Your Deferred Services by Customer report is a revenue-recovery tool. Every time a customer declines or postpones a service on an order — whether they said "not today", walked out on an estimate, or had the order invoiced without authorizing that line — the service lands on this report as a follow-up opportunity. Each row is one of your customers (at one of your shops, for multi-shop HQ views), with their contact info, how many services are outstanding, when the most recent one was deferred, and what all of them would be worth if approved. Use it to build your call-back list, prioritize your highest-value leads, and win work back into the shop.
Filters
Select Filters to select which data is displayed.
| Filter | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Countries (HQ only) | Your current country | Controls which shops are available in the Locations list. Only shows up if your HQ covers more than one country. |
| Locations (HQ only) | Every shop you have access to | Narrows the report to deferred services at specific shops. If you uncheck every shop, the report still shows all of them rather than going empty. |
| Last Deferred | Last month (the previous complete calendar month) | Narrows the report to services that were marked deferred during a specific date range. This is the most important filter to know about — unlike most Shopmonkey reports, this one is filtered by default. If a customer is missing, switching this to All Time is the first thing to try. Clicking "Clear" on this filter sets it to All Time. |
| Customers | All customers | Pick specific customers to focus on. Walk-in orders without a customer on file can't appear on this report at all — this report is about customers you can follow up with. |
| Customer Type | All | Pick Customer to see only individuals, or Fleet to see only fleet accounts. Leaving both unchecked or checking both has the same effect — you see everything. |
A note on the Last Deferred filter. This report answers the question "which customers have outstanding work we should follow up on?" — and by default it narrows that to "work deferred in the last calendar month". That default makes sense if you are running a weekly or monthly call-back campaign. If instead you want to see every customer who has ever deferred work and not come back for it, click Clear on the filter (which switches to All Time) before you start.
Understanding Each Number
| Card / Column | What it means | What it doesn't include | When it's useful | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deferred Service Total (card) | The combined dollar value of every outstanding deferred service in your current view, at the price it was quoted. | Taxes, order-level discounts, and order-level fees — these get added at invoice time, so the real billed total after follow-up would be higher. | Gauging the size of your follow-up opportunity — "how much revenue is sitting on this call-back list?" | If this looks smaller than you expect, check the Last Deferred filter first — it defaults to the previous calendar month, not all time. |
| Deferred Services (card) | How many outstanding deferred services are in your current view. | — | Sizing your follow-up list. | One customer can account for several deferred services. The card counts services, not customers. |
| Name (column) | The customer — first and last name for individuals, company name for fleets. Click the name to open the customer profile on the Deferred tab and see the full list. | — | Calling or emailing the customer back. | Walk-in / unassigned orders can't appear here, so every row is someone you can actually follow up with. |
| Location (column, HQ only) | The shop where the customer's deferred work lives. | — | Sending the follow-up to the right team at the right shop. | A customer with deferred work at two of your shops will appear twice — once per shop — with separate totals. This is on purpose: a follow-up is usually run by one shop at a time. |
| Phone / Email (columns) | Contact info from the customer's profile. | — | Reaching out. | If blank, the customer has no phone or email on file. Not a bug — just no data. |
| Deferred Services (column) | How many services this customer has outstanding. Click the number to see each one, grouped by vehicle. | — | Seeing who your biggest opportunities are at a glance. | — |
| Last Deferred (column) | The date of the customer's most recent deferral. | — | Knowing how stale the lead is. | This column shows the customer's newest deferred service even if the filter includes older ones — it's always the latest, not the earliest. |
| Customer Type (column) | Customer (individual) or Fleet (business account). | — | Prioritizing or splitting your call list by type. | — |
| Total (column) | The combined dollar value of this customer's outstanding deferred work, at the price it was quoted. | Taxes, order-level discounts, order-level fees. | Ranking your follow-ups by revenue potential — sort this column descending to start with your biggest opportunities. | This is a pre-tax, pre-discount quote. What the customer would actually owe if they approve everything and come in will typically be higher once tax is added. |
Common Questions
Q: Why is my customer missing — I know they have deferred work? A: Nine times out of ten, it's the Last Deferred filter. This report defaults to the previous calendar month. Click Clear on the Last Deferred filter (which switches it to All Time) and your customer will probably reappear.
Q: A customer who approved their deferred work last week is still on the list. Why? A: When a customer comes back and you add their previously-deferred service onto a new order, the service is automatically removed from this report. If you're still seeing a customer after you added their deferred work to a new order, check the original service on the old order — it should be marked as revived. If it isn't, the system didn't recognize the new service as a revival — contact Support so we can look at the specific records.
Q: The Deferred Service Total says $5,000, but I know my customers owe me way more than that on deferred work. A: Check the Last Deferred filter. By default you're seeing only services deferred in the previous calendar month. Switch it to All Time to see your entire outstanding deferred book.
Q: Why is this customer showing up twice? A: This only happens in HQ views. The report groups by customer and shop — so a customer with deferred work at two of your shops shows up as two rows, one per shop. Each row has its own total. That matches how a follow-up actually works: each shop usually reaches out about its own deferred services.
Q: Why doesn't the Total match what the customer would actually pay? A: The Total is a pre-tax, pre-order-discount number — the service's quoted subtotal. When you invoice the work, taxes and any order-level fees or discounts are added, so the real invoice total is usually higher. Think of the Total column as "the quoted price of the work", not "the final invoice."
Q: The count in my Excel export doesn't match the count in the browser. Which one is right? A: The count in the browser is right. The Excel export uses a cached count on the customer that is known to be out of date and doesn't respect the date filter. We have an open ticket to fix this.
Q: Can I see deferred services for walk-in customers? A: No. This report is organized by customer, and walk-in orders without a customer on file can't be grouped. If you want to follow up on a walk-in, the deferred service is still visible on the original order itself.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of This Report
- Before you do anything, clear the Last Deferred filter (click Clear → it switches to All Time) if you want to see your full outstanding deferred book. The default of "last month" is good for recurring campaigns but hides your older leads.
- Sort by Total (highest to lowest) to find your most valuable follow-ups. A customer with one deferred brake job worth $1,200 is usually a better call than five customers with $100 oil changes each.
- Click the Deferred Services count to see what each customer actually deferred — this is how you prepare the conversation before picking up the phone. The modal groups by vehicle so you can see exactly which service on which car.
- Use the Customer filter to build a targeted list. If your service advisor wants to call their top 20 customers about deferred work, filter to just those customers and export the result.
- For multi-shop HQ views, filter Locations to one shop at a time if you are assigning follow-up calls to a specific shop's team — otherwise you will see the same customer multiple times (once per shop).
- Remember the report updates automatically when work is won back. Once a customer approves a previously deferred service on a new order, they roll off the list. You don't need to mark anything manually — the report naturally shrinks as your follow-up pays off.
Check out this video to see how you can easily track customer authorization and deferred services. Use this information to set up a campaign to bring those customers back to your shop.
Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us through the chat icon. Thanks for reading!
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