A work order procedure is the work order process written down: the steps in order, who does each, and what the sheet must carry at each step before it moves on. Most small service businesses have a process and no procedure, which works until the second technician starts or the first dispute over an unbilled part. This guide is a procedure a shop of two to fifteen people can adopt in an afternoon, built around the same statuses Jobcardo keeps, so the written procedure and the record agree. Where your trade's licensing requires the sheet to carry something more, add it; this is the arithmetic and the sequence, not the law.
Steps one to three: request, raise, price
Request: the customer's ask is recorded with the customer, the site and the fault, by whoever takes it. Raise: the order is created against the customer with a number and a date and the status raised; nothing proceeds without a number. Price: labour hours at the rate, parts at cost with the markup, the trip charge and the tax on parts are worked on the sheet, which is what the work order template on this site does free, and the priced sheet is kept on the order before anyone is sent.
Steps four to six: assign, do, close
Assign: a named technician takes the order and the status moves to in progress when the work starts, dated. Do: extra hours or parts are added on the same order by the technician at the time, dated against their login, never at the end of the week from memory. Close: the technician marks the order done, dated, and the office reads the sheet as the technician left it. The procedure's rule is that the record changes at the moment the fact does.
Steps seven and eight: invoice and pay, and the review that keeps it honest
Invoice: the bill reads the order's lines and total, with the deposit already taken shown against the balance; nothing is re-typed. Pay: the status moves to invoiced and paid and then closed, dated. Then a weekly review of the list by status, which is the whole of the procedure's enforcement: orders that are done and not invoiced are the leak, and the list shows them. Jobcardo Pro keeps the statuses and the history; the procedure is yours to write around them.
Questions people ask about work order procedure
What is the difference between a work order process and a work order procedure?
The process is what happens; the procedure is the written version, with the steps in order, who does each and what the sheet must carry at each. This guide is a procedure; the process guide it supports is the shape behind it.
Who should own the work order procedure?
Whoever runs the office, with the technicians' agreement on the rule that the record changes at the moment the fact does. A procedure the technicians did not agree to is a document, not a practice.
Does Jobcardo enforce the procedure?
It keeps the statuses and dates every change against a login, which is the evidence the procedure needs. It does not block a step; enforcement is the weekly review of the list by status.