Work Orders
A work order (WO) is the shop-floor record for one job: a unit comes in, your team inspects and works it, parts and labor accumulate against it, QA signs it off, and it ships back out with its paperwork. Everything the job touches — stages, holds, material, technician time, certificates, and money — lives on the work order.
Who works here: the shop supervisor runs the list and the stages; technicians add lines and log their hours; the stores crew watches Material Readiness; QA reviews documents before release; the front office answers “where is my unit?” from the same screen the shop uses.
The life of a work order
Stages describe where the job is; holds describe why it is stuck —
a work order keeps its stage while a hold is open. The final stage, SHIPPED, is reached only
through the Ship + consolidate action, never by clicking a stage button — shipping closes the
job commercially. The full stage table is in
Lifecycle & stages.
Finding the module
Work Orders sits in the sidebar with three entries:
| Sidebar entry | What it is |
|---|---|
| Orders | The work order list — every job, searchable and filterable. |
| Hold Board | Every open hold across the shop, grouped by reason. See Holds. |
| Material Readiness | Part demand vs. stock for every open WO, with one-click reserving. See Parts, labor & material. |
The work order list
Screen: The Work Orders list. Across the top, a KPI strip with four tiles: OPEN WORK ORDERS (with an “awaiting parts” count beneath it), IN WORK, AWAITING PARTS, and AOG. Below, a toolbar with a search box (“Search WO # or customer…”), a stage filter set to “All stages”, a Columns menu, and a + New WO button. The table lists work orders with a colored WO number chip, customer, assignee, type, a stage pill, priority, promised and opened dates, and an open-hold count.
The KPI strip
| Tile | Meaning |
|---|---|
| OPEN WORK ORDERS | Everything not yet shipped. The small line beneath shows how many are awaiting parts. |
| IN WORK | Jobs currently on the bench. |
| AWAITING PARTS | Turns amber the moment any job is waiting on material. |
| AOG | Open jobs at AOG priority — turns red when the count is above zero. |
Columns, search, and the stage filter
- Search matches the WO number or the customer.
- The stage filter is a dropdown listing all seven stages; pick one to narrow the table, or All stages to clear it.
- The Columns menu shows, hides, and reorders columns — your arrangement is remembered. Two columns start hidden: Severity and Customer PO; switch them on from the menu.
- The list sorts by Opened (newest first) by default; click a column header to re-sort — every column except Holds is sortable.
- Long lists page with a Load more button at the bottom.
The row peek drawer
Click any row and a drawer slides in from the right — a triage summary so you can act without leaving the list:
- The drawer is titled with the WO number and shows the stage pill plus CUSTOMER, TYPE, PRIORITY, PROMISED, and OPEN HOLDS.
- Advance → moves the job to its next stage in the sequence (for example Advance → IN WORK on a job in INSPECTION). The exception is a job in READY TO SHIP: its next move is shipping, which only works through Ship + consolidate — an advance into SHIPPED is refused.
- Ship + consolidate ships the job right from the list — see Documents & shipping for what shipping does.
- Open full → opens the complete work order record.
Every action in the peek drawer refreshes both the table and the KPI strip, so the numbers you triage by are always current.
The work order record
Opening a work order shows the full record: a header with the customer, type, stage pill, assignee, and the View WO PDF button; the money summary (BILLABLE, COST, COGS); the lifecycle stage buttons; and then the working sections — Units · assembly, Lines, Labor, Holds, and Certs & documents. Each section has its own guide:
- Creating a work order — the + New WO drawer, types, and priorities.
- Lifecycle & stages — what each stage means and who moves it.
- Parts, labor & material — lines, labor, assembly, and Material Readiness.
- Holds & the Hold Board — flagging stuck work and clearing it.
- Documents & shipping — certificates, the QA gate, shipping, and the customer portal.
The Open discussion button on a work order opens an internal team chat thread pinned to that job. It requires the Company Chat plugin, installed from the Plugins module.
Roles: Any staff member with Work Orders access can work this module. If your workspace uses data scopes (Team → Members), you only see work orders for the customers in your scope.