![[How-to] Create and Track Work Orders in AssetSonar](https://cdn.ezo.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/How-to-Create-and-Track-Work-Orders-in-AssetSonar.png)
Work orders enable teams to manage their maintenance and service tasks in an organized way and ensure that they’re completed on time. When dealing with multiple tasks and deadlines, it becomes imperative to track their progress and ensure nothing is missed. Additionally, work orders also enable you to track employee productivity and optimize it.
IT asset management combined with work orders helps you manage and maintain all your maintenance and service tasks. It also provides much-needed visibility into resources, expenses, and labor data pertaining to your tasks.
Work Orders in AssetSonar enable you to create maintenance tasks, manage to-do lists, specify completion dates, and add instructions and comments as needed. Assign these Work Orders to Members to improve accountability.
Contents
1. Enabling the Work Orders Add On
2. Work Orders at a Glance
3. Work Order States
4. Work Order Types
5. Work Order Components
5.1. Basic Fields
5.2. Time Management
5.3. Associated Items
5.3.1. Maintenance Work Orders
5.3.2. General Work Orders
5.4. Checklists
6. Work Logs
7. Updating Work Orders
8. Alerts and Reminders
9. Work Orders on the Mobile App
10. History Log
1. Enabling the Work Orders Add On
To get started, enable ‘Work Orders’ from Settings → Add Ons.
If you’d like to allow Staff Users to create Work Orders or to restrict Admins to reviewers, select the appropriate checkbox(es).
You can then access the module under ‘Work Orders’ from the side navigation bar. This takes you to the Work Orders listing page, which lays out important information.
2. Work Orders at a Glance
The Work Orders Listing page enables you to view all Work Orders from one place. You can also view Work Orders by states i.e. Open, Started, Review Pending, or Completed.
You can add filters to each of the pages and sort them based on who is set as the Assignee or Reviewer. Add Work Order filters such as creation or start dates, or the percentage of work completed.
You can customize columns to include any details you’d like, such as priority, reviewer, or time spent on each task. Click on the ‘pen’ icon on the right-hand side to do so, which opens up the following overlay:
Work Orders can also be easily exported as a CSV for further analysis.
You can take the following actions on your Work Orders listings page:
- Add filters
- Create checklists
- Customize columns
- Export Work Orders as CSV
3. Work Order States
A Work Order passes through various states throughout its lifetime:
- Open: The Work Order exists only as a draft at the moment. You can add to it and edit all aspects of it.
- Started: The concerned user has formally started work on the Work Order.
- Review Pending: This state only occurs if you check ‘Requires Approval from Reviewer’ when creating a Work Order. If approval is required, a User will click the ‘End Work Order’ button when they are through with their tasks. The Work Order will not be moved to the ‘Complete’ state as with regular Work Orders, though. The Reviewer will have to click the ‘Review and Mark Complete’ button on their end to close the Work Order. Until the Reviewer does that, the Work Order will be in the ‘Review Pending’ state, corresponding to the same tab on the Work Order Listing page.
- Completed: The assigned User has ended the Work Order. While you can still add Work Logs to completed Work Orders, you cannot edit other details.
The various stages that a Work Order will pass through are explained below:
4. Work Order Types
Choose from two main types of Work Orders when drafting:
- Maintenance Work Orders: You can generate these Work Orders for Assets only. As compared to General Work Orders, these can trigger a maintenance event for Assets. Learn more about maintenance events in AssetSonar.
- General Work Orders: You can create these Work Orders against multiple components including Assets, Asset Stock, Locations, Vendors, and Groups. These Work Orders do not trigger maintenance events.
We’ll learn more about these in the next section.
5. Work Order Components
Click ‘Add Work Order’ from the top right corner to get things started. You can then fill in the basic details for your Work Order. Let’s explore these details.
5.1. Basic Fields
The two Work Order types — Maintenance and General — include the following common fields:
- Summary: Provide a Work Order title here. This makes your Work Order searchable from the top of the page in AssetSonar.
- Priority: Choose whether this task is a high or normal priority.
- Assigned to: Assign the Work Order to any member within your User Listing.
- Reviewer: Assign a reviewer to track progress. This can be a Staff User or an Admin.
- Cost: Update cost as the Work Order incurs it.
- Description: Add Work Order details here. Images attached to a Work Order can be embedded into this description. You can also print out these images as part of the Work Order Printout. To do this, add {{image_name.png}} to a description.
5.2. Time Management
The next section allows you to add the Expected Start Date and Due Dates of the Work Order.
If a Work Order repeats at regular intervals, like for monthly inspections, mark it as recurring by selecting the ‘This is a recurring work Order’ checkbox.
By defining the duration of the repetitions and starting dates for this cycle, a new Work Order will automatically pop up at defined intervals. It will be an exact copy of the older Work Order and will be Open until someone starts it.
To stop the recurrence of a Work Order, deselect this option from the last active Work Order. This will prevent the system from firing recurring Work Orders for this in the future.
5.3. Associated Items
The third section of the Work Order page will change depending on whether you picked a Maintenance or General Work Order.
Let’s go through both of these in turn.
5.3.1. Maintenance Work Orders
This is the default Work Order type. Since the type is maintenance, you may only add Assets to it.
Type in the name or number of the Asset you’d like to add. To input a number, type # followed by the number.
