Work order settings

This screen decides what a job may be classified as and how fast each priority must be answered. Open it from Administration → Work orders. Where reports come in from is configured separately, under work request settings: a planner looks after this screen, whoever runs the front door looks after that one.

If you don’t see this in your navigation, your administrator can switch the module on under Administration → Modules, or it may not be included in your plan.

The screen is split into three tabs. Across the top, the stat strip counts the priorities, types and resolution codes you have. The tab you are on is kept in the page address, so a link to the types opens on the types, and reloading the page after an edit keeps you where you were.

Tab	Sections on it
Priorities and service levels	Priorities and service levels, Priority rules, the Escalation ladder and Reasons for more time — everything that decides what a job is promised and whether that promise can move
Types and categories	Work order types and the Work order categories they are reported under
Resolution codes	Resolution codes — how a technician says a job ended

When the priority ladder contradicts itself (see below), the first tab is labelled Priorities and service levels · out of order, so you can see the problem from whichever tab you are on. Who can change this. Every list here is edited by people whose role includes the configuration permissions — Add configuration entries, Edit configuration entries and Remove configuration entries. Without them, the screen reads but the Add buttons do not appear and rows do not open. See roles. Filtering and editing in a grid. Every list on this screen — the priority ladder, priority rules, the escalation ladder, reasons for more time, work order types, work order categories and resolution codes — has a Filter button that narrows it on any of its columns, so you can ask which types are limited to one site, or which priorities nobody has used. Beside it, Edit in a grid opens the rows the filter leaves in a spreadsheet-style editor for correcting several at once. Nothing is written until you have seen what will change, and the change can be undone afterwards from the import history. Where the list holds more rows than the grid opens at once, the button asks you to narrow the list first. While a list is filtered, searched or sorted, its rows cannot be dragged into a new order. On the priority ladder, the escalation ladder, work order types and resolution codes, a Select column lets you tick rows. With rows ticked, the button reads Edit N selected in a grid and opens just those rows, whatever the filter shows; the cross beside it clears the selection. The escalation ladder, work order types and resolution codes also have a search box in their heading — Search escalation rungs, Search work order types and Search resolution codes — which narrows the list as you type.

Priorities and service levels

A priority is a rung on a ladder, which is why the whole ladder is shown together. Most urgent is at the top; drag a row by its handle to move it. The defaults are Critical, High, Normal and Low, and you can rename, add or retire any of them.

Column	What it shows
Rank	The rung’s place in the order, with its colour. Sorting and “most urgent first” views use the rank, so renaming Critical to P1 breaks nothing
Priority	The name, with an inactive tag if it has been switched off
Applies to	Everywhere, or the categories and sites it is limited to
Respond within	How long until somebody must start. Edit it in place — the box takes minutes
Resolve within	How long until it must be fixed. Also edited in place, in minutes
Open now	Open jobs at this priority, with how many have breached their target
Ever raised	Every job ever raised at this priority

A warning, The ladder contradicts itself, appears above the ladder when a lower rung promises a faster answer than one ranked more urgent above it, and the tab’s label gains · out of order. Nothing stops you saving that, but it is almost always one row edited without looking at the rest.

Changing a time here changes the promise on work raised from now on. A job already open keeps the deadline it was given, because the SLA clock is stamped when the job is raised. The clock pauses in statuses marked as pausing it and stops when the job completes — see statuses and transitions and the work order lifecycle.

The priority form

Add a priority opens a new one; clicking a priority’s rank or name opens it for editing.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What a person picks from the list — “Urgent”, “Routine”	Required
Color	Tints the priority’s badge on lists, boards and the job itself	Optional
Categories	Limits the priority to jobs on assets in these categories	Empty means every category. A priority scoped to Mechanical is not offered on an Electrical job
Sites	Limits the priority to jobs raised at these sites	Empty means every site. A job filed against a location counts as being at that location’s site
Response (minutes)	How long until somebody is expected to start	Feeds the response half of the SLA clock
Resolution (minutes)	How long until the job is expected to be fixed	Feeds the resolution half of the SLA clock, and is the deadline the escalation ladder counts from
Active	Whether it is offered for new jobs	On by default. Turning it off keeps every job already raised at it and stops it being offered again

Priority rules

A priority rule is about a group of jobs — those raised at a given site, against an asset of a given category, of a given type — and does one or both of two things for them:

fills in their priority, so a breakdown at the hospital is raised as Critical without anybody choosing it; and
changes what their priority promises, so Critical at the hospital can promise half an hour while Critical everywhere else promises four hours.

Leave the site, the category or the type empty to mean any. A rule on a category also covers every category nested beneath it. Somebody raising a job can still pick a different priority by hand — a rule fills in a default, it is not a lock. With no rules at all, every job starts at its type’s default priority and is promised that priority’s standard times.

