Viewing Work Orders

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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You view work orders with Work Orders. The window contains the following:

View section: Shows all work orders.

Number: Click this heading to sort the list by work order number. Click again to reverse the order (from ascending to descending or vice versa).

Priority: Click this heading to sort the list by priority. Click again to reverse the order.

Work orders with explicit priorities are considered more urgent than ones where the priority field is blank. Therefore, if you sort your work orders by priority, those with no explicit priority will come last.

Subject: Click this heading to sort the list by subject. Click again to reverse the order.

Apply Filter: Lets you set up a filter to select which records should be shown in the table. For more information, see Table Filters.

Details section: Shows basic information from the selected record.

Assignments section: Shows people assigned to the selected work order.

Service Contracts section: Lists any service contracts associated with the unit in the selected work order. For more on service contracts, see Service Contracts. For more on units, see Units.

Resources section: Lists any labor and materials associated with the selected work order. For more on resources, see Resources.

Temporary Storage section: Lists any temporary storage locations associated with the selected work order, as well as the contents of those locations. For more on temporary storage, see Temporary Storage Locations.

Meters section: Lists any meters in the unit of the selected work order. For more on meters, see Meters.

Purchase Orders section: Lists any purchase orders associated with the selected work order. For more on purchase orders, see Purchase Orders.

Chargebacks section: Lists any chargebacks associated with the selected work order. For more on chargebacks, see Chargebacks.

Requests section: Lists any requests associated with the selected work order. For more on requests, see Requests.

State History section: Lists records that show when the selected work order changed state. For more on work order state history, see Editing Work Order State History Records.

New Work Order: Opens a window to create a new work order. Fields in the new record will either be blank or assigned default values (as specified in the Defaults for Work Orders section).

New Work Order From Task: Opens a window where you can create a new work order that uses a task as a template (often called boilerplate work orders). For example, suppose you have a task that describes what should be done when changing a muffler. When the time comes to change the muffler on a particular car, you can use New Work Order From Task. For more, see Work Orders Created from Tasks.

New Task From Work order: Opens a window where you can create a new task based on information from a selected work order. For example, the new task record will start off with the same subject line as the original work order, the same work description and so on. You then have the option of editing these fields before you make the final task record. For more, see Tasks Created from Work Orders.

Edit : This drop-down button offers several possible actions:

Edit: Opens an editor window to let you edit the selected record.

View: Opens an editor window where you can examine the selected record.

Print : Opens a window where you can print some or all of your work orders. For more information, see Printing Work Orders.

State change actions: A drop-down button which offers a list of actions that can be used to change the state of the work order. The current state of the work order determines which actions are enabled; it also determines which action is displayed as the label for the button. The available options are:

Open: Changes a draft work order into an open one. Opening a work order suggests that the work order contains all the information you need before starting the job and is ready to be issued to workers.

Open Work Order (With Comment): Same as Open, except that MainBoss will also open a window where you can record a comment about what you're doing.

Close Work Order: Changes an open work order into a closed one. Closing a work order suggests that the job is finished and you have recorded all relevant information about the work.

Close Work Order (With Comment): Same as Close Work Order, except that MainBoss will also open a window where you can record a comment about what you're doing.

Reopen: Changes a closed work order back into an open one. You might do this if you need to correct some information on the work order. MainBoss opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're reopening the work order.

Suspend: Changes an open work order into a draft one. You might do this if you find that you need to make significant changes to the work order. MainBoss opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're suspending the work order.

Void: Changes a draft work order into a void one. This means canceling the job. MainBoss opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're canceling the work order.

Re-Draft: Changes a void work order into a draft one. This means reactivating a canceled job. MainBoss opens a window where you may record a comment explaining why you're reactivating the work order.

Search : Lets you search through the list of records for a particular record. For more information, see Searching for a Particular Record. The Search button has an accompanying drop-down list containing the following:

Find Next: Uses the same search condition(s) as your most recent search and finds the next record in the table that matches the condition(s). If the search reaches the end of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the start of the table and continues the search.

Find Previous: Same as Find Next except that it goes backward in the table. If the search reaches the start of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the end of the table and continues the search.

Add Work Order Comment: Adds a comment to the selected work order. The comment is recorded in a state history record. For more, see Editing Work Order State History Records.

Refresh : Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Defaults for Work Orders section: Shows any defaults to be used when creating new work orders.

Details section: Defaults for basic work order information, including the format for work order numbers.

Printed Form section: Defaults to be used when printing a work order. For more on printing work orders, see Printing Work Orders.

Additional Labor/Material Lines: Specifies a number. MainBoss will leave that number of blank lines in the work order, so that workers have space to write in notes about labor and/or materials. For example, workers might use this area to write in a list of materials that weren't included in the original work order but were unexpectedly needed on the job.

Additional Information: Specifies additional text to be added to each printed work order (in addition to the standard information that MainBoss puts in). For example, this text might include a signature line so that workers can have customers sign off when a job is completed.

Note: Due to limitations in Microsoft software, blank lines at the end of "Additional Information" will be deleted whenever work orders are printed. If you want some extra blank space at the end of the "Additional Information" area, put a single character at the beginning of one or more lines; for example, a single underscore character ( _ ) will keep the lines from being deleted while still giving you plenty of blank space.

Edit Defaults: Opens a window to let you change the displayed default values.

Refresh : Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

The general work order viewer shows all of your work orders. In many cases, you may prefer to use one of the viewers that are restricted to certain types of work orders:

Draft work orders (Work Orders | Draft Work Orders): Work orders that have just been created—see Viewing Draft Work Orders
Open work orders (Work Orders | Open Work Orders): Work orders that contain all information needed before actually starting the job—see Viewing Open Work Orders
Closed work orders (Work Orders | Closed Work Orders): Work orders that have been closed because the job was finished—see Viewing Closed Work Orders
Overdue work orders (Work Orders | Overdue Work Orders): Open work orders that are past their "Work End Date" but have not yet been closed—see Viewing Overdue Work Orders
Void work orders (Work Orders | Void Work Orders): Work orders that have cancelled—see Viewing Void Work Orders

For more information on work orders, see Work Orders. For more information on creating or editing work order records, see Editing Work Orders. For general information on table viewers, see Using Table Viewers.