewer unnecessary interruptions.

Time Management & Reporting

• [NEW] Added a completed billed-hours column.
• ◆ Corrected billed-hours calculations and the no-event filter calculation.
• ◆ Added time clock notes for better context around recorded job time.

What This Means for Your Shop

• ✓ More dependable day-to-day workflows in Sales, Repair Orders, Recommendations, Search, and Scheduling.
• ✓ Clearer customer-facing documents and approval experiences.
• ✓ Better mobile responsiveness, page performance, and system stability.
• ✓ More consistent permission-aware behavior and location isolation.
• ✓ Improved visibility into technician time, billed hours, and operational records.