Work Order Lifecycle

Every work order moves through the same path. Knowing it tells you where a job actually is, and who is holding it up.

OPEN ──► ASSIGNED ──► IN PROGRESS ──┬──► COMPLETED ──► CLOSED
                          │          │                    │
                          ├─ ON HOLD ┤                    │
                          └─ AWAITING APPROVAL            │
                                                          ▼
                                                     REOPENED ──► (new order)

Requirements

Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
Roles: Owner, Admin and Manager move orders through the lifecycle. Employees update orders assigned to them.

The statuses

Status	What it means	Who moves it on
Open	Raised, nobody assigned yet	Manager or above assigns it
Assigned	It has an owner. On Odyssey and above the SLA clock starts here.	The assignee starts work
In Progress	Work is happening. Time, materials, photos and notes are captured here.	The assignee
On Hold	Paused — waiting on a part, access, or a vendor	Whoever unblocks it
Awaiting Approval	Cost exceeded the order's approval threshold and needs sign-off	Manager or above
Completed	Work is done and resolution notes are recorded	Manager or above closes it
Closed	Finished and accounted for. A service record has been written.	—
Reopened	The original order, kept as history after a repeat failure	—

Important Employees can only move work orders that are assigned to them. Reassignment, approval, and closure are Manager and above.

Completing a work order

When you complete an order you record:

Resolution notes — what was actually done
Actual minutes — real time spent, which you can compare against the estimate
Labour cost

Material costs come from the materials you logged during the work.

What happens when an order is closed

Closing is the step that matters financially. On closure UniAsset:

Writes a service record against the asset, carrying the cost across.
Adds that cost to the asset's total cost of ownership, so it appears in the Asset Costs, Category Costs and Department Costs reports.
Records the event on the asset timeline, permanently.
Resets the schedule if the order came from a PM rule — the next due date is recalculated from the completed work.

This is why there is no separate "log the cost" step. Closing the order is the step.

Reopening a work order

When the same fault comes back, reopen rather than raising an unrelated new order.

Reopening keeps the original and creates a new child order linked to it. The link is visible on both, so a chain of repeat failures is traceable rather than scattered across unconnected records.

That chain is exactly what a replace-or-repair decision needs.

Common mistakes

Leaving orders in Completed. Completed is not closed. The service record is written on closure — until then the cost is not in your reports.

Raising a new work order for a repeat failure. Use Reopen. A new unlinked order hides the pattern.

Using On Hold as a filing cabinet. An order parked on hold with no note is indistinguishable from one that has been forgotten. Add a note saying what it is waiting for.

Closing without resolution notes. In a year, "closed" with no notes tells nobody whether the fix held.

Troubleshooting

I can't close a work order. Closing needs Manager or above. Employees complete their work; a manager closes.

The order went to Awaiting Approval on its own. Its cost crossed the approval threshold set on the order. A Manager or above needs to approve it.

The cost isn't in my reports. Check the order is Closed, not Completed. Cost reports also need Orbit or above.

The PM schedule didn't reset. Only a closed order writes the service record that resets the schedule.

I can't see the work order at all. Viewers cannot see work orders. Employees see orders assigned to them.

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Work Order Lifecycle — From Open to Closed