Method CRM Help Center

Work orders

Solution No. 388

OVERVIEW
How to create a new work order
How to edit an existing work order
How to create a recurring job
Monthly billing installments
Multi-day projects
How to turn an estimate into a work order
Printing or emailing work orders and route lists
Rescheduling from the work order list
Cancelling and completing from the work order list
Creating invoices from the work order list
Using the Job Summary report
Using Job Costing reports

SCREEN OVERVIEW
Add/edit work order
Existing work orders
Copy work order
Update selected work orders
Renew selected work orders
Print/email work orders and route lists

Overview

As every small business owner knows, a work order is an order for products or services created internally to reflect a request on the part of a customer. Depending on the kind of product or service your business offers, your work order might express a wide variety of information: cost of a product, an hourly rate for service, discounts and taxes, and much more. Thankfully, Method Field Services is designed to give you unparalleled control over what information is generated in your work order, not to mention the ability to update, print, email and otherwise keep track of every work order generated for your company. This section will detail how to create and edit work orders and a screen-by-screen breakdown of the Work Orders tab to help identify what's what.

How to create a new work order

There are a few ways you can access the New work orders screen:

From Method Field Services, go to Field Service Center > Work order list > Existing work orders. Click the New work order button at the bottom of the screen.
From Method Field Services, go to Field Service Center > My Calendar and select a block of time by clicking and dragging your cursor across the calendar to the desired block (e.g. from 10:00am to 12:00pm on Monday). Right click and click on New.
If you are turning an estimate into a work order, go to Field Service Center > Estimate and select the estimate you wish to turn into a work order. Scroll down and click on Create / Go to work order.
If you are creating a work order for an existing customer, you can go to Field Service Center > Customers, then to the Activities & Work orders subtab. Select the customer for whom you wish to create the work order, then click on the New work order button at the bottom of the screen.

All of these options will open the Add/edit work order screen. Option 1 will open the screen with nothing filled in. Option 2 will open the screen with the start and end dates and times already filled in. Option 3 will open the screen and fill the fields covered by information in the estimate. Option 4 will open the screen and fill in all pertinent customer information.

From the Add/edit work order screen, choose a Customer to associate to this work order from the drop down menu, or create a New customer by clicking on the ellipses button (...) to the right. This will associate this work order with the customer or lead you chose. If you chose option 3 or 4 above, this step will already be done.
Create a job name for this work order. This is a short text explanation of the job that will not appear on an invoice.
Assign this work order to a user (employee or subcontractor) by choosing one from the Assigned to drop down list.
Choose a start date and end date for this work order. Depending on your next steps, this will help define whether this is a one time job or a recurring job. For convenience, you can use the +/- 30 min and +/- 1 day buttons to quickly add or remove time from your start and end dates.
The Status field indicates whether the job is planned, in progress, cancelled or completed. By default the following statuses come with Method Field Services: "Cancelled", "Completed", "Deferred", "In Progress", "Not Started" and "Waiting on someone else". You can add your own statuses by clicking the ellipses button (...) on the status drop down list. Choose the one that best suits this work order.
The above information is all Method needs to create a record of this work order, but of course there are many, many other options available depending on the specifics of the job. Please see our Screen overview section for more information on each of these options.
Clicking Save will save this record to Method. Save & New will save the information in the fields and then clear them in preparation for a new work order. Save & Close will save the information in the fields and close the New work order screen. Cancel will close the screen without saving.

How to edit an existing work order

From Method Field Services, go to Work order list.
Choose the work order you would like to edit from the list.
Depending on what you would like to do next, you can choose to click on Edit or Edit series.
If your work order is designated OneTime, both buttons will bring you to the Add/edit work order screen with the option to turn the job into a recurring job in a series.
If your work order is designated Series, it refers to a group of occurrences and will not have the option to turn it into a recurring job (because it already is one).
If your work order is designated Occurrence, clicking on Edit will bring you to the Add/edit work order screen for the individual occurrence, and clicking on Edit series will bring you to the Add/edit work order screen for the series the occurrence is associated with.
In all three cases, the information already associated with this record in Method will be auto-filled into the pertinent fields.
From the Add/edit work order screen, you can change any information in the fields , set a OneTime job to recur, alter the recurrence conditions of a series or occurrence, and much more. Please see the Screen overview section for a full breakdown of everything that can be done with work orders.
Click Save to save the changes to this work order. Save & Close will save the changes and close the Add/edit work order screen. Save & New will save the changes and clear the fields to prepare for a new work order. Cancel will close the screen without saving any changes.

