A Work Order is the primary object used for tracking service in BlueFolder and represents a distinct service job that your customer has requested. Each work order has the ability to track status, labor, materials, expenses, comments, assignments, and more.
A typical workflow for a work order looks like this:
- Customer initiates request for service via phone, email, or online form.
- A work order is created to record and track the customer's request.
- The work order is assigned and/or scheduled to be completed by one or more technicians.
- Technicians perform the work and record their labor, materials, and expense activities for the job.
- Billable charges entered by technicians can be reviewed/verified by a manager/owner.
- Work order is closed and exported to accounting software for invoicing.
Viewing Work Orders
"Overview" Tab
Displays customer and contact information, status, assignments, equipment to service, recent log entries, and recent items (labor, materials, expenses) associated with the work order.
"Items" Tab
All labor, materials, and expenses associated with the work order.
"Billing" Tab
This area of the work order will display all of the billing information to include labor, materials, expenses, taxes, and profitability of the work order.
"Attachments" Tab
Listing of all of the attachments uploaded to the work order including documents that were signed by the customer.
"Log" Tab
A log of all changes, comments, and additions made to the work order.
Assigning Work Orders
A critical step in the life-cycle of a work order is assigning it to a technician for completion. BlueFolder has robust assignment capabilities that accommodate both simple jobs and complex projects. Learn more about assigning work orders...
Tracking Equipment to be Serviced
When creating a work order, you can link one or more equipment/asset items that are to be serviced as part of the completion of the work order. By linking the equipment/asset item to the work order, you will be letting the assigned technician(s) know which items are to be serviced. Linking the work order and equipment items builds the service history for the equipment/asset item, providing a useful audit trail for future reference and/or reporting purposes. Learn more about equipment/asset tracking...
Linking a Work Order to a Contract
Linking a work order to a contract is useful because it allows billable items associated with the work order (e.g. labor, materials, etc) to be billed to the contract and decremented against the contract balance. To link a work order to a contract, simply choose an active contract from the dropdown list on the New Work Order screen:
Specifying Bill To Information for a Work Order
BlueFolder allows work orders to be billed to a customer's default billing address or to a different customer. When creating a work order, choose the desired billing party by selecting the appropriate option in the Bill To field on the New Work Order page. To change the bill to information on an existing work order, click the Edit Billing Info link on the work order's Billing tab. The billing information specified in the work order will be copied into the invoice's matching bill to field(s) when transferred into your accounting system (e.g. QuickBooks Online).
Tracking Billable Activities (Labor, Materials, Expenses)
If your service team services external customers and you bill for your work, keeping an accurate account of all your team's billable activities is critical to the success of your business. BlueFolder provides a robust, but easy-to-use system for tracking billable activities. With three broad types of billable items (labor, materials, and expenses), you can keep track of everything your team does and be sure that every billable action is invoiced to your customers. Even if your team is servicing internal departments, tracking time-spent and materials used can still be very useful.
Our labor tracking feature includes the ability to record the duration of hours spent (with configurable hourly intervals of 6 or 15 minutes), or "flat-rate" labor items that allow you to track the hours spent while only billing your customer for a fixed amount (useful for accurate cost accounting). You can also specify which of your users are allowed to see which labor rates, preventing prying eyes from seeing what co-workers are being billed out at. Labor hours can also be decremented against a pre-sold balance of hours on a contract, helping you to keep track of important billing relationships with your customers.
All billable items are compatible with QuickBooks and other accounting systems, allowing you to keep everything in sync when transferring work orders over to invoices in your accounting system.
Attachments (Files/Photos/Links)
Keeping track of all the details related to a work order sometimes requires external files, digital photos, or even links to external websites. BlueFolder accommodates all of that with ease. The Attachments tab within a work order allows you to easily upload files, photos, or enter URLs that you want to store. Each attachment can also be marked as "public" so that your customers can see them in the customer portal.
Audit Trail (Work Order Log)
All actions related to a work order are tracked in a chronological log. With valuable information about who performed an action, and when it happened, you'll always have an accurate and detailed audit trail for each job. Comments added to the log can be marked as "private" or "public" so you can control what your customers see in the customer portal and in email notifications.
Customization
Many aspects of work orders are customizable. In fact, you don't even have to call them "work orders" as the name itself is customizable. Learn more about work order customization...