The work order lifecycle

A work order moves through statuses, and this page explains the default lifecycle a new organisation starts with: what each status means, what it switches on or off, and which moves the action buttons offer from it. Your organisation’s lifecycle may differ, because it is configurable.

A work order in progress, with its status moves in the header and one move blocked

How you move a job

You never type a status. Every move is a button in the header of the work order, and the buttons are built from the lifecycle:

One button per allowed move. Each button is labelled with the status the job will move to — for example Accepted, In Progress, On Hold or Completed. A move your lifecycle does not allow from the current status is not offered at all.
The first move is highlighted as the usual next step. Moves into an active status come first, then completion, then closing.
Where your organisation asks the assignee to answer the job, the person it is assigned to sees Accept and Deny first, in place of the statuses they lead to, and Deny asks why. Nobody else sees them. This is off in the default lifecycle and is set per status under statuses — see accepting or turning down a job.
Moving to a cancelled status is the red Delete button, set apart at the end of the row (see Deleting a work order).
A move that is not possible yet is shown locked, with the reason underneath the buttons — for example “Completed blocked: 1 mandatory task(s) outstanding”. On a tablet there is no hover, so the reason is always written out.
The same moves are offered in the Status box of the Edit dialog. Picking one there does nothing until you press Save changes; it then moves the job after the other edits are saved.
While an approval on the job is open, no moves are offered. The buttons are replaced by Awaiting approval, linking to Approvals, until it is decided.

If a move is refused when you press it — by a rule your organisation set up, or by a permission you do not hold — the refusal is shown in a red box under the buttons in plain words, and the job stays where it was.

The default statuses

Status	Category	Open?	What it means
Open	Open	Yes	The job exists and is waiting for somebody. Every new work order starts here — there is no draft stage
Assigned	Open	Yes	A person, a crew or a supplier has been given the job, but nobody has accepted it yet
Accepted	Open	Yes	The technician has taken the job on. From here they may edit it
In Progress	Active	Yes	Work is under way. Parts can be issued and time can be booked
On Hold	On hold	Yes	The job is blocked — waiting for parts, a supplier, a decision or access. The service-level clock pauses
Completed	Completed	No	The work is done. The service-level clock stops. The job can still be reopened
Closed	Closed	No	Finished and signed off. Final
Deleted	Cancelled	No	Called off. Final. The record, its history and its costs stay

The category is what reports and dashboards count, not the name. Rename On Hold to “Parked” and every chart still counts it as on hold. That is why renaming a status is safe. There is one hold status by default: what the job is waiting for is recorded in the reason and in the job’s history rather than in three different status names.

What each status switches on

Every status carries settings that change what the product does, not just what it displays. These are the defaults:

Setting	Open	Assigned	Accepted	In Progress	On Hold	Completed	Closed	Deleted
Counts as open work	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	—	—	—
Counts as active (being worked now)	—	—	—	Yes	—	—	—	—
Pauses the service-level clock	—	—	—	—	Yes	—	—	—
Stops the service-level clock	—	—	—	—	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Technician may edit the job	—	—	Yes	Yes	—	—	—	—
Parts may be issued	—	—	—	Yes	—	—	—	—
Time may be booked	—	—	—	Yes	Yes	—	—	—
The field app may move a job here offline	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	—	—
Final (no moves out)	—	—	—	—	—	—	Yes	Yes

Two further settings mark what a status means to assignment:

Setting	Default	Effect
Means somebody has been given it	Assigned	Assigning a job from anywhere in the product moves an Open job into this status
Means the assignee has taken it on	Accepted, In Progress	Shown as Accepted: Yes on the work order

A status can also hold the job’s own form shut until somebody has checked in to it (Edit only after check-in). None of the default statuses does. These settings are why a screen can say “Parts cannot be issued while the job is in this status” or “Time cannot be booked while the job is in this status” — the answer comes from the status, not from your permissions.

Allowed moves

Getting started

From	To	Default action name	Notes
Open	Assigned	Assign	Asks who is taking the job — a person, a crew or a supplier — and will not move without an answer
Assigned	Accepted	Accept	Allowed offline in the field app
Assigned	Open	Unassign	Back to the queue
Accepted	In Progress	Start work	Allowed offline. Refused while a permit the job needs is not in force

Doing the work

From	To	Default action name	Notes
In Progress	Completed	Complete	Allowed offline. Refused while mandatory checklist steps are outstanding
Completed	Closed	Close	Where the work order type asks for it, a closing code from the person who raised the job
Completed	In Progress	Reopen	For work that turns out not to be finished

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

From	To	Default action name
Open, Assigned, Accepted or In Progress	On Hold	Put on hold
On Hold	In Progress	Resume
On Hold	Assigned	Resume before start

Resuming does not ask who is taking the job again: whoever held it before the hold still holds it. Calling it off

From	To	Default action name
Open, Assigned, Accepted, In Progress or On Hold	Deleted	Delete

There is no move from Completed or Closed to Deleted. A job that was done stays done.