How to create a recurring job

Creating a recurring job will generate a series in your work order list that refers to the time frame in which those jobs (occurrences) will take place. Here's how to create a recurring job.

From Method Field Services, go to Work order list and click on New work order.
Fill in the required fields with the pertinent information for this job order, then navigate to the Recurring dates subtab and click Recurring. This will generate additional options.
Choosing a recurring basis will determine your next step.You will then be asked to choose a timeframe - dates and times - between which the job will occur (for example, if the job is daily, it may recur every 2 days from December 5 to January 5, 11:00am to 1:00pm). You can also choose to limit how many occurrences will happen in that time frame, to a maximum of 999. While any series can be renewed, clicking on "to be renewed" will make this series appear in the "to be renewed" filter in the Work order list.
- Daily: If your job is to recur daily, you will be asked to choose whether it will recur every X number of days, or every weekday.
- Weekly: If your job is to recur weekly, you will be asked to choose X number of weeks for it to recur (e.g. every 3 weeks), and on what day(s) of the week it will recur.
- Monthly: If your job is to recur monthly, you will be asked to choose which day of every X month it will recur (e.g. the 5th of every 2 months) or whether it will recur once weekly every X months (e.g. the 2nd Tuesday of every month).
- Yearly: If your job is to recur yearly, you will be asked to choose what day and month the job will recur (e.g. every May 1st, or every 4th Tuesday in December).
- Variable: If your job recurs in a variable capacity, you will be asked to choose the number of scheduling intervals you'd like to set up (to a maximum of six). For each, you will be asked to set a date range (start and end) every X number of days, and to set a maximum number of occurrences for that range. Choose the days the the occurrences will take place by checking off any that apply from Sunday-Saturday, and set a time for each. If you choose the Variable option, please skip the next step.
Clicking Insert recurring dates will insert the individual occurrences of the series into the grid below. You can also use Delete selected to remove any selected occurrences from this grid (this can't be undone). If you check Delete existing occurrences on insert, your new occurrences will replace any occurrences in the grid below.
Click Update to update this record across Method Field Services.

Monthly billing installments

If you charge a customer a fixed price per month for your services, regardless of how many services you perform, simply setup a recurring work order to handle the billing installment, and set up a separate recurring work order to handle each service that must be performed.

Schedule a recurring work order for your billing installment (see above), with the Invoice Type "To be invoiced", and the recurring basis "Monthly".

TIP: It might be helpful to setup a separate user to whom all billing installments are assigned so they don't get printed on route lists and work orders.
Schedule the services included in the contract price as recurring work orders, with the Invoice Type "Do not Invoice".
Print or email your daily route lists and work orders, as you normally would.
At the end of the month, invoice all work orders as you normally would. In this case, your billing installment prices will be included, since they are identified with the Invoice Type "To be invoiced". The services, on the other hand, will not get invoiced, since they have the Invoice Type "Do not Invoice".

Multi-day projects

A project is a job that can span many days (for example, a construction job or installation), with multiple users and multiple tasks. With Method Field Services, you have two choices in how to schedule such projects.

You can schedule a one-time job that simply has the start date scheduled for the day the project begins, and an end date for when the project ends.

Alternatively, you can schedule a recurring job, with a "Project" basis, and insert all the dates and users you want to assign the project to. The recurring job offers more complexity, so choose the option that works best for you.

TIP:

If you schedule your project as a recurring job, it is best to treat your project as the "Series" and project visits as "Occurrences". Set the project's Invoice Type to "Do Not Invoice" on the series until all project visits are completed. At this point, edit the series, change the Invoice Type to "To Be Invoiced" and then click Create Invoices.

How to turn an estimate into a work order

It's common knowledge that sooner or later a successful estimate will translate into a work order. Here's how to quickly and efficiently make a functional work order out of an estimate.

