Service log
One row per visit or job: the date and odometer, the shop and invoice, the concern in your words, the cause and the correction, parts, fluids, labor, cost and the repair warranty.
For a first pass, this sheet is essential: enter the last service you can find an invoice for. The log is what you show if a warranty claim is questioned, and what a buyer asks for.
Service log
One row per visit, or per job if one visit had separate jobs. Copy from the invoice the same day. Concern is what you told the shop; cause and correction are what the invoice says they found and did.
How to use this sheet
- One row per visit, or per job. Copy from the invoice the same day: date, odometer, shop and invoice number.
- Concern, cause, correction. The concern is what you told the shop, in your words; the cause and correction are what the invoice says the shop found and did. That is the order a repair order is written in (the service log).
- Parts and fluids with their type and specification. "Oil filter, aftermarket; 0W-20, API SP" is proof of the right oil; "oil change" is not.
- Filed where. Say where the paper invoice or the scan is, so you can find it in five years.
- Your own work counts. Log it with the date, odometer and the parts receipt.
The example rows are Priya Raman's fictional visit at 98,400 miles: an oil change, and the three items she approved from the inspection list (brake fluid, engine air filter and cabin filter, $260 before tax). The second row shows the cause written as the shop gave it, and the repair warranty copied from the invoice.
The log records what was done and what it cost. It does not prove the work was done well, and makers differ on what records they ask for in a warranty claim (what to keep). The invoices are the evidence; the log is the index to them.