Work order template

What a work order is and who uses one

A work order is a document that describes a job you're going to do for a customer, written before the work starts or while it's under way. It says what the work is, where it will be done, when it's scheduled and who it's for, and it usually lists the labor and materials you expect the job to need, with prices, so the customer can see roughly what it will cost. The customer signs it to approve the work, and when the job is finished the work order becomes the basis of the invoice.

Work orders are used wherever someone does a job at a customer's place or on something the customer owns. Repair and maintenance businesses use them, and so do cleaning companies, painters, landscapers and IT support providers who come out to fix an office network. Property managers use them from the other side: they write a work order to hand a repair to a contractor, so the contractor knows exactly what the tenant reported and what they're allowed to fix.

Writing the job down gives you and the customer the same instruction to point to. If they asked you to fix a dripping faucet and you also notice a cracked tile, the signed work order shows which of the two they approved, so nobody argues later about whether the tile was part of the job. It agrees the scope before you start, which matters most when the price depends on how long the work takes, and because the invoice is drawn up from the same lines, the bill matches what the customer signed.

From quote to work order to invoice

On a larger or less predictable job the paperwork comes in three steps. First you send a quote, a price the customer can accept or turn down and compare with other businesses' prices; the free quote template covers that part. When the customer accepts, you write the work order, which turns the agreed price into an instruction: the scheduled date, the address, a description of the job, the labor and materials you expect to use, and a place for the customer to sign. Then you do the work and send the invoice, which asks for payment for what was actually done.

Each document does a different job, which is why they're kept apart. The quote is an offer, the work order is the approval and the instruction, and the invoice is the request for payment. A quote often says nothing about when or exactly where the job happens, and an invoice comes too late to agree anything, so the work order is the document that goes to the site with whoever does the work.

You can skip the quote when there's nothing to compare or negotiate: a regular customer calls about a small repair, a maintenance agreement already sets your rates, or the job is urgent. The work order then does both jobs, because it shows the expected cost and the customer's signature approves it. What you shouldn't skip is the approval itself, since a job started on the strength of a phone call leaves you nothing to show when the bill is higher than the customer expected. The guide to quotes, estimates and invoices explains the difference in more detail.

What goes on a work order, with an example

There's no single official layout for a work order, but most carry the same details, and these are the ones to check yours against:

• Your business name and contact details, and a work order number to refer to later
• The customer's name and contact details, and the work location if the job isn't at the customer's own address
• The date issued and the scheduled date for the work
• A description of the work in plain words
• Lines for labor and materials, each with a quantity, a unit and a price, and the total
• Any terms, such as what happens if the job turns out bigger than expected
• A customer approval section with space for a signature, the name and the date

The description of work is the part most worth getting right. Write it so that someone who wasn't at the first visit could do the job from it: "fix bathroom" tells them nothing, while "repair the water-damaged drywall in the bathroom ceiling" tells them what to bring and when they're done. The work location matters when the customer and the job are in different places, such as a landlord who lives elsewhere or a company with several offices. Labor usually goes in as hours at an hourly rate or as one fixed price, and materials by the piece or as a set, so the customer can see which part of the total is time and which is parts.

Here is how that looks on a real job. A landlord, Dana Ruiz, asks a small property maintenance business to repair a bathroom ceiling in a rental after a leak upstairs has been fixed. Work order WO-14 is issued on March 3 and scheduled for March 6; it names Dana Ruiz as the customer, with the landlord's home address, and gives 14 Elm Street, Apartment 3 as the work location. The description reads "Repair the water-damaged drywall in the bathroom ceiling, prime and repaint the ceiling, and replace the exhaust fan." The lines show 6 hours of labor at $65.00 an hour, which is $390.00, then a drywall patch set at $38.00, primer and ceiling paint as one set at $46.00 and an exhaust fan at $89.00, which makes $173.00 in materials and a total of $563.00 before any sales tax that applies.

One line of terms covers the uncertain part: "Labor is estimated and the invoice will show the hours actually worked; if the damage is worse than it looks, we'll contact you before doing any extra work." Dana Ruiz signs the approval section and sends the page back, and the job goes ahead on March 6. If it takes seven hours, the invoice shows seven, and the extra $65.00 is something the customer was warned about rather than a surprise.

Work order vs quote vs invoice vs purchase order

These four documents are easy to mix up because they can carry the same lines and even the same prices. What separates them is who writes each one, at which point, and whether it asks for money.

Only the invoice is a bill. The other three can show prices and totals, but none of them asks for payment, which is why a work order has no bank details or due date on it. The quote and the work order look alike and on a small job can follow each other within a day, but they answer different questions: the quote answers "how much would it cost?", and the work order answers "this is the job, the place and the date: do you agree?"

The purchase order is the odd one out because it comes from the buyer, not from the business doing the work. A company that hires a contractor or orders supplies may send a PO with its own number and ask for that number on the invoice, as the purchase order guide explains. If a customer sends you a PO for a job, you still write your own work order for it, and noting their PO number in the description lets their order, your work order and your invoice be matched up later.

Making a work order and turning it into the invoice

In the maker, a work order is a document type of its own, next to invoices and quotes. These are the steps from a blank form to the invoice:

1. Start a work order with the button on this page, or choose Work order in the document menu. It gets the next number in its own series, WO-1, WO-2 and so on, separate from your invoice numbers.
2. Choose the customer from your saved contacts or add a new one, set the date issued and the scheduled date, and fill in the work location if the job isn't at the customer's address.
3. Write the description of work, which is printed above the lines, then add the labor and materials lines with quantity, unit, price and tax, just as on a quote. The totals add up as you go.
4. Download or print the PDF, or with a free account send it by email or as a link. The customer signs the "Customer approval" section by hand with a signature, name and date, and you mark the work order as accepted.
5. After the job, choose Create invoice from this. The new invoice has the same lines, with the description of work as its note, so you only change what turned out differently, such as the hours, before you send it.

The approval section says, in the document's language, that the customer authorizes the work described, so the signed copy is their written go-ahead. The maker doesn't capture signatures electronically: the customer signs the printed or downloaded PDF, and you keep the signed copy on paper or as a scan. Work orders have their own "Work orders" tab in the overview with the statuses draft, sent and accepted, and they never count in your invoice totals or the VAT summary, because nothing has been billed yet. The whole document can be made in any of the 20 invoice languages, so a Spanish-speaking customer gets an "Orden de trabajo" and a French-speaking one a "Bon d'intervention".

The maker writes the paperwork, but it doesn't run the job. It doesn't schedule or dispatch work, assign technicians, keep a calendar or track time, parts or stock, so those stay wherever you keep them now. When the invoice is ready, the guide to invoicing for services explains how to word hours, days and fixed fees so the customer can follow the bill line by line.