FAQs Related to Multi-Day Work Orders and Repeating Work Orders
Q: What is the difference between multi-day and repeating work orders?
A: Long ago, you could only assign one technician to a work order. You could turn on duplicate work order numbers and add a technician to the “duplicate”. These work orders were really independent records. Two pieces of paper with the same number. In 2017, we introduced repeating and multi-day work orders. For more information on usage, please review Repeating and Multi-Day Work Orders.
Repeating work orders are essentially a series of work orders you can create on a schedule. It can be for one or more persons. It is the same as duplicating but there is one parent work order that ties them all together. These work orders do not share information. Much like the event on a google calendar you set to repeat. It is the single sheet of paper with a marked flag showing it belongs to a series. Use these work orders to schedule quarterly trainings for employees, non-billable work orders for time tracking, some use for large commercial jobs which need a signature for each visit and the ability to email the daily work or invoice. When it is a repeating work order, each work order in the series will appear on the work order list with a separate work order number. When you invoice, each of these work orders will appear in the Assign Work Orders form. If your job last 10 days, ten work orders appear.
Multi-day work orders share everything except the scheduling fields. There are four scheduling fields for a work order. Assigned To, Start Date, Start Time, and Duration. When all four are present, the work order is considered scheduled. When you create a multi-day work order, it MUST have two lines of scheduling. This can be one tech with two lines or two technicians with the same date and time. Multi-day work orders are good for when you only need one work order on the list but multiple people or trips to complete that one sheet of paper. It is the carbon copy of work orders. When you look at the work order list, there is one work order. When you look at the history forms, schedule boards/calendars, and work orders in mobile, you see the multiple work orders. When you click the work order drop downs on various forms, you see one work order. When you open the Assign Work Orders form, that ten day project for nine techs only shows one work order.