Work Orders

Work orders are service jobs you create, track, and complete for customers: repairs, equipment installs, inspections, or any job that needs its own lifecycle, quoting, and customer approval. A work order can be one-time work or a recurring series that repeats on a schedule.

Creating a work order

From the Work Orders page, click New work order to open the template picker. Select a template to pre-fill line items and details, or start from scratch. You can also create a work order from an accepted proposal using Create Work Order on the proposal.

The create form includes:

• Customer & Property — Select the customer and the service address.

• Work Order Details — Title, description, and any specific instructions.

• Priority — Set urgency to help dispatchers and technicians triage.

• Customer Message — A note visible to the customer in the portal.

When ready, choose one of two save actions:

• Save as Draft — Saves the work order in Draft status. No quote is sent to the customer.

• Save & Send Quote — Saves and transitions the work order to Quoted status, sending a quote email to the customer for review.

Viewing and searching work orders

The Work Orders list shows all work orders with their status, priority, and customer. Use the search box to filter by number, title, customer name, or address. Filter by status or priority to narrow the list, and sort by newest, oldest, or priority.

Empty states

• If no work orders exist and no search is active, you'll see No work orders yet with a prompt to create your first work order.

• If a search returns no results, you'll see No matching work orders with a suggestion to adjust your filters or try different terms.

Work order detail page

Click any work order to open its detail page. The detail page shows the full work order information, lifecycle timestamps, and available actions based on current status.

Lifecycle fields

• Scheduled — The planned date for work.

• Started — When the technician began work.

• Completed — The timestamp set when the work order enters Review or Completed.

• Duration — Estimated vs. actual time spent.

Customer Portal panel

The detail page includes a Customer Portal panel showing when the customer last viewed the work order and a Copy portal link button to share the link directly.

Editing a work order

Click Edit to modify details, line items, assignment, scheduled date, and customer message. You can edit work order details while the job is still active. Download a PDF of the work order anytime with Download PDF.

The detail page can also show related service visits so you can see field progress without leaving the job.

Quote follow-ups

After a quote is delivered, Chisel Tide can send up to three automated follow-ups on day 3, day 7, and day 14 if the customer hasn't approved it. Quotes don't expire through this process. The detail page shows a Follow-up history card once at least one approval message is delivered, including the next scheduled follow-up while the quote is awaiting approval. Resending a quote records a Manually resent entry and delays the next automated message without restarting the schedule. See Approval reminders for proposals and quotes.

Work order lifecycle and statuses

Work orders move through a defined lifecycle. Each status determines which actions are available:

Status actions explained

• Send Quote — Transitions to Quoted and emails the customer a quote for approval.

• Mark Approved — Manually mark as Approved if the customer confirms outside the portal. When marking a Draft work order as Approved, you can choose whether to send a confirmation email to the customer.

• Schedule — Set a scheduled date and assign a technician. A work order requires both a scheduled date and an assigned technician to move to Scheduled status.

• Start Work — Mark the work order as In Progress. Used when a technician begins on-site. This sets the started timestamp.

• Finish Work — Move the work order to In Review after the technician finishes work. This is the standard completion action for technicians and sets the completed timestamp.

• Mark Complete — Move from Review to Completed after admin review confirms the work is finished and ready for invoicing.

• Generate Invoice — Create an invoice from the work order's line items and totals. Only available once the work order is Completed; a work order in Review must be marked Complete first.

• Resume — Take a work order off hold and return it to Approved.

• Revise — Edit details and resend a quote after customer feedback or scope changes.

• Resend to customer — Send the same quote email again.

• Put On Hold — Pause the work order without cancelling it.

• Cancel — Permanently cancel the work order. A cancellation reason is required. Cancellation cannot be undone. Any scheduled or in-progress visit for the job is cancelled, the customer is not billed for this work, and the reason is stored on the work order. The reason is added to the customer’s activity history, except for draft-only cancellations, which are not recorded there.

Work order templates

Click Manage templates from the Work Orders page to create and manage templates. Templates pre-fill line items, descriptions, and default values for common work types—such as pump repairs, filter cleanings, or equipment installations—saving time when creating new work orders.

Duplicate work order prevention

When a technician reports the same unresolved problem at a property again, Chisel Tide links the update to the existing open work order instead of creating a second draft. This prevents duplicate work orders for issues that are already being tracked.