From Method Field Services, navigate to Estimate.
If you are creating a new estimate, please see our documentation on estimates to learn how to create one from scratch. Otherwise, select an existing estimate from the grid to the left by clicking select. This will display the estimate's details on the right-hand side of the screen.

Click Create/Go to work order. This will open the Add/edit work order screen and automatically fill in the pertinent fields. Take a look at the How to create a work order section above to learn how to complete this process. When you're done, your estimate will be relabeled as a work order and will appear in the pertinent grids as such.

TIP:

It is important to remember that even though the Sales Rep, Campaign, and Opportunity fields are not visible on the work order, the information is still ported to the work order record and will become visible again when you turn the work order into an invoice. If you want to view this information in the work order, you will need to Customize the screen. Contact a Consultant for more details.

Printing or emailing work orders and route lists

You can quickly and efficiently print or email work orders and route lists from the Work orders list screen. Just follow these steps!

From Method Field Services, navigate to Work order list > Existing work orders.
Locate the work order(s) you would like to print or email. You can do this by using the filter options in the Filter by view drop down menu, or by changing the From date / To date above.
Once you have located the work order(s) you want to select, click on the check boxes to the far left to select as many as you want. If you'd like to select all of the visible work orders to print or email, click on the check box in the header of the grid to auto-check every visible work order.
Navigate to the Print/email tab link.
Under Which work order(s), choose "All" to denote all work orders currently in your Method Field Services, or "Selected" to denote only those you checked off in the Existing work orders grid.
Click either Print route list, Print work orders, or Email work orders. This will generate a PDF copy of the work order and/or route list. If you chose the Print option, that PDF will appear as a preview on your screen. If you chose the Email option, it will be attached to the email sent out by Method. This email will be sent to the user to whom the work order was assigned.

Rescheduling from the work order list

Rescheduling a work order should be quick and easy, and thanks to Method Field Services, it is! Here's how to reschedule a work order right from the Existing work orders list.

From Method Field Services, navigate to Work order list > Existing work orders.
Locate and check off all work orders you would like to reschedule, then navigate to the Update selected work orders subtab.
Uncheck the check box marked Change status to and check the box marked Move to date.
Change the date to the new date you'd like to schedule for these work orders and click Update selected work orders. This will update the dates in the Existing work orders grid and the Calendar.

Cancelling and completing from the work order list

Much like rescheduling, the work order list is designed to make changing the status of a job a job quick and easy. Here's what to do!

From Method Field Services, navigate to Work order list > Existing work orders.
Locate the work orders you would like to cancel or complete and check the check boxes beside each. Then, navigate to Update selected work orders.
Click on Change status to and choose either "cancelled" or "complete" from the drop down list. Then, click on Update selected work orders. This will update the statuses in the Existing work orders grid and the Calendar.

Creating invoices from the work order list

Often you will want to turn one or more work orders into invoices all at once (perhaps at month's end, for example), so Method Field Services makes it easy to do that right from your work order list.

From Method Field Services, navigate to Work order list > Existing work orders.
Make sure all the work orders you'd like to change into invoices are visible in the list. A good way to do this is to change the Filter by view to "All Completed and To Be Invoiced", since quite often a work order will not be invoiced until it is completed. However, you are free to invoice incomplete work orders as well. If you would only like to invoice certain work orders, check the check box next to each.

If you would like to invoice all work orders, even those on other pages of the grid, click on More actions > Invoice all. If you would only like to turn work orders you've specifically selected, click on More actions > Invoice selected. All the selected work orders will be given the status "complete" and will be able to be searched as such in the Existing work orders grid. The related invoices will appear in the Existing invoices grid.

TIP:

In the case of creating a batch of invoices, the invoicing process in Method Field Services will automatically include multiple work orders for the same customer on a single invoice when you select them to be invoiced in the same batch.

Using the Job Summary report

The Job Summary Report gives you an excellent overview of all the Job Items in a work order, as well as the estimated vs. actual hours, and profitability of each item.

Edit the work order from either the Work Order list (see above), or My Calendar screen (see Calendar for more information).
Click More actions > Job Summary Report link, below the Job Items grid.
The Job Summary Report should appear in an Adobe Acrobat PDF print preview.

