Creating & working with Work Orders
Last updated
Last updated
Reading time: 5 minutes
What Work Orders are & their purpose
The anatomy of a Work Order
Creating Work Order Templates
Why Work Orders and not Tasks, Action Items, etc..?
In the construction industry in general, and the solar industry in particular, Work Orders are the nuts and bolts of getting things done. They're clear-cut guides for the crew, laying out the details for each task, whether it's up on a roof or behind a desk.
For the field guys, Field Work Orders cover the hands-on jobs like installing solar panels or doing a service check-up to keep systems running smoothly.
Back in the office, the Office Work Orders are all about the prep and follow-up - sorting out permits, handling net metering applications, and making sure everything's lined up right for a smooth operation. Both types are key; they keep the whole team in sync and the solar projects on track.
We will be retiring stages in favor of statuses over the next 60 days. Almost everyone who's ever used Coperniq has asked or at least wondered why they have to assign the task and then manually set the stage to "ASSIGNED," schedule the task and then manually set it to "SCHEDULED," etc... Enter statuses!
If your team started using Coperniq after 05/17/2023, you wouldn't see the Stage sunsetting countdown can safely ignore this.
Below is a summary of Work Order Statuses, their meaning, as well as whether they apply to Office or Field Work Orders or both.
Status | Meaning | Office or Field |
`QUEUED` | All new Work Orders will now start out in QUEUED | Field/Office |
`ASSIGNED` | Once you assign it to a user, the status will automatically update to ASSIGNED | Field/Office |
`ON THE WAY | Then when you press the "ON THE WAY"" button, the status will update to WORKING | Field |
CLOCKED IN | When you arrive at the location press "CLOCK IN" (Note: if Geofencing is turned on it may automatically clock you in. Also with Geofencing it will now allow you to clock in if too far away.) | Field/Office |
CLOCKED OUT | When you are done at the worksite press the "CLOCKED OUT" to clock out | Field/Office |
`IN REVIEW | When the Work Order is ready to review, pressing the "SEND TO REVIEW" button will update the status to "REVIEW" | Field/Office |
`COMPLETED` | Finally, if the Work Order is ready to be completed, pressing "MARK COMPLETED" will move it to COMPLETED 🎉 (Note: Make sure all Subtasks are completed on the WO or you will not be able to complete.) | Field/Office |
Instead of clicking the status button, then selecting the next status with another click, you'll now be able to transition the status in a single click.
You can now easily differentiate between office Work Orders (permitting, net metering applications, engineering) and field Work Orders (site surveys, installations, inspections). Watch out for the 🖥 icon which represents an office Work Order, and the 🛠 icon which represents a field Work Order.
Again, if your team started using Coperniq after 05/17/2023, you wouldn't see the Stage sunsetting countdown can safely ignore this.
Many of you have been asking for a more streamlined way to distinguish between the team leader (crew chief, head permit coordinator, etc.) and the rest of the team members working on a particular Work Order. Now every Work Order will have a single assignee, allowing you to set multiple collaborators.
As another highly requested bonus, on the dispatcher, not just the assignee but also all the collaborators will see the Work Order in their respective swimlanes.
See Templates support doc in Coperniq support
