Work orders

Introduction

Every WO has a maintenance type (required), a priority, a status and, almost always, a location: one or more assets, a point on the map or a drawn area. With the customers module, it also belongs to a customer.

The work is split like this:

What the technician does on the phone reaches the web when it syncs: status changes, actual dates, photos, forms and signatures. The web shows it in the WO record.

Statuses

A WO's statuses are always these. How many are used depends on your company's lifecycle (see below).

Assigning is not a status. A WO is assigned when it has staff, whatever its status. An open WO with nobody on it shows “Sin asignar” (Unassigned) on its card.

Company lifecycle

The number of steps to close a WO depends on the profile chosen in Configuración General (General settings) → Cómo trabaja tu empresa (How your company works):

Pausada and Cancelada exist in every cycle. The application only offers the status changes that are valid for your cycle; the server rejects any other. In the supervised cycle, the map counter “Por validar” (To validate) is called “Por cerrar” (To close), and in the simple cycle it does not appear.

Priorities

Maintenance types

The maintenance type is required on every WO. It defines the tasks that can be ticked, the estimated duration, the forms that are suggested and, where applicable, whether it asks for a signature. Types and their tasks are configured in the administrator; this is explained in Preventive maintenance and maintenance types.

Due date and SLA

Every WO has three dates and, if there is a service agreement, a time limit:

• Inicio previsto (Planned start) and Fin previsto (Planned end): the time slot in which the work is planned. They change when planning, by hand or with the optimiser.
• Fecha límite (Deadline): the one requested by the customer or the contract. It is optional and planning never moves it.
• Plazo de resolución del SLA (SLA resolution deadline): Maptainer calculates it when the WO is created, based on the criticality and on the service agreement of the customer, of the company or the general one. The card shows “SLA en N h” (SLA in N h) when it is at risk and “SLA incumplido” (SLA breached) when it has passed.

A WO's due date is its deadline; if it has none, the SLA resolution deadline; and if it has neither, its planned end. This is what marks it as overdue in the calendar, in the Vencidas (Overdue) and Vencen hoy (Due today) counters, in the dashboard and in the portal.

The card warns with “Vence hoy” (Due today), “Vence en N días” (Due in N days) (up to 3) or “Vencida hace…” (Overdue by…). That warning looks at the deadline or, if there is none and the WO has no SLA, at the planned end. When the SLA governs, its own pill already warns.

Due-date and SLA warnings disappear when the WO is completed, validated or closed. Service agreements are configured as explained in Customers and SLA.

Prerequisites

Work orders require the maintenance module to be contracted. Without it, neither the Órdenes de trabajo (Work orders) tab nor the day counter above the map appear.

Permissions

The permissions are in Gestión de Roles y Permisos (Role and permission management), group Mantenimiento (Maintenance).

This is how each tenant's roles come by default:

Other permissions that show in the record: Coste real (Actual cost) requires Reportes (Reports) · Ver and Costes (Costs), and the company must track costs; seeing GPS positions in the activity requires permission to view staff.

Permissions in the app

What the technician sends from the app is checked against the same permissions of their role:

A signed WO can no longer be modified from the app, except to complete or close it. The asset and meter reading permissions the app requires are explained in Assets and Reading batches.

If something is rejected, the app shows the error for that record and the rest is saved. With the default roles, the Técnico completes their WOs but does not validate or close them. If in your company technicians must close WOs from the app, the administrator ticks Cerrar under Mantenimiento for the Técnico role (see Change a role's permissions).

“Cómo trabaja tu empresa” options

The profile also sets which fields are required when creating: in Esencial none apart from the title and the type; in Profesional and Avanzado, at least one person in charge.

The work orders panel

The panel opens with the Órdenes de trabajo tab in the right-hand panel. It shows active WOs (Pendiente, En Curso and Pausada) as cards; when you open the application, only the pending ones are shown.