Using Job Costing reports

In additional to the Job Summary Report, two other job costing reports come built into Method Field Services, Est. Vs. Act. Man Hrs By Customer and Job Cost Profitability by Customer. To access these reports:

Click the Field Service Center tab.
Click the Work Order List tab link.
Click the Print / Email tab on the Work Order List screen.
Click on either Est. Vs. Act. Man Hrs By Customer or Job Cost Profitability by Customer.
The report should appear in an Adobe Acrobat PDF print preview.

Screen overview

There are a number of screens associated with work orders; this section will detail each of them and explain the functionality of all drop down menus, buttons and other functions. There are three subtabs associated with the Work Order List tab link, so we will look at each one in detail here.

Add/edit work order

This screen consists of the main Add/edit screen and several subtabs, which we will discuss below. For now, let's take a look at the fields associated with the main part of the screen.

Customer: Choose a customer or lead to associate with this work order from this drop down menu. This is a required field for Method to save the record. Clicking the ellipses button (...) will bring up the Search / New customer screen (please see our Customer documentation for more details).
Job name: Type a name for this job into the field. This is also a required field.
Assigned to: Choose a Method user to assign to this work order from the drop down menu. Once again, it's a required field.
Date start/end: Choosing your start and end dates and times will refer to a one-time job. If you would like to set up recurring dates you can do so on the Recurring dates subtab (see below). Both of these are required fields as well.
Ref no: This number will become the Invoice number when this work order is invoiced.
Activity no: This number will be automatically generated when you click Save.
Status: Method requires you to choose a job status for this work order - pick the one that works best for you from the drop down menu.
Invoice type: Determine whether this work order needs to be invoiced, whether it is exempt, or whether it's already been invoiced.
Priority: Set a priority for this work order (the defaults are low, medium, and high). If you'd like to create your own priority level, click the ellipses button (...) to go to the New/edit activity priorities screen (see the relevant documentation for more information).
Work order instructions: Any specific instructions to include? Use this section as a "note pad" to take down just those instructions. It will appear when the work order is sent to the user.
Recurrence type: This field will automatically set to OneTime unless you choose to set recurring dates, in which case it will be set to "series". The only way to create an occurrence is to do so through the Recurring Dates subtab, which we'll discuss in a moment.

Tasks and materials

This subtab is where we add job items to this work order. Once you input the required information in the fields above and click Save to save the record in Method, you will be able to add job items to the work order in the grid below. Let's take a closer look at the grid.

Job item: This drop down list will allow you to choose a job item (usually a service or a product) to this work order. Choosing one from the drop down menu will automatically fill in any information already included with this item into the fields to the right. To create or edit job items, please see our documentation on items.
Item description: If the item you choose has a description associated with it, it will be displayed here.
Est hrs: This refers to the estimated hours a particular service will take.
Rate: Your rate for services rendered will appear here (for example, an hourly rate or a flat rate).
Qty: This is the number of products being ordered, or the number of hours spent on services on this work order.
Amount: This is the pre-tax amount charged for the product or service.
Tax: This drop down menu allows you to identify whether or not an individual job item will be subject to taxes. Please see our documentation on taxes for more information.
On invoice?: If you would like this job item to appear on the invoice generated from this work order, make sure this is clicked (by default, it is).
Details: Once you click "update" a clickable link will appear in this section allowing you to access the Enter Details and Costs screen (please see below for more information).
Delete: Once you click "delete" a clickable link will appear in this section allowing you to delete the selected Job item. Please note this can't be undone - you will have to re-add the item to this work order if you accidentally delete it.

Once you have selected your job items, click Update to generate a total amount and to access the Details and Delete options on the far right of the grid.

Enter details and costs

This screen is accessed by clicking on Details next to a job item after the grid has been Updated. From this screen you can edit the job item's details or change the details of the time in/time out for this job item. There are two subtabs associated with this screen: Job item details and Enter actual hours/time tracking.

