How to Assign a Work Order to a Technician

How to assign a work order to a technician

Assigning a work order gives it an owner and tells that person it is theirs.

When to use this

Assign as soon as you know who is doing the work. An unassigned order sits in Open and nobody is accountable for it.

Requirements

Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager can assign and reassign

Steps

Go to Dashboard → Work Orders.
Open the work order.
Click Assign.
Choose the person to assign it to.
Save.

What happens next

The status moves from Open to Assigned.
The assignee is notified.
On Odyssey and above, the SLA deadline is computed at this point, from the priority's response hours and the asset's criticality.
On Orbit and above, escalation rules begin counting from here — if the order does not progress, the configured roles are notified in turn.

Reassigning

Open the work order and assign it to someone else. The new assignee is notified.

Tip Reassign rather than closing and raising a fresh order. A new order loses the history and restarts the clock.

Recording the work

While the order is in progress, the assignee captures what actually happened.

Time

Record actual minutes on completion. Comparing it against the estimated minutes on the order is how estimates get better over time.

Materials

Log each part consumed with its description, quantity, unit cost, and vendor. Material cost is summed onto the work order and carried into the service record when the order closes.

Photos

Photos are tagged before, during, or after.

Before — the fault as found. This is the one people skip and later wish they had.
During — anything only visible while the job is open.
After — the completed work.

Photos count towards your plan's storage quota.

Notes

Two kinds:

Public notes are visible to everyone who can see the work order.
Internal notes are for the maintenance team — supplier problems, quality concerns, anything not meant for a wider audience.

Common mistakes

Assigning to a team rather than a person. A work order has one assignee. Shared ownership means nobody is chasing it.

Logging materials only in the notes. Notes are not costed. A part typed into a note never reaches the asset's total cost of ownership — log it as a material.

Skipping the before photo. After the repair, there is no way to go back and take it.

Recording time as a guess weeks later. Log it while the job is fresh, or the estimates you build on it are fiction.

Troubleshooting

The Assign button is missing. Assigning needs Manager or above. Employees cannot assign.

The person I want isn't in the list. Work orders are assigned to users who can sign in. If they only exist as a Person record with no account, invite them first.

My assignee didn't get an email. Immediate email alerts need Orbit or above; on Nova only the weekly digest is sent. Check their notification preferences too — the in-app notification is always there either way.

The SLA deadline is blank. SLA needs Odyssey or above. Below that, priority is recorded but no deadline is computed.

I can't upload a photo. You may be at your plan's storage limit. Check Settings → Plan & Usage.

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How to Assign a Work Order to a Technician