Work orders

Work orders bring together the work your team must perform, its status and the people responsible. The workspace controls the available order types, states, actions and labels.

Find an order

Open Orders and use the list or Board to find the job. Confirm the customer and public reference before changing it. The board groups orders by their configured state.

Create or update an order

1. Choose New order.
2. Select the order type or module instance when required.
3. Link the customer and the relevant service or equipment record.
4. Add the work description and review the initial data.
5. Assign responsibility where available and save.
6. Reopen the order and confirm the saved details.

Follow the workflow

Use the actions shown by the order’s current state. Record what has happened, then select the next allowed action. A missing transition can mean a required field, earlier step, module setting or permission is missing.

Depending on configuration, the detail can include lines, quotes, documents, notes, time, checklists, crew, payments and procurement. Confirm quantities, prices and recipients before actions that affect customers or money.

Suppliers and parts

When procurement is enabled, use the order’s procurement area to follow required parts, supplier requests and received items. Receiving goods and recording a supplier invoice are separate operations; review the relevant status before advancing the order.

For repeated work, use recurring templates.

Use Receive supplier deliveries for partial quantities, stock locations and discrepancies.

Delivery and after-sale scenarios

For the complete workflow—partial delivery, full return before invoicing, refund after payment or replacing one part—see Deliveries, returns and replacements →. It explains what the screen can record and how to coordinate partial cases.

Module settings

The Settings → Modules → Work orders → Configure screen offers seven controls: time tracking, checklists, crews, priorities, SLA, default SLA and auto assignment. The rest of the options in this table are just as real — they change what an order asks for and which tabs appear — but they are not on that screen: they belong to your workspace’s module configuration, so confirm them with whoever administers the installation. Exact availability can vary by instance. The initial value is off unless stated otherwise.

Setting	Initial value	Effect
auto_invoice_on_complete	Off	Creates an invoice when work is completed. Requires invoicing.
require_customer	Off	Requires a customer. Configure customer_entity_type before enabling it.
require_subject	Off	Requires a subject record, such as an asset or equipment. Configure subject_entity_type.
validate_entity_refs	Off	Checks that customer and subject records exist in Entities.
require_catalog_item	On	Requires each line to use an active catalog item. Turning it off allows free-text lines.
time_tracking_enabled	Off	Enables time logging, starting, stopping and listing.
time_tracking_default_billable	On	Marks new time as billable by default; each entry can be changed.
time_tracking_auto_labor_line	Off	Rolls billable time into a labor line on the order. Set the default rate before enabling it.
bulk_operations_enabled	Off	Enables bulk assignment, status changes and closing. bulk_operations_max_batch_size limits the batch.
sla_enabled	Off	Enables due dates and SLA tracking. Also configure sla_default_hours.
sla_business_hours	Off	Counts working hours for SLA; when off, elapsed time counts. An explicit due_at remains an absolute time.
attachments_enabled	Off	Enables upload, listing and deletion of work order attachments.
activity_feed_enabled	Off	Enables the per-order activity timeline.
activity_include_internal	Off	Includes internal notes in the activity timeline. Check who can read it.
recurring_work_orders_enabled	Off	Enables recurring work templates and scheduled materialization.
backorder_enabled	Off	Allows a line shortfall to be recorded when stock is insufficient.
backorder_auto_reserve_on_restock	On	Automatically reserves shortages when stock arrives; when off, reconcile manually.
procurement_on_backorder	Off	Creates a procurement request when a shortage is recorded. Requires a configured supplier flow.
relationships_enabled	Off	Enables relationships such as blocks, depends on or duplicate.
relationships_block_start	On	Prevents starting an order while an order blocking it remains open. Applies only when relationships are enabled.
priority_enabled	Off	Enables urgent, high, normal and low priorities.
checklists_enabled	Off	Enables work order checklists and subtasks.
crews_enabled	Off	Enables multiple technicians per order; crew membership also widens assigned-order read access.
quote_approval_enabled	Off	Requires quote approval before work can start.
self_service_enabled	Off	Lets customers request, reschedule and cancel their own work orders within their own scope.
skills_enabled	Off	Checks that an assignee has the skills required by the order.
reviews_enabled	Off	Allows a customer rating and comment after work is finished.
split_payments	Off	Allows multiple payments against an order invoice, up to the outstanding balance.
rma_enabled	Off	Enables returns of parts to suppliers; this differs from returning stock to your own inventory.
kit_explosion_enabled	Off	Expands a kit item into component lines and reserves stock for each component.

Important combinations

• Required and validated customer: configure the customer entity type, create or activate it in Entities, then enable require_customer and, if you want existence checks, validate_entity_refs.
• Time that flows into the invoice: enable time_tracking_enabled and time_tracking_auto_labor_line; set the default rate and review time_tracking_default_billable.
• SLA using working hours: enable sla_enabled, set the SLA hours and turn on sla_business_hours. An explicitly entered due date does not become a business-hours deadline.
• Shortages and purchasing: enable backorder_enabled; choose whether shortages are reserved automatically when stock arrives (backorder_auto_reserve_on_restock) and whether to create a supplier request (procurement_on_backorder).
• Order dependencies: enable relationships_enabled; leave relationships_block_start on if an open blocking order must prevent work from starting.
• Crew and access: enable crews_enabled only when multiple assignees are needed; then check which roles can read orders assigned to their crew.

Switches do not grant permissions. After configuring them, test the workflow with a test record and confirm the resulting state in the relevant work order, catalog or invoice.

If something doesn’t work

Work orders is an optional module and needs Invoicing, Documents and Entities. Read access has three different scopes — all, your own, or assigned — so seeing fewer orders than a colleague can be correct. Creating, assigning, invoicing, generating documents and refunding are separate permissions. Which tabs appear also depends on the module configuration, not only on your role.