The work order lifecycle

A work order moves through states. This page documents the defaults a new organisation starts with — yours may differ, because the lifecycle is configurable.

The states

Status	Category	Open?	Notes
Draft	Draft	No	Being written. Not yet real work
Open	Open	Yes	Raised, nobody on it
Assigned	Open	Yes	Somebody has it, has not accepted
Accepted	Open	Yes	The technician has taken it on. They may now edit it
En Route	Active	Yes	Travelling. Counts as travel time
In Progress	Active	Yes	At the machine. Parts and labour may be booked
On Hold	On hold	Yes	Blocked. The SLA clock is paused
Waiting for Parts	On hold	Yes	Blocked on stock. SLA paused
Waiting for Vendor	On hold	Yes	Blocked on a contractor. SLA paused
Waiting for Approval	On hold	Yes	Blocked on a decision. SLA paused
Completed	Completed	No	Work done. SLA clock stopped. Can be reopened
Closed	Closed	No	Finished and signed off. Terminal
Cancelled	Cancelled	No	Abandoned. Terminal. Always carries a typed reason

The category is what reports count, not the name. Rename “Waiting for Parts” to “Awaiting spares” and every chart still counts it as on hold. This is why renaming a status is safe.

What a status decides

Each status carries flags that change what the product does — not just what it displays:

Flag	Effect
Counts as open	Whether “7 open jobs” includes it
Counts as active	Whether the job is being worked right now
Counts as downtime	Whether the asset is down while the job sits here
Stops the SLA clock	Completed and Closed stop it
Pauses the SLA clock	The on-hold states pause it
Technician may edit	From Accepted onward
Parts may be consumed	In Progress only, by default
Labour may be booked	From En Route onward
May be cancelled	Any open or on-hold state — everything live except Draft
May be reopened	Completed and Closed
Available offline	Which states the handset may move a job into

Allowed moves

Getting started

Draft ──Submit──→ Open ──Assign──→ Assigned ──Accept──→ Accepted

Doing the work

Accepted ──Depart──→ En Route ──Start work──→ In Progress
Accepted ──Start work────────────────────────→ In Progress
In Progress ──Complete──→ Completed ──Close──→ Closed

Getting blocked, and unblocked A job can be blocked before anyone starts it — a vendor booked for tomorrow, parts that have not arrived — so waiting is reachable from Open, Assigned, Accepted and In Progress.

From	To	Action
Open	Waiting for Parts	Wait for parts
Open	Waiting for Approval	Request approval
Assigned	On Hold / Waiting for Parts / Waiting for Vendor	Put on hold · Wait for parts · Wait for vendor
Accepted	On Hold / Waiting for Parts / Waiting for Vendor	Put on hold · Wait for parts · Wait for vendor
In Progress	On Hold / Waiting for Parts / Waiting for Vendor / Waiting for Approval	Put on hold · Wait for parts · Wait for vendor · Request approval
Waiting for Parts	Assigned	Parts arrived
Waiting for Parts	In Progress	Resume
Waiting for Vendor	Assigned	Reassign after vendor declined
Waiting for Vendor	In Progress	Resume
Waiting for Vendor	Completed	Vendor completed the work
Waiting for Approval	In Progress	Approved
On Hold	Assigned	Resume before start
On Hold	In Progress	Resume

Backing out

From	To	Action
Assigned	Open	Unassign
Completed	In Progress	Reopen
Any open, active or on-hold state	Cancelled	Cancel

Cancel now works from any of the nine open, active and on-hold states — Open through Waiting for Approval. Earlier versions only allowed it from Open, Assigned and In Progress; everything else had to be walked back to one of those first. Every cancellation asks for a typed reason, no exceptions. This is the default model — an organisation that has customised its own status model keeps whatever cancellation rules it already configured.

Retiring the related asset cancels a work order’s open jobs for you — see asset lifecycle for what retirement does.

Service levels

Priority carries a service level: a promise about response and resolution. The clock runs while the job is open, pauses in the on-hold states, and stops at Completed. That is why “Waiting for Parts” is not a way to hide a late job — the clock pauses, but the paused time is recorded and the SLA breached view still finds jobs that ran out. Configure priorities and their service levels under work settings.

Changing any of this

Add states, rename them, and change which moves are allowed under statuses and transitions. One rule the product enforces: what a status means to records already in it cannot change while any record sits there, but what may happen next always can.

Get started

Work

Maintenance

Assets

Inventory

Procurement

Workforce

Vendors and contracts

Property

Analytics

The field app

The states

What a status decides

Allowed moves

Service levels

Changing any of this

​The states

​What a status decides

​Allowed moves

​Service levels

​Changing any of this

The states

What a status decides

Allowed moves

Service levels

Changing any of this