Handbook / Running the job
Work orders
The instruction that puts a person, at a place, at a time, with a list.
A work order is the unit of work. It has a crew, a date range, an arrival window, a task checklist, the materials that should be on site, the hours logged against it, and the photographs taken while doing it.
Raised from the estimate, not retyped
Once an estimate is signed you should never type it again. On the estimate, Raise the work orders reads the priced lines and proposes a set - grouped by cost code, so what the crew does costs back against the code it was priced under. Labour and subcontract lines become tasks; material lines become the list the crew turns up expecting.
You get to adjust every group before anything is created: retitle it, set the dates, pick the crew, set the arrival window. Then it is made, with the task list, the materials, the quantities and the priced hours all carried across.
An arrival window is not the same as a date. "Tuesday" is a date. "Tuesday between half seven and eight" is what the client arranged their morning around, and it is what the crew sees at the top of the job on their phone.
A work order
What gets logged against it
| Thing | Who logs it | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Tasks ticked | Whoever did the work, from their phone | Progress on the job, credited to them |
| Hours | The crew, at their own rate | Labour cost on the job |
| Materials used | The crew | Material cost - unless it came off a purchase order |
| Photographs | The crew | The project file, tagged with who took them |
Material logged against a work order that came off a purchase order is a record of what was used, not a second charge. The vendor's invoice is the money. This is the single commonest way job costing quietly lies, and it is handled explicitly here.
The Harlow kitchen ran seven work orders: demolition, structural framing, mechanical rough-in, drywall, cabinetry, tile, and the punch walk. Each carried its crew, its tasks and its own materials. Demolition is where the knob-and-tube turned up.
Open work ordersUndoing things
| What happened | The way back |
|---|---|
| Wrong crew assigned | Change the assignment. They are emailed when added; nobody is emailed when removed. |
| Dates moved | Edit them, or drag the job on the schedule board. The crew see the new date immediately. |
| Closed too early | Set it back to in progress. The completion date is cleared. |
| Raised the same work twice from an estimate | Delete the duplicate. The dialog tells you what has already been raised from that estimate so it does not happen twice. |
| Deleting one with hours on it | The hours go with it, and they were somebody's pay and somebody's job cost. Cancel it instead. |
Access: Creating and editing needs work order management; logging time, materials and photos needs field access.