Job item details

Item: Use this drop down menu to choose a job item.
Item description: This section is used to describe the job item.
Qty: Change the number of products (or service hours) for this job item.
Rate: This is the amount of money for one product or service hour.
Amount: This amount denotes the pre-tax total for the number of job items requested.
Tax: Use this drop down to apply (or not apply) taxes to this amount.
Customer equipment: Please see our documentation on Equipment for more details.
Class: Choose a class for this job item (see our documentation on Classes for more details).
Job item instructions: Only use this section if you need to give specific instructions for a certain task or material. Otherwise use the Work order instructions section.
Est man hours: The estimated number of man hours required to complete this job item.
Act man hours: The actual number of man hours used to complete this job item.
Copy to qty: This button will copy the exact number of hours used to complete the job item to the quantity field.
Cost per: This refers to the cost per actual man hour.
Cost: This is the total cost for all actual man hours.
Calculate: This button will calculate the total cost.
Is included on invoice: If you would like the details of this job item to be included on the invoice (e.g. if the customer is paying for the specific item as part of his or her work order) make sure this is checked off -- by default, it is.

Save & New will save the changes to this job item and clear the fields in preparation for a new job item. Save & Close will save the changes and return you to the Add/edit work order screen. The new details will be reflected in the Tasks and Materials grid. Cancel will return you to the Add/edit work order screen without saving.

Time in/Time out

This subtab is dominated by a grid showing existing time in/time out settings for individual job items. The grid can be searched and sorted using the following headers:

Date: The date the work was done (the TimeTracking date).
Start: The start time for the job item.
End: The end time for the job item.
Time: The total number of hours relegated to the job item.
Item: The job item in question.
Employee/Vendor: The employee or vendor assigned to the job item.
Payroll Item Wage: The rate of pay associated with this job item.

Delete will delete the selected record. This can't be undone.

Below, there is a section called Enter New time in/time out. This is used to enter actual hours and time tracking (please see the pertinent section above).

Job item: The drop down list used to choose a job item. This is a required field.
Employee/vendor 1-5: These menus are used to choose team members to assign to a particular job item. Note: you can only have five Method users on your team by default.
Start/end time: The designated start and end times for the job item.
Duration: The total amount of time, in minutes, required to complete the job item. This is automatically generated when you add a start and end time and either hit "tab" or click elsewhere on the screen.
Date: The date for the job item. This is a required field.
Class: The job item's class (please see Classes for more details).
Payroll item: The rate of pay associated with this job item.
Billable: Choose between Billable, HasBeenBilled, or NotBillable depending upon what the job item is.
Wait for sync approval: Leaving this checked if you do not want this to sync with your QuickBooks file immediately. It will stay un-synced until you uncheck this box.
Notes: A section where you can include any pertinent notes you feel are important.

Default time track settings/Edit team member defaults: These two buttons will take you to the Settings and Preferences section of the Dashboard. Please see the pertinent documentation for more information.

Enter time will add this new information to the job item in the Time in/Time out grid above (you will need to click Refresh on the grid to see this new information appear). Enter time and close will do the same thing, but will return you to the Existing work orders screen.

Recurring dates

Initially, this screen only features a checkbox marked "recurring". Clicking on this box will open the options for recurring jobs. Please see How to create a recurring job for more information about these screens.

Additional settings

The additional settings subtab contains two fields: Route and Sort Order. The Route menu allows you to either create a new route group or choose from your existing routes if you've already made them. This is essentially another way to sort the work order grid: by assigning multiple work orders to the same route name, you can find all the work orders pertaining to that route quickly and easily.

Sort Order is similar, in that it's used as another way to sort the work order grid. Sometimes you will have multiple work orders for the same day, on the same route. Assigning a Sort order number to a work order will help to organize your work orders for that particular window of time.

Existing work orders

The existing work orders grid functions much the same way as other grids in Method (please see Grid functionality for more information), but as usual the Filter by view drop down menu and the column headers are unique to this grid. Additionally, unlike most grids in Method, this grid is reliant upon a date range filter that will further alter what's being shown on the grid. Let's take a closer look!

Along the top of the grid you will see two date-pickers: From date and To date. Choosing dates from these pickers will define the range the Filter by view will draw from when populating the grid. As you'll see in a moment, many of the options in Filter by view rely upon a "To date" or a "date range" to show records in the grid. Identifying your date range provides those numbers.