Open ──Assign──→ Assigned ──Accept──→ Accepted ──Start work──→ In Progress ──Complete──→ Completed ──Close──→ Closed
  ↑                 │                    │                          │   ↑                    │
  └────Unassign─────┘                    │                          │   └───────Reopen───────┘
                                         ↓                          ↓
                         On Hold (from Open, Assigned, Accepted or In Progress)
                         ── Resume → In Progress · Resume before start → Assigned

Delete → Deleted, from Open, Assigned, Accepted, In Progress or On Hold

What a move can ask for

Some moves stop and ask a question before they happen. Which ones depends on your configuration:

What it asks	When	Where it is set up
Who is taking it	A move into a status that means “somebody has been given it” from a queue status — Assign by default	Statuses and transitions
Questions your organisation added to a move — a reason, a date, a value — in a Before this move dialog with Answer and move	Any move an administrator has added a question to	Statuses and transitions
Fields that must be filled in first — your own work order fields, in a Before this move dialog with Save and continue	Moves into a status that insists on them	Form Studio
What failed? — a failure mode from your list, or a short code where no list exists, with Record it and continue	Completing a job whose work order type records failures	Work order types
How was it put right? — a resolution code, which may be left as Not recorded	Completing a job whose type asks for a resolution	Resolution codes
Enter the closing code — a text message is sent to whoever raised the job (Send code), they read the six-digit code back, and Verify and close finishes the move. Resend code sends a new one	Closing a job whose work order type requires it	Work order types

The closing code is a check against a job being marked done because a deadline says so rather than because the person who reported the fault agrees it is.

Who finished it

When a job arrives in a completed or closed status, the person who made the move is recorded against it — the signed-in user, or for a move made offline on the field app, the technician whose handset it was. Your organisation’s documents can then name who completed the job and who closed it, for example on a completion certificate.

Moves that need signing off

Your organisation can require approval for a move — for example, closing anything above a certain cost. When you press a move that needs approval, the job does not move. Instead you see “Submitted for approval. The job moves once it is signed off — you can follow it under Approvals.” The job moves by itself once the approver signs. Follow it on Approvals; set the rules up under Workflows.

Deleting a work order

Delete moves the job to the cancelled status (called Deleted by default). Because it ends the job, it asks first: “Delete this work order? It leaves the queue and cannot be reopened or moved again. Its history stays on the record.” Choose Keep the work order to back out. A deleted job is not erased. It leaves the open lists, the Edit button is withdrawn, and the screen returns you to the work order list — but its history, comments and costs remain on the record and in the Closed view. Retiring an asset also calls off the open work against it — see asset lifecycle.

Service levels

Each priority carries a service level: a promise about response and resolution. A contract or a service-level target for the site, category or type can make a different promise, and a due date somebody gives when raising the job becomes that job’s own deadline for both — see raising a job. The clock runs while the job is open, pauses while it is On Hold, and stops at Completed, Closed or Deleted. A job breaches its service level when it misses either promise: nobody responding in time is a breach even if the job may still be finished by its resolution deadline. Putting a late job on hold is not a way to hide it. The paused time is recorded, and the SLA breached view on the work order list still finds jobs that ran out of time. Where your organisation allows it, a job can ask for more time — a later deadline that has to be approved. It is not offered on planned work, whose dates move by Reschedule. While that request is waiting, the job cannot be moved on, edited or have its deadline changed, and its service-level clock is stopped. See Inside a work order. Configure priorities, their service levels and the escalation ladder — how a job that has missed its resolution target is escalated the longer it stays late — under work order settings.

More than one lifecycle

An organisation can run more than one work order lifecycle — for example a shorter one for a site that works from a queue, or a different one for a kind of work. A new job is born into the lifecycle that applies to its site and type, and keeps that lifecycle afterwards. The moves offered on each job are always the ones from its own lifecycle.

Changing any of this

Add statuses, rename them, change their settings 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.

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The field app

Release notes

How you move a job

The default statuses

What each status switches on

Allowed moves

What a move can ask for

Who finished it

Moves that need signing off

Deleting a work order

Service levels

More than one lifecycle

Changing any of this