The list shows:

Column	What it shows
Rule	The rule’s name, with an inactive tag if it has been switched off
Jobs	Which jobs it is about, read as one phrase — for example Columbus · Rotating Equipment · any type
Priority	The priority, and underneath either fills in automatically (the rule sets the priority) or times only (it only changes the times for jobs already at that priority)
Response / Resolution	The times the rule promises. Where the rule leaves a time empty, the priority’s own time is shown in grey with the word standard underneath, so you can see what actually applies without looking it up in the ladder
Ladder button	Where the escalations module is on: priority’s when the rule climbs the priority’s own escalation ladder, or the number of rungs (2 rungs) when it has a ladder of its own. Press it to open that ladder underneath the list

Click a row, or its pencil button, to edit it; the bin button removes it. Add a rule opens the form:

Field	What it means	Notes
Name (under Which jobs)	What the rule is called on this screen and on the jobs it applies to — “Breakdowns at the hospital”	Required. Shown on a job beside its deadline when the rule’s times apply
Site	The site the rule covers	Empty means every site. A job filed against a location counts as being at that location’s site
Asset category	The asset category the rule covers	Empty means every category. Matches this category and everything beneath it
Work order type	The type of job the rule covers	Empty means every type. A rule must name at least one of site, category or type
Priority (under The priority)	The priority these jobs are raised at, or whose times this rule changes for them	Required. Options come from the priority ladder above
Fills in the priority	Raise these jobs at this priority automatically, unless somebody picks one by hand	Off by default. Only one rule for the same combination of site, category and type may fill in the priority
Response (minutes) (under What it promises)	How long until somebody is expected to start	Empty uses the priority’s standard time — the box says what that is, for example 60 — Critical’s standard, and changes as you change the priority
Resolution (minutes)	How long until the job is expected to be fixed	Empty uses the priority’s standard time. Cannot be shorter than the response time
Active (under Availability)	Whether the rule is applied to new jobs	On by default

A rule has to do something: tick Fills in the priority, give it a time, or both. Two rules cannot name the same priority for exactly the same jobs.

Which rule a job gets

Where two rules match one job, the one naming more wins. On a tie, a rule naming a site beats one naming a category, which beats one naming a type, and the nearer category wins over one further up the tree. A contract or a vendor’s own commitment covering the asset still wins over any rule’s times.

A rule’s own escalation ladder

Press a rule’s ladder button to open Escalation ladder for {name} underneath the list. With no rungs of its own, a late job the rule covers climbs its priority’s ladder, and the panel says so. Add a rung gives these jobs a ladder of their own, which replaces the priority’s ladder for them. Who hears each rung is still set under notifications.

Escalation ladder

How a job that has missed its resolution target is escalated the longer it keeps running late. Each rung is a length of time past due and how loudly it is announced when it gets there, so Critical may climb in half an hour where Low has a day. The section only appears when the escalations module is switched on; without it you still have priorities and priority rules, but nothing climbs on its own. The list is grouped by priority and ordered by how late the job is, with the columns Priority, Level, Past due (for example the moment it is late) and Announced as. A warning names any active priority that has no rungs at all, because a job at that priority never escalates by itself.

Field	What it means	Notes
Priority	Which priority’s ladder this rung belongs to	Required
Level	Which rung — 1 is the first	The job’s escalation is recorded at this number, and the ladder is climbed in this order
Minutes past due	How long after the resolution target this rung fires	0 is the moment the job is late. Time the job spends paused does not count
Severity	How loud the rung is: Low, Medium, High or Critical	Defaults to Medium
Active	Whether the rung fires	On by default

The ladder does not say who hears a rung. That is a notification subscription on the “A work order was escalated” event under notifications: a subscription asking for High and above hears the rungs announced as high and critical. A person can also escalate a single job by hand from the job itself — see the work order detail — which does not touch this configuration.

Work order types

The Types and categories tab of the work order configuration screen

What kind of job this is. The defaults are Corrective, Breakdown, Vendor Service, Preventive, Predictive, Inspection, Calibration, Compliance, Lubrication and Condition Monitoring. A type can be filed under another, so the list reads as a tree and appears nested wherever types are offered. Hover over a behaviour tag in the table to read what it does; the type form says the same beside each switch. The table columns are:

Column	What it shows
Type	The name, indented under its parent type
Work order category	The reporting heading the type is filed under, or —
Behaviour	The behaviour tags that are switched on — Planned, Emergency, PM compliance, Raises an inspection, Failure capture, Reported by the plan’s author, OTP required for closing, SMS notification to asset assignee
Default priority	What a job of this type starts at
Applies to	Everywhere, or the categories and sites it is limited to
Visible to	Everyone, or the roles allowed to see it
Reopen window	How long after closing a job may be reopened — Any time, 24 hours, 48 hours or 72 hours
Jobs	Jobs of this type, with how many are open
From maintenance	How many maintenance plans raise this type (shown as rounds for an inspection type)

Edit in a grid opens the types the filter leaves in a spreadsheet-style editor for correcting several at once, as on every list here. Back to the list returns to the table.