The comparison is conservative: it matches only when the issue clearly describes the same underlying problem on the same equipment or system. A different problem on the same equipment, or an uncertain match, is treated as new and still creates a draft.

When an issue is matched to an existing work order, your team is alerted that the issue persists:

• Work order activity — The existing work order gets an entry noting that no duplicate work order was created and the issue appears to persist.

• Email — Admins receive an email linking to the existing work order.

• Operate → Activity feed — The activity feed records a skipped-duplicate-work-order event.

• Slack — If Slack alerts are enabled, a Reported issues that persist alert is sent. You can turn this alert type on or off under Settings → Slack Alerts → Alert types.

If every reported issue already matches an open work order, no new work order is created. Fresh issues that don't match still create a draft.

Smarter catalog pricing on work orders

Work-order line items can be matched automatically to an active, priced catalog product when you enter a recognizable item code in the item code or description field. Chisel Tide fills in the catalog linkage, price, SKU, and part number while preserving the original quantity, type, and description.

Matching happens on work order creation, when you add a new line item, and when you edit a work order (for newly added rows only). A line is only matched when it has no catalog link and no price yet. An explicit item code is authoritative — if it doesn't match, Chisel Tide doesn't fall back to the description. When there's no explicit code, a code-like token in the description (containing both letters and digits) can match.

Pre-filled repair suggestions on service-visit drafts

Draft work orders created from technician-reported issues can start with likely catalog products, repair labor, prices, and quantities pre-filled for review. Chisel Tide suggests up to three catalog items per issue and fills in the catalog price, description, unit, and quantity.

An issue that can't be matched to a catalog product keeps a generic line with a $0 price so your office can review and price it manually. The draft's activity log records how many line items were pre-filled from the catalog, with a note to review items, quantities, and prices before quoting.

Assign a work-order owner

Each work order has an office owner, chosen separately from the technician who performs the field work. The owner is shown consistently across work-order and Pipeline views.

1. While creating or editing a work order, choose an admin in the Assigned to field.

2. To change or clear the owner later, open the work order's details page and update the owner there.

New work orders are Unassigned unless an admin is selected. You can filter the work-order list, calendar, and map by a specific admin, by All admins, or by No admin to see unassigned work.

Scheduling and assigning crews

Use Schedule & assign on the work order detail page to set dates and technicians together. To make an approved work order repeat on a schedule, enable Repeat this work order and see Recurring Work Orders. It is available for every status: Draft and Quoted work orders use a tentative date and technician mode, while full multi-visit scheduling begins after approval. It edits every scheduled date plus every technician assigned to each date.

For approved work orders and later, you can add multiple dates with Add date and assign multiple technicians to each date with Add technician. Each real visit needs a technician selected. A draft or quoted work order with no visits is limited to a single tentative date and technician until it is approved.

Visits that are already underway or done are locked: a visit that is arrived, in progress, or completed cannot have its date or technician changed, and a completed visit cannot be removed. To add follow-up work, add another date instead.

When multiple technicians are assigned to the same work order on the same date, they are given the same estimated arrival time so the crew arrives together, even though each technician has a separate service visit and route stop.

Marking line items complete

Line items are not marked complete automatically when a work order is completed. Each item must be marked complete individually, either by the technician in the app or from the work order detail page.

Completion controls appear once a work order is In Progress and stay editable through Review, Completed, and Invoiced. Only cancelled and rejected work orders freeze line-item completion.

An invoice can only be sent once every line item is marked complete. If any item is incomplete, the invoice dialog offers Create draft only, so the customer isn't charged for work that wasn't done.

Customer portal experience

Customers can view work orders through the Customer Portal at /portal/work-orders. The portal shows all non-Draft, non-Cancelled work orders with tabs for All, Needs action, Active, and Done.

When a customer opens a quoted work order, they can:

• Approve — Accept the quote and its total amount.

• Approve & sign electronically — Accept and add an electronic signature.

• Decline — Reject the quote.

The portal shows customer-visible photos and signatures, but not the internal activity history.

Work orders vs. routes

Work orders are separate from recurring route stops. Use work orders for:

• One-time repairs or inspections

• Jobs requiring customer approval and quoting

• Work that doesn't fit your regular service schedule

Route stops handle routine service visits generated from service plans. Work orders can be assigned to technicians, scheduled for specific dates, and completed independently of route assignments. For work that should repeat on its own schedule, see Recurring Work Orders.

Troubleshooting