Send a Work Order

Learn how to finalise and send work orders to your contractors

Updated on July 11th, 2024

Once you've finished creating your work order and have added all your labour and materials, finalise it by adding any notes or documents and photos (e.g. plans, drawings and installation manuals).

Then:

  • Choose an appropriate status and acceptance status for the order
  • Send your order to your contractor.

See below for an explanation of these steps.

 

Task Documents

You can also attach documents to the work order that are already attached to the task. This feature is handy if you're using Online Work Orders as you can easily share documents and photos with your contractor. This will also remember the filter set for each document.

  1. Use the down arrow next to Add Documents & Photos > Task Documents
  2. From the Search Task Documents window, double-click the files you need and close the window when finished
  3. Save Documents.

All files with the filter set to 'Show Contractor' or 'Show All' will be visible to your contractor viewing the work order online. If necessary, change the filter on any files and Save Documents again.

 
 
 

Work Order status

There are three statuses for work orders. The table below outlines how best to use these in your workflow.

Status
Description
In Progress

Work Order is incomplete or being worked on.

Return to an order you're working on via Workflow > Work Orders > In Progress.

 
Pending Approval Use this status if your workflow requires internal approvals (e.g. from a manager).
Approved Indicates your work order has been approved internally (if using internal approvals) and is waiting on your contractor's acceptance of the work. Use the Acceptance Status fields to track this. See Acceptance Status, below.

Show me

Pending Approval

 
 

Approved and Awaiting Decision

 
 
 
 

If the above doesn't suit your workflow, you can use Pending Approval to indicate your work order is yet to be approved by your contractor and Approved once your contractor has given the go ahead. If using this approach, you won't need to use the Acceptance Status fields.

 

 

Acceptance Status

Marking a work order as Approved will display the Acceptance Status fields. The Acceptance Status is used to record your contractor's approval of the work.

Depending on your workflow, this step may be optional. See the above note regarding the Pending Approval status.

 

There are five acceptance statuses. Below is an outline of what each status could be used for but you can use them in whatever way fits your workflow.

Acceptance Status Description
Not Sent Work Order has been approved internally but has not yet been sent off to the contractor.
Awaiting Decision Work Order has been sent to your contractor and is awaiting confirmation.
Accepted

Contractor has accepted the work order

Contractors can accept or decline a work order from the online work order viewer.  

 
Declined

Contractor has declined the work order.

Contractors can accept or decline a work order from the online work orders.

 
Need More Information Contractor has requested clarification or additional detail, or ask a question from the Online Work Order Viewer.

Default Acceptance Status

Your site administrator can set the work order settings.

 
 

 

Acceptance Expiry

For the Not Sent and Awaiting Decision statuses, you will have the option of entering an Acceptance Expiry using the date and time picker. This can be displayed on your work order layouts and emails.

Once the expiry date and time is up, the Online Work Order cannot be viewed. This prevents a work order from being able to be accepted after the expiry date, with possible outdated information.

 

All other statuses will display the Acceptance Expiry date and time you have entered, but they will be read-only.

 

 

Preview a Work Order

Use the Print Options section to preview, print or email the work order.

For more information about layouts, see Standard Layouts.

 

To preview the work order, go to the Print Options (bottom left) and click Preview.

A preview will appear. If you'd like to use a different layout, select a layout from the dropdown list and click Preview.

Saving Invoice Layouts 
The Layout field displays the Default Print Layout. If you change the Layout and Save the work order, AroFlo will remember the selection if you need it again in the future. The default will also display, just in case you need it (see image).

 

Switching the layout from the default works in conjunction with Online Work Orders.

 

 

Send your order

Once your work order has been approved internally (if using internal approvals), it's time to send it off to your contractor so they can complete the work. There are a couple of ways to do this when sending your order via email:

Using Online Work Orders

The easiest way to send work orders to contractors is using Online Work Orders. Using this method, you send an email to your contractor, containing a link to the online work order.

The benefits of using Online Work Orders are:

  • Contractors can view, accept, or decline work orders which automatically changes the acceptance status for you, automating your workflow.
  • Contractors can ask follow-up questions via the Online Viewer, which are then recorded in AroFlo.
  • You can easily share documents online with your contractor.

See Online Work Orders for more information, including how to set this up.

 
 

Attached as a PDF

Alternatively, you can attach your work order to an email and send this to your contractor:

  1. Scroll down on your work order to the Print Options.
  2. Select the appropriate layout from the Layout dropdown (see above)
  3. Click Email.
  4. In the Contact field, select the appropriate Contractor's contact from the dropdown menu.
  5. Edit the Subject and email Body if required OR select an email content template from the Select Template menu.
  6. Click the box next to Work Order XXXX to attach the order to the email as a PDF. 

    Click the PDF to preview your work order with your selected layout.

     
  7. (Optional) Attach any files relating to the work order using Attachments > Work Order Documents.
  8. (Optional) Click the box next to Job Sheet to attach this to your email as a PDF.
  9. Click Send Email.

Read more on sending emails.

 
 
 

 

What to do next

Once your contractor has completed the assigned work and/or sent you an invoice, it's time to create a bill. See Receive a Work Order Invoice.