{
  "slug": "user-guide",
  "title": "Blue Collar Parts User Guide: From First Customer to Sent Service Record",
  "description": "The Blue Collar Parts user guide in order: set up your account, add customers and equipment, start the work, record the PM or inspection, and send the record your customer opens. Each step links to its full how-to.",
  "track": "product",
  "kind": "article",
  "status": "available",
  "isRegulatoryAdjacent": false,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-20",
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-21",
  "cfr": [],
  "related": [
    "getting-started-with-blue-collar-parts",
    "add-customers-and-assets",
    "look-up-a-carrier-by-usdot",
    "start-a-service-event",
    "record-a-pm-service",
    "send-a-record-to-your-customer",
    "what-your-customer-receives",
    "reading-a-service-record",
    "work-dashboard-and-calendar"
  ],
  "topics": [],
  "nextStep": {
    "kind": "start",
    "target": "/start/the-record-backs-the-work",
    "text": "See what your customer receives and what sending a record costs"
  },
  "sources": {
    "citations": [],
    "reviewed": "2026-10-21",
    "reviewedEdition": null,
    "reviewedText": "Reviewed 2026-10-21"
  },
  "url": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/user-guide",
  "markdownUrl": "https://shopbluecollarparts.com/kb/user-guide.md",
  "body": "**Every job in Blue Collar Parts follows the same path: a customer, a piece of equipment, the work, and a record your customer opens.** This guide lists the steps in the order you take them. Each step has its own page with the screens and buttons.\n\n## 1. Set up your account\n\nCreate an account, confirm your email, and follow the short setup that adds your first customer and asset. See [Getting started with Blue Collar Parts](/kb/getting-started-with-blue-collar-parts).\n\n## 2. Add your customers and their equipment\n\nAdd each customer once, with an email address, because the record is delivered by email. Then add each truck, trailer, generator or marine engine you service. For trucks and trailers, enter the VIN and press **Decode VIN** to fill in the vehicle details. See [Add customers and assets](/kb/add-customers-and-assets).\n\n## 3. Know the carrier before you start\n\nFor a motor carrier, save the customer's USDOT number. Blue Collar Parts then shows you the carrier's public FMCSA roadside inspection record. Only you see it. It is not on your customer's record. See [Look up a carrier by USDOT number](/kb/look-up-a-carrier-by-usdot).\n\n## 4. Start the work\n\nStart a service event for the asset. The work gets a record number as soon as it starts. See [Start a service event](/kb/start-a-service-event).\n\n## 5. Record what you did\n\nWalk the PM form item by item while you are at the equipment, and note what you found and what you fixed. Blue Collar Parts has PM forms for over-the-road trucks, marine diesel engines and diesel generators. See [Record a PM service](/kb/record-a-pm-service). For repair work, write it up as [complaint, cause and correction](/kb/complaint-cause-correction).\n\n## 6. Send the record to your customer\n\nWhen the work is complete, send the record. Starting and recording work is free. You pay when you send, and the price is on the button before you pay. See [Send a record to your customer](/kb/send-a-record-to-your-customer).\n\n## 7. What your customer receives\n\nYour customer gets a page they can open, read and keep. It names the asset, the date, and you, with every item you recorded beside it. See [What your customer receives](/kb/what-your-customer-receives).\n\n## 8. Read the record the way your customer does\n\nEvery result on the record is said in words and marked with a color and a shape: green for work that passed, red for a failure you recorded, amber for a caution, gray for a fact with no pass or fail. The app uses the same words while you work, so what you see when you file is what your customer reads. See [how to read a service record](/kb/reading-a-service-record).\n\n## 9. Keep track of the work\n\nThe dashboard shows work in progress, records ready to send, and records already sent. The calendar lists next service dates from completed work. It is your own schedule, and your customer is not notified. To put a visit on another calendar, use **Add to calendar**. See [Work, Sent, and Records](/kb/work-dashboard-and-calendar).\n\n## Start from the problem in front of you\n\nMost technicians reach this guide from a job, not from the product. These pages cover the work itself, and each one names the step above where Blue Collar Parts comes in.\n\n- **A truck, generator or marine PM.** Read the [semi truck PM checklist](/kb/semi-truck-preventive-maintenance-checklist), the [diesel generator checklist](/kb/diesel-generator-maintenance-checklist) or the [marine diesel checklist](/kb/marine-diesel-engine-maintenance-checklist), then record the PM (step 5).\n- **What to tell the customer.** [What belongs in a PM report for the customer](/kb/what-belongs-in-a-pm-report-for-the-customer) covers what the customer should get. Sending it is step 6.\n- **Air brakes.** The [air brake system](/kb/air-brake-system) cluster covers [slack adjusters](/kb/slack-adjuster-adjustment), [brake chamber air leaks](/kb/brake-chamber-air-leaks) and the [trailer ABS light](/kb/trailer-abs-light).\n- **A failed inspection or out-of-service order.** [Unsafe operation and out-of-service](/kb/safe-operation-and-out-of-service) explains what follows. Knowing a carrier's roadside history before the job is step 3.\n- **Recordkeeping.** [Where Blue Collar Parts fits against 49 CFR Part 396](/kb/bcp-and-part-396-recordkeeping) says what a sent record is and what it is not. Blue Collar Parts records what you enter and sends it in your name. It does not make an operator compliant.\n\n*Links into the app open your account. If you are not signed in, you will be asked to sign in first.*",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}