Front Desk Manager — the standard operating procedures

Before you start

How this course works

The Essential Shipyard front desk standard operating procedures, turned into a course. Each chapter is one procedure — what to do and why — ending with a quick check. An in-depth final exam unlocks your certificate. Work the floor by these and the desk runs calm, billed, and on time.

Chapter 1

🧾Recording Parts Used on a Boat

A technician walks up to the counter with a part in hand.

1. When a tech grabs something, ask: "Is this for a boat?"
2. If yes: "Which boat?"

Record the part in Square as a saved cart for that boat. The saved cart lets you go back later and drop the part onto that customer's boatyard invoice.

Chapter 2

😌Front Desk Presence & Customer Interaction

The face of the store — to customers and coworkers.

At all times keep an appearance of cool, calm and collected — especially with customers, and also with coworkers.

• Make the store an inviting place and give customers full confidence in our ability to work on their boats.
• Give your coworkers confidence that you are ordering their parts and listening to them.

• Soon after a customer interaction starts, find a way to ask what type of boat they have.
• If they want a part, ask what it's for — what project they're doing.

Chapter 3

📦Receiving Parts

A package lands on the counter.

1. Label with blue tape and write the boat name on the tape.
2. Put it on the shelf for the tech.
3. Notify the tech their part arrived — tagged in Boatyard, over the radio, or in person.

1. Receive the part into Square with a barcode and a price.
2. Enter the product into Boatyard parts, using the Square SKU as the part #.
3. Then place it on the shelf.

Chapter 4

✅"Never a No" — Requests & Task Tracking

Someone asks you to do something.

Assess how urgent it is. If you don't have an answer within a few hours, let the customer know you're still working on it so they know you haven't forgotten — again after a day or two, and again after a week if you still haven't gotten to it.

If the priority isn't immediately apparent, ask them what the priority level is.

This is where your notebook to-do list and/or Boatyard tasks come in — every task to be done later must be recorded. Each front desk manager is responsible for figuring out how they best keep track of their tasks.

Chapter 5

📞Multitasking & Phones

Three things happen at the front desk at once.

• Record in your notebook (pen & paper) what's going on and what parts went on what boats.
• Scan those parts into a saved cart.
• Write yourself a Boatyard task (e.g., create an estimate) for anything that can be done later.

Priority always goes to the customer in front of you and the phone ringing.

You may answer the phone with a customer present — politely tell the customer "excuse me" and answer. If the call is short, finish it; if it drags, ask the caller if you can put them on hold or call back in a few moments. (Or simply answer and ask the caller to hold up front.)

Chapter 6

🗓️Weekly Customer Communication

Every boat in the yard belongs to a person waiting to hear from you.

Front desk managers keep a running list of all the boats in the yard and check off weekly that each customer has been communicated with.

Chapter 7

🧹Store Upkeep, Merchandising & Cycle Counts

Keeping the store full, stocked, clean — and counted.

• On a rolling basis, face all products to the front of the shelf or slider so the store looks full.
• Reorder products we use or sell regularly before they're out — when one or two are still on the shelf.

• Dust all shelves weekly.
• Keep the coffee table clean and stocked.
• Vacuum and clean the floor; empty the robot vacuum.

• Number and letter every shelf, gondola, end cap, etc.
• Count all parts of the store on a rolling basis.
• Expectation: the entire store cycle-counted at least biannually.

Chapter 8

⚓Booking Work — Haul-outs, Launches & Naming

Getting a boat scheduled in and recorded right.

• North yard: coordinate with Skyline for a haul-out, or use our Wednesday 1 PM time.
• South yard: check the Google Calendar (don't overbook hauls/launches in a day) and the tide table for a workable haul time.

Message or call the customer to confirm the date/time. Ask if they need us to bring the boat to the haul-out — we offer that for an additional fee if they're not too far away.

