Requested Work Orders

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Requests may be linked with work orders and vice versa. The most common way this happens is when a work order is created from a request (by clicking Create Work Order in the request record). This automatically links the request and work order together.

You can also create links in a Requests viewer or in a request itself, you can click Link Work Orders. Similarly, you can create links from a work order, starting in the work order's Requests section and clicking New Requested Work Order.

Here are some situations in which you might want to link a work order to a request:

You get several requests reporting the same problem. You create a work order from one of the requests, then link the same work order to all the other requests. This makes it easier to keep track of the connections between the work order and the requests.
A single request leads to multiple work orders. For example, suppose someone reports that a machine has broken down. The maintenance manager might decide to write up two work orders: one for a quick short-term fix, and one for a long-term solution that can be done when there's more time. Both of these work orders can be linked to the original request so that you have accurate records of how everything is connected.

When a work order is linked to a request, the record associated with the linkage is called a requested work order.

If you have turned on the Requests are automatically set In Progress when linked to a work order, and are closed when work order closes option (for requests), closing a work order automatically closes each linked request, provided that the request only has one linked work order. For more on this option, see Editing Requests.

When you ask MainBoss to link a request and a work order, MainBoss opens a window that contains the following:

Request area: Fields describing the request. These will be read-only if you are starting at a request and linking it to a work order.

The first line in this area should give the number of the request. Once you have specified this choice, MainBoss adds additional information from the request to the same line.

Request Requestor: The person who made the request.

Subject: A read-only field giving the subject of the request. This is filled in when you specify a request.

State: A read-only field giving the current state of the request.

Current State History Estimated Completion Date: A read-only field giving when the request is expected to be finished.

Count of Linked Work Orders: A read-only field telling how many work orders are already linked to this request.

Description: The "Description" field from the request.

Work Order area: Fields describing the work order. These will be read-only if you are starting at a work order and linking it to a request.

The first line in this area should give the number of the work order. Once you have specified this choice, MainBoss adds additional information from the work order to the same line.

Subject: A read-only field giving the subject of the work order. This is filled in when you specify a work order.

State: A read-only field giving the current state of the work order.

Description: The "Description" field from the work order.

Save: Saves the current record. The editor window stays open in case you want to make more changes to the same record.

Save & New: Saves the current record and sets up the window for you to enter a new record. Fields in the new record will be blank or set to default values.

Save & Close: Saves the current record and closes the editor window.

Cancel: Closes the window without saving any changes you've made to the record since the last time you saved. When you Save the record, the Cancel button changes to Close, indicating that you can safely close the window without losing any changes.

Close: Closes the window. This button only appears after you've saved changes with Save or before you've entered any data at all. Otherwise, the button is labeled Cancel.

For more on requests, see Requests. For more on work orders, see Work Orders. For more on editors in general, see Using Editors.