What is Work Order Software and Why is it Important?

Software for managing Work Orders And Work Requests

The importance of work order software cannot be overstated, especially for businesses operating in industries where maintenance and service activities are integral to their operations. By investing in the right work order software, organizations can better organize their tasks, prioritize critical maintenance needs, and ensure that equipment and facilities remain operational at all times. Furthermore, work order software allows businesses to proactively address issues before they escalate into major problems, ultimately saving time and resources in the long run. In today's fast-paced business environment, having the ability to efficiently manage work orders is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and delivering exceptional service.

Here, we have discussed detailed steps for managing work orders.

1. Work request approval

A work/ service request is a digital document that illustrates how maintenance work should be done as reported by the customer. After the maintenance department receives the request, it is reviewed and determined whether it deserves maintenance. If the document provided testifies that a work order is needed, the order is approved. More detailed work requests are prioritized and turned to work orders by supervisors.

2. Creation and prioritization

The supervisor or maintenance staff accepts the request and turns it into a work order. The creation of the work order shows that the maintenance staff is aware of the location of the requesting party, the issue at hand, and they can afford the budget. The team prioritizes the requests depending on the urgency and criticality of the problem.

3. Assignment and execution

Work orders are assigned to teams that comprise technicians with different skills. Details of the job location, requesting client, and duration are handed to the team. The technical team receives the relevant tools for executing the job and proceeds to the job location. The maintenance staff tracks the progress to ensure the allocated time is utilized and the work is done according to the customer's expectations.

4. Documentation

The technical team documents the results, time spent, tools used, and challenges faced during execution. Accurate information helps the maintenance staff to reference, track progress, and identify parts that require improvements.

5. Closure

The work order is closed when all tasks have been executed and the client is satisfied with the results. The technicians start working on other unattended work orders.

6. Analysis

Work order software isn't just about managing requests; it can also provide valuable insights into your business operations. Want to know which assets require the most maintenance? Or how long it typically takes to resolve certain types of issues? With the right software in place, you'll have access to all sorts of juicy data that can help you make smarter decisions and fine-tune your processes. All work orders that have been successfully executed are stored separately from the open work orders. The documentation stage gives all relevant information that aids in tracking key performance indicators.

Importance Of Work Order Software

In a lot of work places, the traditional process is that only selected staff can report a maintenance request and issue work orders. In a growing trend, workplaces are encouraging a reporting culture to log and record hazards, risks and maintenance issues across all staff and contractors so that issues can be identified earlier on, triaged and assigned as work orders appropriately. Trends can be seen and work order priorities established. - Accuracy

The use of GPS for check-in/check-out enhances accuracy and reduces misunderstandings during payment. The staff can track progress and plan for other work orders since they can predict when certain work orders will be completed.

- Increase efficiency

Proposals are received, worked on time by the management, and responses are given to clients. The technical team receives important updates on time and provides feedback on the progress. All activities are done in real-time.

- Payment is made on time.

Electronic money transfer has provided an easy and faster payment method, thus establishing work order software; payment is made as soon as the work is completed. Furthermore, the management can track payment documents.

Automating order workflows within the organization enhances the efficient and effective execution of duties. Work order software provides a powerful platform for automating work orders. Work order workflows comprise procedures and tasks that are executed one after the other.

Work Order Workflow

Work Order workflows vary depending on the industry, the specific workplace and even the nature of works. But commonly, it will be a multi stage workflow starting with logging a work request. From there it is reviewed and assigned to one or more contractors to action becoming a work order. Updates will come through including an ETA on completion of works. If everything is finalised, the work order can then be closed and moves to the closed work order registry.

Sample Work Order Workflow

Work Order Tracking

Track a work order from start to finish across all aspects of the work activities that take place. This might range from diving into the job task and actions from assigned contractors where multiple contractors are working on different aspects of the work order and providing different progress updates. Through to updating costs, quotes, actions, progress milestones through to eventual work order closure.

Tracking a work order goes through several stages:

- Job logged
- Reviewed and assigned to a preferred contractor
- Contractor provides ETA on parts, progress updates and eventual closure
- Job may be assigned to additional contractors with the same workflow repeated
- Quotes may be required and needing approval
- Interium updates provided back to the person who logged the job so that they know what's going on with the work order
- When all is finalised, the work order will be closed and moved to the closed work order registry.

Work Order Log

This is another name for the work order registry, effectively your online log of all work orders, open, closed and in progress.

An example of a typical work order structure

Commonly a work request might include:

- Persons name, phone and email reporting the work order

- Category of works i.e is it an electrical work item, plumbing, fire services maintenance?

- Priority: low, medium, urgent repair

- details of the job to be done and what needs actioning

- exact location

- person affected

Using best practice work order management software simplifies the enormous workload for organizing and managing work orders and work requests in the workplace. Critical facilities that require regular maintenance of their systems are ideal for establishing work order software.

Setting up a Work Order Form

With our online work order software you can create a custom work order form personalised to your workplace, site or facility. Capture common fields such as site, name, property, department, unit, tenancy, description of the issue, person affected, category and priority. Customise the fields to be specific to the workflows you need or even to match your trust accounting side of things.

- Setup custom work order fields
- Create custom notification settings
- Customise to your type of facility, are there tenants? units?

Work Order Registry

The next step is establishing your registry of open work orders, this might be filterable by site, by facility, by tenant, by category or other custom defined fields. Setup custom work order workflows from initial work order form submission through to notification, registry and action workflows.

Here you might include:

- open registry of work orders still to action
- registry of quotes to review
- previous work orders that are now closed
- urgent work orders that need the most attention
- preventative maintenance work orders

What to Include in a Work Order Program

The first thing is who is going to be reporting maintenance issues and logging jobs? Do you have tenants? A representative from an office in a building? a tenant contact? a building contact? a resident of a unit? Once you have worked out your user group, the next step is to establish a user account for them to log in and submit a work order for a maintenance request.

Do you want them to be able to see current work orders that have been submitted for the same building or would you prefer they can only submit? Sometimes its a good idea to prevent duplicate reports for the same issue.

Other things to include in your work order program might include access for contractors to provide updates to jobs in real-time or having a contractor registry of open work orders they are currently assigned to. Perhaps also the ability to log quote responses and action approvals.

- tenant, occupancy or resident access to submit and access work orders
- access to open registries for the same unit or building to prevent duplicate work orders
- giving contractors access to view work orders they are assigned to
- work request form

Building Work Order System

A common setup is for commercial buildings where tenants will report maintenance faults using a work order system. Here a tenant representative is given access to submit a new work order each time they have a task they need actioned such as emptying bins, fixing a flickering light, security issue, leaks, toilet issues, cleaning requests or other common maintenance requests that a tenant needs actioned.

View an example Building Work Order form

Try setting up your Work Order process using our online platform