Work Orders

What is it and what is it for?

Unlike a Service Request (the initial report of what the customer needs), the Work Order is the record of what the technician actually did: description of the work, hours, items/materials used, services charged and labor operations, with their start and end dates and times. A single Service Request can generate several Work Orders if different technicians or visits are involved.

Every order is flagged as Warranty or as billable. Billable orders follow an Authorization workflow before they can be turned into an invoice; warranty orders are never authorized or invoiced, since that work isn't charged to the customer.

Authorization and billing flow

1. Creation. The order is saved with status Unbilled and, if it isn't a warranty order, with authorization status Pending.
2. Authorization. From the detail screen (or from the "Pending Authorization" list), whoever has the authorize permission can move it to Authorized, Rejected or back to Pending. A Warranty order can't be authorized: the authorize action doesn't apply because the work isn't invoiced.
3. Billing. Only an Authorized order that isn't flagged as Warranty can be turned into a Credit Invoice, one at a time from its detail screen or in bulk from the "Pending Billing" list. Once the invoice is generated, the order moves to Billed status and no longer shows up on either pending list.

How to use it

1. Pick the view you need on the list: All, Pending Authorization or Pending Billing. All three show the same orders from a different angle, without reloading the page.
2. Filter by date range, Customer, Technician/Consultant, Customer Class, Location, Subsidiary (if your plan has them) and, on Pending Billing, also by Project.
3. Click "Create". Fill in the Customer (required) and the Work Description (required).
4. Fill in what applies: Technician/Consultant (defaults to the logged-in user), Location and Subsidiary (with their default value), Currency (auto-selected if your company only handles one), Hours, Reference, and whether the work is covered by Warranty.
5. Use the detail tabs as needed: linked Service Requests, Items consumed (if your plan has Inventory active, with quantity, unit of measure, bins, lots, project, serials and attributes as applicable to the item), charged Services, labor Operations (date, start/end time, hours, technician, work center, equipment and from/to location) and attached Files.
6. Save. AdmCloud numbers the order automatically and validates the information (see "Validations on save" below).
7. Authorize, reject or invoice the order from its detail screen following the flow described above, or do it in bulk for several authorized orders from "Pending Billing".
8. Print the order from its detail screen, choosing among the available formats; it includes customer and technician data, the work description, linked Service Requests, items, and a signature area for the technician and the customer.
9. Duplicate or void the order from its detail screen when needed, instead of creating a new one from scratch or deleting one that already has history.

Main capabilities

• Three list views (All, Pending Authorization, Pending Billing) that share the same date, customer, technician, location and subsidiary filters.
• Generation of one or several Work Orders from a Service Request, or direct creation with no source request.
• Items, Services and Operations tabs to record everything consumed and performed on the job, with file attachments.
• An authorization workflow independent of the billing status, with its own permission to authorize.
• Credit Invoice creation one at a time from the detail screen, or in bulk by selecting several authorized orders from "Pending Billing".
• A Warranty flag that excludes the order entirely from the authorization and billing flow.
• Printing with customizable templates from the order's detail screen.
• A summarized Work Orders report, filterable by customer, technician, subsidiary, project and dates, with optional landscape orientation.
• A cost report by order (labor, materials and services, with subtotals and a grand total), visible only to whoever has the permission to view item costs.
• Generation of the order's accounting entry when your plan has Inventory active.

Key fields

Validations on save

• The Customer is required.
• The Work Description is required.
• Hours must be a numeric value equal to or greater than zero.
• If the order includes Items, Location is required.
• Customer, Subsidiary and the document Number can't be changed once the order is created.
• A voided order can't be edited.
• To authorize an order, it must not be voided, must not already be Billed, and must not be flagged as Warranty.
• To invoice an order, it must be Authorized and not flagged as Warranty; otherwise AdmCloud rejects the invoice generation.

Availability and permissions

• Work Orders are only available on the Enterprise plan, with the Service module active for your company.
• Viewing, creating, editing, deleting, voiding and authorizing orders requires the "Work Orders" permission in your user group, with its View, Add, Edit, Delete, Void and Authorize levels.
• The Items tab only shows up if your plan has the Inventory module active; within it, bins, lots, serials and attributes are only requested if your company has them enabled for the item.
• The Project field (on the list and on Items) only shows up if your plan has Project Accounting enabled.
• The Operations tab with Work Center only shows up if your company has Work Centers enabled.
• The Subsidiary column and filter only show up if your plan has subsidiaries enabled.
• The Cost Report only shows cost columns to whoever has the permission to view item costs; without that permission, the screen doesn't show cost amounts.

Tips and common mistakes