How to Manage a Work Order

A work order is one job your team does for a customer — a repair, an install, a service call. It belongs to one of your Service markets, and it can be filed under a customer account or, for a job at a site with no account, left without one.

Before you start

You need a market whose line of business is Service (see How to Create a Market), and the Manage Service Work right to create and change work orders, create their invoices and record payments.

Raise a work order

1. Open Markets, pick your Service market's tab, and open Work Orders.
2. Click New Work Order. The market is already chosen for you.
3. Give the job a short Summary (this is what the list shows), and add a description, trade, priority, the customer account if there is one, and the service address.
4. Click Create. The work order gets its own number, such as WO-00012, and starts as New.

You can also start a work order from a customer's account page: open the account, go to Orders, and choose New for your Service market. The account is filled in for you.

Dispatch a technician

A visit is one trip to the site. Every work order starts with one visit.

1. Open the work order and click Dispatch Technician (or open the Visits & Time tab and click the calendar mark on a visit).
2. Click Choose Technician and pick the team member who will go.
3. Set when they Arrive and Finish, and add any Visit Notes — gate codes, parking, what to bring.
4. Click Save Visit. Assigning a technician to a new work order marks it Assigned.

Need a return trip? Click Add Visit on the Visits & Time tab. A visit can also be marked En Route, No Access or Cancelled from the same window.

Do the work

• Start Work moves the job to In Progress. Put On Hold pauses it (waiting on a part, say) and Resume Work picks it up again.
• On the Visits & Time tab the technician clicks Clock In on arrival and Clock Out on leaving. The time between adds up as Time Attended.
• Record what was done on the Labor tab and what was fitted on the Parts tab. The totals are worked out for you from those lines.
• Bring in a subcontractor or supplier on the Vendors tab, and keep a running log on the Notes tab. Each note shows who wrote it.

Finish the work

1. On the Sign-Off tab, write up what was done and tick Completed satisfactorily when the customer has accepted the work, then save.
2. Click Mark Complete. The work order is now Completed and ready to invoice.

Cancel Work Order is available until the job is complete.

Create the invoice

1. Open the completed work order and click Create Invoice.
2. Check what will be billed: the customer, how many labor lines and parts, and the total. Click Create Invoice again to confirm.
3. The invoice is created from the labor and parts on the work order and gets its own number, such as INV-2026-0007. The work order moves to Invoiced, and the invoice appears on the Invoice tab and beside Invoice in the summary at the top.

Good to know:

• Nothing is sent to the customer. On the Invoice tab, click View PDF to open the invoice, then print it, download it or send it yourself.
• A work order with no labor or parts can't be invoiced. Add what you are charging for on the Labor and Parts tabs first.
• Tax is not added. Work orders don't record tax, so the invoice shows the labor and parts exactly as entered.
• Pressing Create Invoice twice never makes two invoices. The second press shows the one already made.
• Invoices are made one work order at a time, so Invoiced is not offered when you change several work orders at once from the list.

Record a payment

1. On the Invoice tab, click Record Payment.
2. Enter the Amount Received (it starts at the balance due), the Date Received, how it was paid (Check, Bank Transfer (ACH), Wire Transfer, Card, Cash or Other) and, if there is one, a Reference such as the check number.
3. Click Record Payment.

A part payment shows the invoice as Partly Paid with the balance still due. When nothing is left to pay, the invoice shows Paid. Every payment is listed under Payments with who recorded it. You can't record more than the balance due.

Change the customer or the details

• In the summary at the top, click the swap mark beside Customer to file the work order under another account, or to take it off an account.
• Click Edit Details to change the summary, description, trade, priority or service address.

What you'll see

The Work Orders list shows each job's number, customer, technician, next visit, status and total, with a count for each status along the bottom. Every work order has a number, including ones raised before numbers were added. Click a status count to show only those jobs. Work orders made before markets were recorded appear on every Service market's tab.