You can also use the handy buttons "Yesterday", "Today", "Tomorrow", "Last week", "This week" and "Next week" to automatically set date ranges based on today's date (e.g. if today is Monday, December 1, clicking on "Yesterday" will set the date range to Sunday, December 2; clicking on "Next week" will set the date range to Monday, December 9 - Friday, December 13).

All completed and to be invoiced: These work orders have been designated "completed" in the Status field, but have not had invoices created for all their job items yet. They have been marked "to be invoiced" in the Invoice type field.
All completed before "To date": These work orders have been designated "completed" in the Status field, and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
All in progress before "To date": These work orders have been designated "in progress" in the Status field, and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
All not started before "To date": These work orders have been designated "not started" in the Status field, and have start dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
All occurrences: This view will display all work orders that are part of a larger series.
All occurrences in date range: These work orders are part of a larger series and fall within the date range you specified above.
All series: This view will display all work orders designated "series" (or group of recurring jobs).
All waiting list before "To date": These work orders have been relegated to the waiting list (by setting the Status field to "waiting") and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
My completed and to be invoiced: These work orders have been designated "completed" in the Status field and "to be invoiced" in the Invoice field.
My completed before "To date": These work orders have been designated "completed" in the Status field and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
My in progress before "To date": These work orders have been designated "in progress" in the Status field and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.
My not started before "To date": These work orders have been designated "not started' in the Status field and have end dates that fall before the "To date" you chose above the grid.

Now let's take a look at the grid itself.

Edit: This button will open the Add/edit work order screen for the selected work order.
Edit series: This button will open the Add/edit work order screen for the selected series, which means changes made will reflect the overriding series, and may not reflect on any pre-existing occurrences, unless additional steps are taken.

You can also search and sort the grid using the following headers.

Act. No.: This number is automatically generated when you Save the work order. Activity numbers are generated in sequential order, so the work order you save after no. 4 will be Act. no. 5.
Type: This refers to the job type: whether it is a OneTime job, an Occurrence, or a Series.
Date start/end: This refers to when the job will begin and end; if several jobs will occur in a span of time, this job will be listed as a series.
Assigned to: The Method user to which this job has been assigned.
Customer:Job: This refers to the customer or lead for whom this work order has been created; the :Job denotation refers to subunits of an existing customer (for example, if your customer is Target, your :Job denotation might be :Dallas)
Job name: The name you gave the work order in the Name field (see How to add a new work order).
Priority: The job priority you assigned this work order.
Status: The status of the work order in question.
Invoice type: This will show whether or not the work order is to be invoiced.

There are also three buttons along the bottom of the grid. Let's see what they do!

More actions:
- Copy selected: If you click the check box next to a work order and click on Copy selected, it will take you to the Copy work order screen. Please see the next section for details.
- Invoice all: This option will turn every single work order in your Method Field Services into an invoice. Note: any work orders assigned to the same customer will be amalgamated into one invoice for that customer.
- Invoice selected: This is the same as above, only it will only invoice work orders you have checked off.
- Job cost selected: This option opens the job costs screen, which gives you several options to price out jobs and mark work orders complete. This is especially helpful for your employees who may do several jobs in a day - this allows you to determine the actual hours for each job and bill accordingly without having to do redundant work. Please see below for more details.
- Map and directions for selected: Selecting one or more jobs and clicking on this option will generate a Google Map showing directions from the Default start to the Default end location as referenced in Settings and Preferences on your dashboard. If the customer you have chosen has a Ship to address on file, the map will generate directions from the Default start location to the end location as referenced by your customer's Ship to address. Alternatively, you can just manually add and remove addresses on the map screen.
New work order: This button will open the Add/edit work order screen.
Refresh: This button will refresh the grid in the same way as the Refresh icon does.

Copy work order

This screen allows you to transfer work order information from one customer to another, or to duplicate service dates. Please note you can only copy work orders designated OneTime or Series, not occurrences. Let's take a closer look at the screen.

