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Creating a Works Order

How to book items in for service/repair

Updated over 2 years ago

Works Orders are used when you want to carry out a service or repair in the workshop with features like:

  • Tracking parts or labour

  • Taking photos or a signature

  • Invoicing a customer

  • Updating maintenance schedule when complete

They’re great when you need these extras, however if you’re looking to simply mark an item as In Service and update its maintenance schedule when you book it out then you may prefer to use the Unavailable Items page instead https://intercom.help/OnRent/en/articles/3532894-scheduled-maintenance-in-unavailable-items

Note: Currently Works Orders are only available for Pro+ users and you may need to enable access in the Roles menu.

Get Started

To create a Works Order then simply go to Orders > Works Orders > click the Add Works Order button.

Similar to a Rental Order, you can choose either a Quote or a confirmed Order.

Note: A Quote is most often used if a customer has enquired about carrying out a job and you want to send them an estimate, without actually booking anything in. If the Quote is successful then you can confirm it as an Order. If sending a Quote isn’t necessary then you can just choose Order at the start.

You will then see the below form asking for details about the Works Order.

  • Order Type

    • Either “Own Equipment” where you will only be able to book in your own items on the system or “Customer Equipment” which forces you to select a customer and then book in only items which belong to them onto the Works Order

    • Note: If you’re charging a customer for a repair of equipment damaged on a Rental Order then choose “Own Equipment” as these are owned by you rather than the customer

  • Customer

    • Mandatory field if you choose the Order Type as “Customer Equipment” and assigns the Works Order to a customer, either for reference or invoicing

    • Simply search by name, number, contact or address

  • Billing Place

    • Automatically set based on the default billing address for the Customer you selected – if no customer is chosen then Billing Place can be left blank

  • Delivery Place

    • Used for where the Works Order will be carried out or delivered to after completion

    • You can either free type the address, search for an existing place in the first field or search for a location anywhere in the world using the Address 1 field

  • Order Date

    • Date used for your reference, when the order was the created etc

  • Start Date

    • When the Works Order is scheduled to begin, this also classes the items as In Repair from this date

  • Open Ended

    • If you don’t have a date when the item is due to return then you can set a Works Order as Open Ended, which will mark the item as In Repair until you return it

  • End Date

    • If you set Open Ended as No, then you can specify when the item is expected to return, which will mark the item as unavailable In Repair until this date and afterwards it will be available

    • Note: If the Item has not been returned beyond this date then it will be marked as Available and so you would need to edit the order and mark it as Open Ended in the event of any indefinite delays to have the item show as Unavailable

    Details

  • Subject

    • A label for the works order perhaps used only for your reference or to explain its purpose

  • Job Manager

    • Who is responsible for the job, most commonly a fitter or a supervisor

    • This can either be a User or a Contact – the user or contact must be set as a Bookable Resource to appear in the search results

  • Depot

    • The depot responsible for the works order

  • Customer Reference

    • A free text box you can use for a reference the customer gives you, commonly a purchase order number

  • Ordered By

    • The customer who requested the works order

  • Invoice Run Code

    • The run code used when billing the works order through the Invoice Run

  • Payment Term

    • Apply a payment term to set out the conditions under which a seller will complete a sale. This will appear on the order invoice

  • Contact Name

    • The customer contact to speak with if there are any queries

  • Owner

    • The OnRent user who created the works order – the Job Manager field should be used for assigning responsibility for carrying out the work

    Notes

  • Description

    • A text area for you to make notes about the works order. This is for admin use only, any text you write here will not appear on documents

  • External Description

    • Any notes you make here will appear on documents, e.g. Job Sheets, and so can be useful for making the customer aware of specific details about this order

Adding a Works Order Item

Once the Works Order has been created then you can start to add items to work on for service or repair. OnRent supports multiple items on a single works order, so you can create a batch of work to carry out a repair of a generator, excavator and dumper all on the same order, which is really useful if you have a group of items to work on.

To add an item onto a Works Order then simply click the Add Works Order Item button on the order.

  • Name

    • Search for the item you want to add to the works order, either by name, item number or serial number

  • Quantity

    • How many you want to add to the order – for serialised items this will always be 1

  • Start Date

    • When the item should be booked on to the order, which will affect its availability

  • Type

    • Either “Service” or “Repair” to categorise what work will be carried out. Note: if you book an item in for either service or repair, you will also be able to update its maintenance record if needed

  • Notes

    • Optional field to explain why the item has been added or details about its damage suffered

Once you have selected an item then click “Add Works Order Item” to proceed or “Add and Create Another” if you’d like to add more items to the order.

Note: You can also add items using the Quick Pick section on the works order without having to go through the above screen. Simply search for an item to add in the Name field > select a Type as either Service or Repair > the quantity you want to add > click the green + icon to add the item to the works order.

For the next step you may need to add parts to your works order items, please see our next guide for details https://intercom.help/OnRent/en/articles/5945533-adding-parts-to-works-order-items

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