Managing maintenance or service tasks in large buildings or facilities often involves handling many similar jobs at once. The Grouped Work Order feature makes it easier to organize, track, and complete these tasks by grouping related work orders together. This approach is especially useful when several pieces of equipment need attention as part of a larger job.

A grouped work order is a way to organize several related tasks or work orders under one main job. For example, if a building has 20 air conditioning units that all need servicing, a grouped work order allows all these tasks to be managed together. The main job represents the overall task, while each unit has its own sub-task within the group.

Grouped work orders follow a structure similar to a family tree:

Note: Grouped work orders can only be created on the Portal.

Grouped work orders are arranged in a hierarchy:

This structure helps everyone see which tasks belong together and what needs to be done at each level.

There are three ways to handle grouped work orders, depending on how much detail is needed:

A short service means that the technician will do the full service completion flow on the parent work order level, and a short service for each of the child work orders. Each technician must complete short service actions for every child work order, such as adding forms, work instructions, equipment logbook, technician remarks, pictures, and documents, and select a status (completed, waiting for further action, ready for review) for each child work order after servicing.

Note that for the short service type, sub or child work orders cannot have used parts and billable hours added to them. They are to be added to the parent work order after completing all the sub or child work orders. The full detailed completion process is done on the parent work order of a short service type grouped work order by the work order leader.

When a short service type grouped work order is open, each individual child work order will show a "Short service" status to indicate the service type. When all individual child work orders are completed, the parent work order will show a complete button for the work order leader to complete it.

A "detailed service type" grouped work order is a configuration where each child work order within a grouped work order requires a full, detailed completion process by the technician. This means:

Each technician must complete all required service actions for every child work order assigned to them, such as adding forms, work instructions, used parts, worked hours, equipment logbook, technician remarks, pictures, and obtaining customer signatures for each child work order they complete.

The parent work order will automatically reach completion status only when all child work orders are completed and signed off.

When a detailed service type grouped work order is open, each individual child work order will show a "Detailed service" status, leading to a full completion process. When at least one work order is completed, a "Sign off work orders" button appears below the screen, allowing the sign-off of all completed work orders at once. The parent work order does not require separate completion; its status is set to completed automatically when all child work orders are completed and signed off.

Both options are available. For each work order, it is possible to choose either the short or detailed process, depending on what is needed.

For a child or sub work order that was chosen as a short service type, the work order leader will do a full work order completion process on the parent.

Note: If a work order status is marked as "Ready for review," a reviewer (such as a service manager) can review and finalize it.

For a short or detailed service type, each child work order allows a choice between the short or detailed process. The parent work order will show a complete button when all child work orders have been completed.

When a grouped work order is open in the field service app by a technician, its screen displays all related work orders in a tree-like list. This makes it easy to see the main job and all individual child work orders. The screen shows important information such as:

Work orders are ordered by their level in the hierarchy, and within each level, they are sorted by reference numbers.

Technicians can also use the barcode icon at the top right corner of the screen to find specific work orders created for equipment by scanning a barcode.

The parent work order will also show a progress count in the format NN/NN. This count is there to show how many of the child work orders have been serviced, compared with the total number of child work orders under a parent work order.
This number is meant to give an instant progress view.

A child work order is counted when it has a status, such as:
• Completed
• Waiting for further action
• Ready for review (when work is done but needs checking before it is fully closed).

If a work order does not yet have one of these statuses, it will not increase the count.

On the grouped work order screen, the plus icon found on the parent work order serves an important purpose. This icon is used to create a new location, equipment, or mobile location directly within the grouped work order. When this option is selected, the technician can choose to create new equipment or a location, and once saved, a new work order is automatically created for that new equipment or location.

This new work order appears in the list, making it possible to start work on the new equipment right away.

On the grouped work order screen, two sorting menus are also available at the top of the Grouped Work Order (WO) page:
• Filter
• Order By

By default, the app applies: Filter: All and Order By: Location.

This means all child work orders are listed under their parent. The parent is the location.

Learn more about these sorting options here: Sorting options for grouped work orders in the field service app.