The ‘Make Assets Unavailable During Maintenance’ checkbox will trigger a maintenance event for all Assets added to the Work Order when a User starts the Work Order. When a User completes it, the maintenance will also be marked as Complete.
This means you can manage both Work Orders and Asset Maintenance at the same time!
You can also pick the Service Type by choosing between Standard, Repair, Warranty, or Other.
Additionally, you can link inventory items consumed or expected to be consumed during maintenance. If you want, you can also allocate the inventory to an Asset item added to the Work Order.
Note: You can create a Maintenance Work Order without selecting an Assignee. But you won’t be able to start it unless you choose one.
5.3.2. General Work Orders
The General Work Order allows you to add all sorts of components to your Work Order.
Please note that this does not trigger maintenance events.
You can add ‘components’ to General Work Orders. These can include all sorts of elements that will be a part of that Work Order. Like Assets, Groups, Locations, Users, Asset Stock, etc.
To add an item, select the appropriate component type (such as an Asset). You can then type the name or ID of the relevant item and click the ‘Add’ button when it shows up. In the example below, we wanted to carry out a software update on all items from the Group ‘IT Assets’, in the Location ‘Fairfax’, and procured from Vendor ‘TerraComp’.
This gives you ample flexibility in the kinds of Work Orders you can create and escalate. If you’re using a fixed bundle of tools on a maintenance task, you can add it to a Cart and link it with a Work Order component for quick reference. You could also list all the warehouse locations where equipment needs to be audited, and check them off as audits get completed.
5.4. Checklists
Add Checklists to your Work Orders to track all tasks that go into completing a Work Order. Create a list of everything that needs to be done and assign it to a technician. The Assignee can then respond to these lists as they continue working on specific tasks.
You can link multiple Checklists with a single Work Order. You can find them by clicking the ‘Checklists’ tab on the Work Order Listings page.
Click the ‘Add Checklist’ button on the right to get started.
Here, you can add basic details to your Checklist. You can then click the ‘Add New Line’ button to create your Checklist. Give the checklist a name and add a description. Then scroll down to new lines to the list:
Each line item will have a Title and a Type.
The Type can be of seven kinds, depending on the line item itself. If you want users to detail how many items they inspected, for example, a Number field would be useful. If you want them to answer whether they completed a specific task, a Boolean (yes/no) field would be appropriate.
Once you’re done adding all the checklist line items you want, click the ‘Done’ button in the top right corner.
If you open a particular Checklist, you will be able to see a list of all linked Work Orders in the ‘Work Orders’ tab from the Checklist Details page.
You can edit and delete Checklists. But, if a Checklist is linked with a Work Order, you will only be able to edit its name and description, and not any of its line items.
Below, you can see how we’re associating the Checklists we create with a Maintenance Work Order. When creating a Work Order or editing one, scroll down to the Checklists section and select a checklist from the dropdown menu.
Like all similar fields, you can pull these Checklists up by their name or number; click ‘Add’, and you’re done.
Once added, you can view the Checklists right from the linked Work Order.
You can associate the checklist to a particular Asset in the Work Order, or delete the checklist altogether.
You can also create new Checklists directly from the Work Order Details page.
6. Work Logs
Users can also add and update Work Logs to Work Orders.
To do this, first, open a particular Work Order from the listings page. Then click the ‘Add Work Log’ from the top right corner.
You can then add relevant details in the overlay that appears. These may include the hours worked, the details of the tasks performed, the dates during which the work was done, and more.
You can view the Work Log history from the ‘Work Log’ tab on the Work Order Details page. You can also edit Work Logs.
7. Updating Work Orders
Admins can change the Assignee, Reviewer, and other details by editing a Work Order at any time. But there are some details that only an Assignee can update.
While a Work Order is still in Progress, an Assignee can edit it to include details, such as the cost or percentage of tasks completed.
8. Alerts and Reminders
You can keep tabs on what everyone is doing by ‘Watching’ a Work Order. This sends automated alerts when the status or Assignee changes, or when a Work Order is due.
This can be toggled on or off by clicking ‘Watch’ or ‘Un-watch’ from the ‘More’ dropdown menu on the top right corner of a Work Order Details page.
Admins can also send email reminders to Assignees manually by clicking the ‘Send Reminder’. This helps them to be accountable or furnish them with details as the task is in progress.
9. Work Orders on the Mobile App
You can access the Work Orders module from the AssetSonar mobile app by pressing the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the top right.
You can then click on a Work Order and take multiple actions. This includes Starting and Ending Work Orders, sending reminders, Watching and Un-watching a Work Order, and more. To do this, press the play button and choose the appropriate action.
You can also add comments, and update Work Logs and Checklists directly from the app.
Here’s what updating a Checklist looks like on the app:
10. History Log
From the ‘More’ dropdown menu in the top right corner of a Work Order Details page, you can view the history of a Work Order as well.
It shows you any changes that have been made to a Work Order since it was created. This includes changes in Reviewers or a change of state such as a Work Order going from ‘In Progress’ to ‘Completed’.
You can also run the Work Orders report to get insights into worker productivity. Go to More → Reports → Work Order Reports. These reports help you answer critical questions relating to performance and process optimization.
And that’s all you need to know about work order management in AssetSonar!
The ability to link Work Orders, Users, Locations, and Assets all under one system makes this a great tool for businesses so you can bolster accountability and lower maintenance overheads.
Have any questions?
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For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io. You can also visit our blog for detailed support posts.
