🎫 How to Track Work Orders From the First Call to Done, Including Jobs You Hand to a Contractor
A work order tracker has one job: when somebody asks "what is happening with the rooftop unit at the east building?", the answer is on one screen. Here is what a work order has to record, how a job moves from Open to Done, what to do when the job is not yours to do, and how to set it all up in Equipment Tracker.
A work order is a job with a name. Somebody noticed a problem or a task came due, and now there is one place that says what it is, where it is, who has it and whether it is finished. Most small crews run this on text messages and memory, and it works until two people ask the same question on the same afternoon: who went out to the east building, and did the part ever come in?
This post covers what a work order has to record, how a job should move from first call to done, what to do when the job is not yours to do, and how to set it up in Equipment Tracker. If you only want the product description, the work order management page has it, and the work orders how-to guide walks the screens. If you are choosing between bigger work order systems, the MaintainX, Limble and Equipment Tracker comparison lays them side by side.
What does a work order have to record?
Six things are enough. Leave one out and the job turns back into a text message.
- ▸ What the job is. A short title and, if the next person will need it, a few lines of description.
- ▸ Where it is. The building or site, and the specific unit when the job is about one machine.
- ▸ When it is due. A real date, or none at all if it is open-ended.
- ▸ How urgent it is. Normal or Urgent is plenty. More levels than that are rarely used.
- ▸ Who has it. One name. A job that belongs to "the team" belongs to nobody.
- ▸ What was done. The work performed, the hours, the parts, and a photo of the result.
How should a job move from request to done?
A job should always be in one of a few honest states, and the state should change when the situation changes, not at the end of the week. In Equipment Tracker a work order shows as Open, In Progress, On Hold, Done or Cancelled.
The one rule worth copying even if you never use the app: a job on hold needs a reason. "Waiting on a part" and "waiting on the tenant to give access" are very different problems, and the reason is what lets somebody else pick it up. The app asks for it before it will put a job on hold.
| State | What moves a job there |
|---|---|
| Open | You create the work order. |
| In Progress | You tap START WORK when the work begins. |
| On Hold | You tap PUT ON HOLD and give a reason. RESUME WORK puts it back. |
| Done | You tap COMPLETE JOB and fill in who did the work. |
| Cancelled | You tap CANCEL JOB. REOPEN WORK ORDER is there when a job needs to come back. |
How do you set one up in Equipment Tracker?
On the phone, tap Work Orders on the home screen, then + to open CREATE WORK ORDER. On the web dashboard, click WORK ORDERS in the top bar, then + New Work Order.
- ▸ Enter the title, the location, the unit if there is one, a due date (Today, Tomorrow, Next week, a date you pick, or none) and a priority of Normal or Urgent.
- ▸ Open Add Description, Contact, Photos... for more room. There is a box for Special tools needed, so the person who takes the job knows to bring the manifold gauges or the lift before they leave the shop.
- ▸ Under Assign To, pick yourself, a teammate, Unassigned or someone else. A teammate who is assigned a job gets a push alert and an email.
- ▸ Tap START WORK when the work begins, LOG UPDATE for a dated note with hours and parts, and COMPLETE JOB when it is finished. The job page reads in sections: THE JOB, WHO HAS IT, WORK DONE, PHOTOS, VIDEOS & DOCUMENTS, BILLING and HISTORY.
What gets recorded when the job is finished?
Completing a job records who did the work, what was done, the parts used, the labor hours and rate, and after photos. If you tick Deduct from stock on a part, it comes off that location's count, so the shelf and the job agree. There is no customer signature on a work order and no separate expenses field; there is a parts and materials cost, and owners and managers can attach receipts.
Progress goes in with LOG UPDATE. There is no separate internal-notes box, which is on purpose: one running history of what happened is easier to trust than two places to look.
What if the job is not yours to do?
Every small shop gets jobs it should pass on: a chiller, a boiler, an electrical fault. Tracking those in a notebook is how they get lost. Tap SEND TO CONTRACTOR under SUBCONTRACT and pick one of three ways.
- ▸ Send in the app. Enter the contractor's email address or @username. They need their own Equipment Tracker Pro account. The job arrives in their Inbox under Offers, they tap ACCEPT or DECLINE, and when they finish, their notes, technician, parts, photos, hours and totals come back to you. You close it with CLOSE OUT WITH THEIR REPORT. You can RECALL it as long as they have not answered.
- ▸ Send as a PDF or Send as text. These work for any contractor, with nothing for them to install. The catch is that it is one way: nothing comes back into the app by itself. The app asks whether you sent it and notes who it went to, and you mark the job done yourself.
A contractor never sees your prices, rates, markups, stock counts or other customers' records. They do see the customer name, the site address and contact, the equipment details with installed parts, and the photos.
How do tenant requests and invoices fit in?
A tenant request does not become a work order on its own. It waits in the Inbox under Tenants until someone taps CREATE WORK ORDER, which is the right default: a person decides whether it is a job. The tenant side is covered in a door tag your tenant can use without an account.
At the other end, an owner or manager taps CREATE INVOICE on a finished job and the draft starts from what the job recorded. Billing a finished work order covers that step. Open jobs also show on the maintenance calendar on their due date, next to your PM schedules.
What does it cost, and who can use it?
Work orders are free on the phone. The web dashboard's work order pages are part of Pro, which is $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Team plans start at $39.99 a month for 5 seats, the owner included, and every first plan has a 7-day free trial. Sending a job to a contractor in the app needs Pro on both ends; the PDF and text options do not.
On a team, owners, managers and techs can create, assign and work any job. Only owners and managers can delete a job, send it to a contractor or invoice it. Viewers can look but not change anything.
Track your next job from the first call
Pick a job you already have open and put it in, so you can see how much of the story is missing from your texts.
Create the work order
Tap Work Orders, then +. Enter the title, location, due date and priority.
Assign it and start it
Pick who has it under Assign To, then tap START WORK when the work begins.
Finish it and see the history
Tap COMPLETE JOB, then open HISTORY on the job to see the whole story in order.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you track work orders?
Record a title, a location, the unit if there is one, a due date, a priority and who has the job, then move it through Open, In Progress, On Hold and Done, writing what was done as you go. In Equipment Tracker that is Work Orders, then +, then START WORK, LOG UPDATE and COMPLETE JOB.
Are work orders free in Equipment Tracker?
On the phone, yes. The web dashboard's work order pages need Pro. Sending a job to a contractor in the app needs Pro on both sides; sending it as a PDF or as text does not.
Can I send a work order to a subcontractor?
Yes. Tap SEND TO CONTRACTOR and choose Send in the app, Send as a PDF or Send as text. In the app, the contractor's notes, parts, photos and hours come back to you. A PDF or a text is one way, so you mark the job done yourself.
What states does a work order have?
Open, In Progress, On Hold, Done and Cancelled. Putting a job on hold requires a reason.
Does a tenant request become a work order automatically?
No. A tenant request waits in the Inbox under Tenants until someone taps CREATE WORK ORDER.
Can I turn a finished work order into an invoice?
Yes. Owners and managers tap CREATE INVOICE on a finished job and a draft invoice starts from the logs the job filed.
HVAC Technician & Founder · Equipment Tracker Pro
Jonathan Curtis is an HVAC technician and the founder of Equipment Tracker Pro. He built the app to solve real problems he encountered in the field, including the daily frustration of faded nameplates and administrative double-entry.
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