Work Orders Overview

A Work Order is a document that describes work that is necessary to maintain or enhance a property. eService enables you to enter Work Orders for a specific unit or location. You can specify a priority and status for Work Orders, and assign Work Orders to employees or vendors.

Work orders can consist of a single task or multiple tasks. As you process Work Orders, the system tracks information such as the submission date and the materials needed to complete the task. When you close a Work Order, the system issues an invoice for the services rendered. You can also run reports on Work Orders.

eService enables you to automate the creation of Work Orders by enabling you to set up Recurring Work Orders and Work Order Templates. Work orders can be entered in eSite and transmitted to eService. Work orders can also be created automatically in eService as explained below.

NOTE that work Orders can also be created automatically in eSite based on property policy settings in eSite. Refer to the information below and the eSite help for more information.

You can set up eService to automatically create Work Orders that are a regular part of your property maintenance (for example, landscaping). The Begin of Day processing creates the recurring Work Orders based on the frequency you specify. Upon being created, recurring Work Orders are listed in the Outstanding Work Orders item on the Dashboard.

The system automatically creates a Make Ready Work Order when a move out is processed, as long as all of the following are set:

The Make Ready Work Order Template has been added (eService—Work Orders—Work Order Templates).
The template is linked to the property (eService—Setup—Properties).
The eSite property policy in the Move-Out category, When are Make Ready Work Orders created, is set to Move-Out or Notice (eSite—Setup—Policies—Property Policies—Move-Out).

Tasks are the individual actions that are added to a Work Order and then must be completed to close the Work Order. Tasks are added when you add a Work Order or can be added automatically by the system, i.e., when you have set up Recurring Work Orders or Work Order Templates, adding tasks is part of the setup process.

In addition, you can use the Quick Task Entry feature to add small tasks that do not require a formal Work Order. The system automatically assigns the task a Work Order number and adds the task to the Work Orders item on the Dashboard.

When adding a Work Order for a property, you can view inventory (composed of "Warehouse Inventory Items") held at the inventory locations associated with the property. You select Warehouse Inventory Items necessary to complete tasks associated with the Work Order. As you assign inventory to Work Orders, the system keeps track of the on-hand amounts of individual Warehouse Inventory Items. When on-hand amounts are less than the reorder level, reordering occurs as an automated background activity.

The Inventory module, not the eService module, handles the reordering process—and how it is handled depends on the type of Inventory license your company has. Please refer to the topics Effect of Inventory License and Inventory Valuation in the Inventory Module online Help for additional information.

When Inventory Valuation is used with eService, this affects Inventory Usage. Refer to Effect of Inventory Valuation on Inventory Usage for details.

When viewing a Work Order from the Work Order's grid, you can bill one or more residents, tenants, or customers for the materials and labor needed to complete maintenance services. The system automatically bills the resident, tenant, or customer based on the entries made in eService.

Billings created from eService Work Order Entry for a Customer use the Markup and Terms values set up on the eFinancials Customer General Tab when calculating the Markup and Discount amounts for a Billing.

Markups and Discounts are handled in this manner:

A Markup is never calculated on Billings created from eService regardless of Customer setup, as Billings already include the Markup amounts.
A message appears when the Customer option is selected on the Billings Tab in eService, and also when the Customer option is selected on the Additional Recipient’s Task Details pop-up. The message is: Leave the Due Date blank to calculate due dates and discounts based on Terms code for the eFinancials Customer. The message is hidden when Resident is selected.
When the user leaves the Due Date blank when the Customer option is selected, then due dates and discounts are based on the Term Code entered in eFinancials (Setup—AR Setup—Customers—(select a customer)—General Tab) for the Customer.

If there is no Term Code, the system will use today’s date, and then the discount due date is one day more, which is how it’s done in eFinancials.
For Due Date, with the Customer option selected on both Bill To and the Additional Recipient’s pop-up, the system uses the lesser of the Due Dates if they are different, and does not look at the Terms Code entered in eFinancials for the Customer (there is no Discount given).