The type form

Add a type opens a new one; clicking a type opens it for editing.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the type is called	Required
Parent work order type	The type this one is filed under	Defaults to None — a top-level type. A child is offered nested under its parent wherever types are listed
Work order category (under Reporting)	The heading jobs of this type are reported under	Defaults to Uncategorised. Options come from work order categories, below the types on the same tab; a retired category is not offered unless the type is already filed under it. Changing it moves every job of the type, including jobs already raised
Planned	Counts the job as planned rather than reactive	On by default for a new type. This one flag is what the planned-versus-unplanned split on the dashboards and every reliability figure is computed from, so a type you add yourself is counted correctly
Emergency	Counts the job separately from ordinary reactive work and marks it as an emergency on the dispatch board	A type cannot be both Planned and Emergency
PM compliance	Includes the job in the preventive-maintenance compliance figure	Usually on for planned types
Raises an inspection	A plan carrying this type raises an inspection instead of a work order	The checklist is then the whole record — no second job to assign or close, and no task list, parts or duration to plan. Only allowed on a planned type
Failure capture	Closing a job of this type demands a failure code	Gives reliability analysis something to read. Codes come from the failure taxonomy
Reported by the plan’s author	A job that a maintenance plan of this type raises names whoever created the plan as its reporter	Off by default. Left off, the job names whoever generated it, and a job the schedule raises on its own names nobody. Useful where notifications and approvals go to the reporter
Default priority	The priority a job of this type starts at	A priority rule that fills in the priority, or the person raising the job, can override it
Categories	Limits the type to assets in these categories	Empty means every category
Sites	Limits the type to jobs raised at these sites	Empty means every site
Roles	Only people holding one of these roles can see this type	Empty means every role
Re-Open Allowed Till	How long after closing a job of this type may be reopened	Any time (the default), 24 hours, 48 hours or 72 hours
OTP required for closing	Closing needs a one-time code texted to whoever raised the job, typed back first	A job with no requester on file, or a requester with no phone number, cannot be closed while this is on
SMS notification to asset assignee	Sends a text to whoever the asset is assigned to as soon as a job of this type is raised against it
Active	Whether the type is offered for new jobs	On by default

The categories a type is limited to under Categories are asset categories — a job is classified by the same tree the equipment is, administered under asset settings. The reporting heading a type is filed under is a different list, described below.

Resolution codes

What a technician chooses to describe how a job ended — the defaults are Adjusted, Component replaced, Deferred to shutdown, No fault found and Repaired. The list shows Resolution, its tags (notes required, no fault found), Used (how many jobs closed with it) and Last used. The hint above the list counts codes that have never been chosen, because a list nobody uses is a list that gets picked from at random.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the technician picks when closing a job — “Replaced bearing”, “Adjusted and tested”	Required
Requires notes	The technician must write something before closing	Off by default. Worth requiring on anything vague
Means nothing was wrong	Marks the code as no fault found	Kept apart from real repairs so the first-time-fix rate is not flattered by visits that fixed nothing
Active	Whether the code is offered at closing	On by default

Reasons for more time

Picked when somebody asks for more time on a job, so “what keeps making us late” is a question a report can answer. The defaults include Waiting for parts, No access to the asset, No technician available, Waiting on a contractor, Waiting for a permit or shutdown, More work found than expected and Other. The list shows Name, Notes (sentence required where a sentence is asked for) and In use. Add opens the form:

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What the person asking picks — “Waiting for parts”, “No access to the asset”	Required
Requires notes	A sentence is asked for as well as the choice	Worth requiring on anything an approver could not decide from on its own
Active	Whether the reason is offered	On by default

Retire every reason here and more time cannot be asked for at all. A deadline can then only be moved by rescheduling the job, which deliberately leaves the promised SLA where it was.

Work order categories

Headings over the work order types, for reports to group by and for nothing else — Statutory, Breakdown, Improvement. Each type can be filed under one category, chosen in the type form, and every job of that type is counted under it, including jobs already raised: moving a type to another category moves its history with it. Nothing on a work order form changes, and a job’s category cannot be set by hand. A new organisation has none. The list shows each category’s Name and a Work order types column naming the types filed under it, or No types yet, so you can see what a category holds without opening every type. Add opens the form; click a row, or its pencil, to edit it.

Field	What it means	Notes
Name	What a report groups by — “Statutory”, “Breakdown”, “Improvement”	Required. Two categories cannot share a name
Description	What belongs under the heading	Optional
Active	Whether the category is offered in the type form	On by default. A retired category stays on the types already filed under it

Each category also carries a code, made from its name and not shown on the form; it is what a spreadsheet import matches on. Removing a category leaves the types that were filed under it uncategorised.

Retiring rather than deleting

Every form here has an Active switch. Turning it off stops the entry being offered for anything new and keeps everything already recorded against it readable — a job closed with a resolution code you no longer offer still shows what it was closed as.

Setting up

Configuration

Priorities and service levels

The priority form

Priority rules

Which rule a job gets

A rule’s own escalation ladder

Escalation ladder

Work order types

The type form

Resolution codes

Reasons for more time

Work order categories

Retiring rather than deleting