• Enter the date/time into the Boatyard order and every assigned job — in the special instructions AND the date/time fields.
• Add it to the Google Calendar.
• Add the appropriate managers to the applicable jobs.

Chapter 9

📝Estimates & New Customers

Turning interest into a quote and a new account.

1. Make sure the customer profile has email, phone, and the necessary boat info.
2. Add a line item for each part of the quote.
3. Send the estimate to the customer through Boatyard.
4. Message the customer that an estimate was sent (you may also call).
5. Follow up if it's been sitting a week.

1. Enter customer details: name, phone, email, mailing address.
2. Enter boat details (get slip info if it's a mobile call).
3. Create an order.
4. Once the customer confirms, create a job assigned to the responsible manager with a placeholder day/time — note in the timeline it's a random, unconfirmed day/time.
5. Correct the date/time after you speak with the manager.
6. If the customer must be aboard when the tech is there, confirm that too.

Chapter 10

🔄Updating Work Orders

Keeping an order and its jobs in sync.

Update the Boatyard initial order, then copy and paste that information into every single job associated with that order.

Tagging the managers or applicable techs — or telling them in person / over the radio — is good protocol.

Chapter 11

🚤Telling a Customer the Boat is Ready to Launch

The moment a boat is ready to go back in the water.

• Confirm with all technicians the boat is finished and every work order is complete.
• The detail crew has cleaned all surfaces and any extra cleaning the customer requested.
• All hours and notes are done and an invoice has been created to send.

• "We'll let you know when your boat is ready and give you three days' notice of your launch date."
• You may give an estimate of when you think (emphasize "think") it might be ready.

Put signs on the boat stands with the tentative launch date for techs to see (South yard). In the North yard, this goes on the white board.

Chapter 12

💵Cash Handling

Receiving, counting, and reconciling cash.

• Through the Square terminal → no action needed.
• Through Boatyard → Square app on the iPad → Reports → Pay In → note which Boatyard order it came from → put the cash in the drawer.

1. Count all cash in the top drawer.
2. If above the ~$250 we keep, pay out the excess via the Square payout button and note the funds are going to petty cash.
3. With ~$250 left, record it in Square and end the drawer.
4. Start a new drawer, editing the starting cash to match what's actually in the drawer.
5. Count petty cash (envelope/bag under the top insert) and record it as a new "count" line in the Google sheet.

• When distributing cash, ask the employee to bring back a receipt and change.
• Log vendor, category (COGS / shop supplies), and amount in the petty cash Google sheet; file the receipt in the petty cash folder in the file cabinet.
• Return any change to the petty cash envelope/bag under the drawer.
• Start a new petty cash sheet each quarter; keep it organized and accurate.

Chapter 13

📅Weekly Timeline of To-Dos

The rhythm of the week.

• Tuesdays or Thursdays — count the petty cash.
• Thursday morning (or Wednesday end of day) — create a billing list of all boats worked.
• Thursday — weekly billing due.
• Throughout the week — bill clients before their boat leaves the yard.

Chapter 14

🧑‍💼HR Support & Management Meetings

Supporting the team and running collaborative meetings.

• Help employees log into Paychex for the first time so they can fill out needed documentation.
• Receive absence request forms and send them to Emily (virtually plus the physical copy).
• Fill out accident reports as needed.

Employee discipline — verbal/written warnings and write-ups — is not a front desk responsibility. Each tech reports to their own supervisor, who handles staffing and any corrective action, escalating to ownership when needed.

• A collaborative effort — not led by any one person.
• A brief update from every manager, plus questions they have for the other managers/departments.

Final certification

🎓Final exam

A short check ran at the end of each chapter. Pass this final at 80% to unlock your certificate.

ESSENTIAL SHIPYARD UNIVERSITY

Certificate of Completion

This certifies that

has successfully completed Front Desk Manager — front desk operations — and passed the final examination to the ESI standard.

Jason Knott

President

Essential Shipyard Industries

★CERTIFIED

Date Issued

Essential Shipyard University