Table of Contents
Work Order Form
The work order form is where you type in all the pre and post work details about a specific task. This form is displayed whenever you create a new work order or when you select an existing work order from the calendar, list, or map. For a more general discussion about work orders see the work orders topic. In many ways this work order form functions just like the regular feature forms used on all other layers. But there are several things unique about the work order form that you won't find on other layers. We will discuss those below.
WO#
This field displays the unique ID assigned to each work order. All ID's start with a "W" and the number portion of the ID is the same as the internal FTR ID. If you see a work order number that starts with "RECUR" then you are not viewing a specific work order but rather a template used to define a set of recurring work orders. See "Recurring" paragraph further below.
Status
This field can be used to indicate the completion status of the work order. The four statuses listed here are listed left to right in the order that a work order might progress as it goes from inception to completion. But depending on how your department works, you might not use each of these steps. For example, you may not bother with approved status and just always leave completed work orders with a "Completed" status. Or you may only use the work order system to record work after-the-fact and so you create all new work order records with an initial status of "Completed" and never use the other options. The color associated with each status button is the same color used to show the work orders on the calendar. While I will describe the intended meaning of each status below, feel free to interpret each status differently if it helps conform this tool into your work flow.
Planned This is the default status of all newly created work orders. This status might more accurately be titled "Not yet started" but that takes up too much room on the button. This could mean something that is planned for a specific date in the future. Or it could mean something that needs done asap but no one has actually started it.
Started The intention here is that the person who is actually doing the work (the "Assignee") will mark the work order as started as feedback to everyone else on the team that the work is underway. Alternately you could use this status to indicate that you have officially assigned this work order to a certain person or team and that it is on this weeks schedule. It doesn't really matter at what precise point you consider a work order as started, just try to be consistent.
Completed Again, the intented usage of this status is that the worker (the "Assignee") will change the status to completed whenever he or she believes the job to be done. That way when you open up your work order calendar each morning you can quickly see by color which work orders for the day, week, or month, are completed.
Approved If you have some sort of approval process for work orders then use this status to indicate which completed jobs have been approved. Only the "Owner" of the work order can set its status to approved.
Title
Use this box to give each work order a short title. Once the creator of the work order gives it a title, only the work order "Owner" can change it.
Description
Use this box to describe the work that needs done. Use as many words or paragraphs as you need. The box will expand to meet your need. In addition to this description you might also want to attach pictures or other documents to the work order using the "Attachments" field. Only the "Owner" of the work order can go back and change this description.
Type
This is a read-only field that shows the work order type used to create this record. A work order type defines a custom set of fields that get added to your form.
Owner
The "Owner" or a work order is intended to be the person who is ultimately responsible for the work getting done. This is typically the person who is creating the work order but might be a supervisor, a secretary, etc. The owner has some special permissions that the "Assignee's" do not. The person who creates the work order is the owner by default unless the creator chooses to make someone else the owner. See the work order permissions topic for more about this.
Assignee
The "Assignee" is the person or persons that the owner has assigned this job to. In some cases the owner himself may be the assignee. The purpose of listing assignees is that it gives those uses permission to make changes to this work order. See the work order permissions topic for more about this.
Date Created
This is the date the work order was originally created. It is automatically set for you. If you create a work order today and schedule the work order to be done next week, then today is the date created.
Date Started
This is the date that the work order was first started. It sets itself automatically for you whenever you change the status of the work order. If the status is changed to completed and then later changed back to started then this date will still show the original start date. Additionally, the notes field of the work order logs each time the status is changed. The calendar view shows work orders according to their date started. You can manually change this date.
Date Completed
This date is automatically set for you whenever a work order's status is first set to "Completed" or "Approved". You can manually change this date. The notes field also logs any dates that the status is changed.
Date Planned
This is the date that you plan the work to be done. When you create a new work order, the Date Planned is automatically set to the date that you currently have selected on the calendar. If a work order is not yet started then the date planned determines the date that it shows up on the calendar. Otherwise the start date is used.
Asset
This field lists the map feature, if any, that this work order is assigned to. You can click this link to zoom to that feature and show its details.
Recurring
This field shows the recurring rules for this work order if applicable. Click this link for more details.
Notes
The notes field of a work order automatically logs certain events such as any time the status changes or any time the owner or assignee changes. If you are concerned about people having too much edit permission on the work orders, this might set you at ease to know that it automatically logs who makes these critical changes. The notes are also a good place for people to enter daily progress notes or even final disposition notes about a job.
Work Order Permissions
For more about who can make changes to what see work order permissions.
Customizing the work order form
Work orders can be highly customized. You can even create different forms for different types of work orders. See the work order setup topic for more information.
Recurring Work Order Templates
Whenever you create a recurring work order, the system doesn't immediately create number work orders for every future instance. Instead it creates a single record (ie. "template") that just acts as a place holder that gets shown on the calendar for each future date that it is scheduled for. Whenever one of these dates comes due, the worker selects this template record and clicks a "Start" button indicate that they want to create a new number work order to record the work they will be doing on this day. Next week when this same recurring task needs done again, you repeat these same steps to create a yet another work order number. The work order template form looks similar to a regular work order form except that the WO# field will say "RECUR" to indicate that it is a template. Any changes you make to the template record, such as changing the title or description, will be applied to all future work orders created from this recurring template.
See Also
Work orders overview
Work order permissions
Work order types