Choosing copy to a different customer will allow you to apply this exact same work order information to another customer in your Method CRM. Simply choose a OneTime or Series from the Existing work orders list and click the checkbox next to it. Then choose Copy to a different customer and assign it a Customer:Job from the drop down list. If you want to assign this work order to a different user, click Override assigned to and choose a new user from the drop down list. You can then choose either to copy the exact dates listed on this work order (useful for duplicating similar job orders for the same date) or you can regenerate the dates, which means it will restore the dates that were originally set for the series (so if you have since removed or added dates from that original series, this option will restore those defaults).

Additionally, you can chose to duplicate the service dates which allows you to assign the exact same work order to the same individual, only changing the dates - this is a real time-saver!

Update selected work orders

This feature will go through all work orders selected in the Existing Work Orders list and update them according to preferences chosen here.

Change Status: Changes the status of the selected work orders. If the work order is an occurrence of a series all default job items will be copied from the series to the occurrence.
Change Invoice Type: Changes the Invoice Type of the selected work orders. Be careful - there is nothing stopping you from changing a work order that has been invoiced from "Invoiced" to "To Be Invoiced" and double-invoicing (which is never a good idea!)
Change Priority: Changes the priority of the selected work orders.
Reassign: Moves the work order to a new user.
Move to date: Reschedules the work order to a different date. The start time and duration will be maintained.

Renew selected work orders

We've already determined that recurring work orders have a start date and an end date. But what happens when they reach their end date? Do you have to go into each and every work order, specify a new start date and end date, and then regenerate dates? Thankfully not! Method Field Services has a renewal process that takes care of this for you. The renewal process calls upon the "Renew Recurrence" action, which:

increases the Start Date by 1 year.
increases the End Date by 1 year.
generates all occurrences between the new Start Date and End Date.

To use this feature:

In the Existing Work Orders section, change the view to be "Work Orders to be Renewed".
Check off each work order you would like to renew.
Return here and click Renew Selected Work Orders.

Print/email work orders and route lists

This section gives you multiple options to customize how your work orders are printed and emailed. Let's take a closer look at each one.

To begin, select whether you would like to apply the upcoming choices only to selected work orders or to all work orders currently in your Field Services. Then move along to the next steps.

Work Orders and Route Lists provide service details for your crews/techs, so that they can perform services efficiently. Work Orders are traditionally one service per page, while Route Lists are typically multiple services per page.

To print or email a Work Order or Route List:

Under the Existing Work Orders Tab, either (i) click the checkbox beside each service you would like to print / email; or (ii) filter the work order list to show only the services you wish to print / email, and click the checkbox in the grid header to select all.
Click the Print / Email tab.
Select a print / email option (either Print route list, Print work order, or Email work order).
- Selecting Print route list or Print work order will generate a printable PDF with the pertinent information included.
- The route list includes the date and time of the job, the job site, the details of the job, the total man hours required, start and end times, and the name of the customer and user associated with the job.
- The work order will include the bill to address, the job site, the start and finish dates and times, the user associated with the job, the status, priority, activity number, and reference number associated with the job, and the estimated man hours, rate, quantity, amount, and applicable tax for each job item.
- Selecting Email work order will generate and send an email to the user assigned to the work order(s). By default the email is titled "Work order", includes the text "Your work order is attached", and contains a downloadable PDF of the work order(s) in question.

Reports

This section identifies which reports can be generated based on the work orders you have selected. By default, the two work orders available are Estimate vs. Actual Man Hours by Customer and Job Cost Profitability by Customer. You can create more reporting options through Customization (please contact a Consultant for more information).

Clicking on Est. vs. Act. Man Hrs by Cust will generate a report in printable PDF format that breaks down the start date, job items, assigned to, estimated man hours, and actual man hours of each job you've selected. It also shows the total distance between the estimates and the actual hours it took to complete the job.

Clicking on Job Cost Profitability by Customer will generate a report in printable PDF format that breaks down the start date, job items, assigned to, amount of items, cost associated with the items, and total profit generated by each job.

Customize templates

This section allows you to set your default templates for the following:

Estimate
Invoice
Route list
Work order (print)
Work order (email)

Choose your preferred template from the drop down menus next to each option. Clicking on Customize templates with the report designer will open the Report Designer application (which we will have documentation for soon!) Save and close will return you to the Print/email subtab. Cancel will close the screen without saving.

Created on	Jan-29-2014
Last modified on	Sep-17-2015