Dynamics 365 Work Order Management Overview

In Dynamics 365 Field Service, a work order refers to a task or a job needing to be scheduled or assigned to some resource. They generally include information such as who the work is for, the type of work to be performed, timeframes, products and services to be delivered, tasks that need to be done, and more.

1. Location and billing information.
2. The type of work to be completed, such as installation, repair, or preventive maintenance.
3. The products and services included.
4. Specific tasks for the field agent to execute.
5. Date and time information

Work order can be created from Agreement (auto generated), manually, from portal. Work orders can be created by converting an existing case or opportunity, or they can be autogenerated based on a schedule associated with a maintenance contract. Work orders have statuses associated with them that help define their current scheduling. As work orders are scheduled and addressed by technicians, statuses are updated accordingly.

Work Order Lifecycle:

Work orders can be created by converting an existing case or opportunity, or they can be autogenerated based on a schedule associated with a maintenance contract. Work orders have statuses associated with them that help define their current scheduling. As work orders are scheduled and addressed by technicians, statuses are updated accordingly.

Typically, a work order will go through six stages:

1. Creation
2. Scheduling
3. Dispatch 
4. Service Delivery
5. Review and Approval 
6. Invoice and Inventory

Account relationships

Work orders in Field Service are always associated with an account record. When you create a work order, you’ll need to define the account it’s associated with.

There are two places where accounts are defined on the work order:

Service Account: Defines the account for which the work is taking place

•Address information from the service account is added to the work order and is used to assist in scheduling the item.

Billing Account: Defines the account record that is responsible for paying, and where the invoice will be sent

•The billing account for a work order will default to the service account unless a billing account has been defined on the account record for the service account.
•The billing account can be overwritten at any time.

Work Order Statuses:

A typical work order goes through several different stages before it is considered closed and billed to a customer. For example, while a work order is open, it might be waiting to be scheduled, scheduled but not yet being worked on, scheduled and being worked on, or completed but waiting for final approval before it can be closed. Work order status defines the current state of the work order as it moves through its lifecycle.

Open – Unscheduled: The work order has been created but has not yet been scheduled in the system.
Open – Scheduled: The work order has been scheduled and a resource has been assigned responsibility for completing the work.
Open – In Progress: A field agent is actively working on the item.
Open – Completed: The work has been completed and the work order might be waiting for final sign off.
Closed – Posted: The work order is closed and billing can take place.
Closed – Canceled: The work was not completed and the work order was canceled.

NOTE: Do not customize Work Order Status settings.

Work Order Sub-Status

Although work order status provides a good overall look at the status of a work order, it does not always provide a complete picture.

A work order’s substatus provides additional details about the state of the work order. For example, a work order may have a status of Open-unscheduled. By adding a substatus, you can identify that the work order is unscheduled because you are waiting for parts to arrive, or still need a customer signature. Substatus can also be used to assist in closing work orders. A work order may have a status of Open-completed because it requires us to follow-up with a customer within the week to ensure that everything is still functioning as intended. This info can be included in the substatus.

Work Order Related Key Entities:

Hope this blog post given some idea about how to manage the work order. I have shared from my point of view & as per my product knowledge. Happy to hear from others if I have missed anything.

In my next post will see about the field service configuration and master entities setup. Ex: Field Service Product Types, Pricelist, Work Order Types, Territories, Incident Types, Task Types, Bookable Resource, Characteristics, Category, Rating, Working Hours, Business Closures, Time off Requests, Facilities & Equipment.