Header, filters and sorting

The header shows how many WOs match the filter and how many there are in total (“35 de 38 totales”, i.e. 35 of 38 in total). The buttons, from left to right:

The map filters (status, priority, task type, dates, person in charge, staff and customer) also apply to the list; they are explained in The map. When filters are active, Limpiar filtros (Clear filters) appears. The list loads 50 WOs at a time and fetches more when you reach the end.

Day counters

Above the map there is a strip of counters: SLA incumplido, SLA en riesgo (SLA at risk), Vencidas, Vencen hoy, Sin asignar, En curso (In progress), Pausadas (Paused), Revisar (Review) and Por validar. Clicking one filters the map and the list at the same time. The SLA counters and Revisar only appear when they are not zero.

The card

Each card shows the code, the status, the priority, the title, the maintenance type and the customer (or the address). Below are the assigned staff (the person in charge, marked), the Inicio (Start) and Fin (End) dates (planned), Límite (Deadline) if it has a deadline, and the due-date and SLA warnings. If the WO resolves an incident, the incident's code appears next to the WO's code and opens the incident.

The ⋯ menu

The menu first shows Cambiar estado (Change status) with the changes your cycle and your permissions allow. The labels depend on where the WO comes from:

Then come the shortcuts:

• Asignar personal… (Assign staff…): on Pendiente, En Curso or Pausada WOs. See Assign staff.
• Asignar al más cercano… (Assign to the nearest…): on Pendiente or Pausada WOs, when dispatch is available. This is explained in Planning and dispatch.
• Ver en el mapa (View on the map), Ver ficha (View record), Editar and Descargar PDF (Download PDF).

Create a work order

There are several ways to start a WO. They all open the same form, Nueva Orden de Trabajo (New work order), in the right-hand panel:

• The Orden button in the WO panel.
• Right-click on the map → Nueva orden aquí (New order here) or, on an asset, Nueva orden para este activo (New order for this asset).
• The Crear OT (Create WO) button of an incident (see From an incident).
• The planning calendar, when you choose a free slot (see Planning and dispatch).

The form has six sections: Información Principal (Main information), Ubicación (Location), Tipo de Trabajo (Type of work), Planificación (Planning), Equipo de Trabajo (Work team) and Recursos (Resources). Every new WO starts as Pendiente.

Main information

Location

In Situar la orden por (Locate the order by) you choose what places the WO on the map:

With Punto or Área, assets become optional (Activos (opcional) (Assets (optional))) and can still be added. The WO marker goes on the point or the area even if it has assets, and the geofence takes them into account.

If you choose Punto or Área and do not mark it, “Falta la ubicación” (Location missing) appears when you save. If your company requires a location and there is no asset, point or area, “Ubicación requerida” (Location required) appears.

Type of work

1. Choose the Tipo de mantenimiento (Maintenance type) (required).
2. In Tareas a realizar (Tasks to perform), tick the tasks of that type that have to be done.
3. In Formularios asociados (Associated forms), review the forms suggested according to the type, the tasks and the assets. Leave ticked the ones the technician will have to fill in. Mandatory ones come ticked and cannot be unticked, nor can those that already have responses. Forms are configured in Forms.

When you choose the type, the trades and training required by its tasks also appear, if your company tracks them.

Long names take up two lines inside the button. If you hover the mouse over it, you can see the full name.

Planning

When you set the planned start, the planned end is calculated automatically from the duration. If you change the planned end by hand, the duration becomes the difference between the two dates. If the end falls before the start, “El fin previsto no puede ser anterior al inicio previsto.” (The planned end cannot be earlier than the planned start.) appears. The dates must fall on your company's working days and hours: otherwise a warning appears when you choose them and it will not let you save.

Planned start and planned end are the planning: they are changed by this form, the calendar, the Por despachar (To dispatch) queue, bulk actions and the optimiser. The Fecha límite only changes if you edit it yourself. That is why it tells you whether the WO will be on time even if you replan it.

With the planning module, two aids appear:

• Planificar esta OT (equipo u operario apto más cercano) (Plan this WO (nearest suitable team or technician)): suggests a date and staff. Only on pending WOs.
• Sugerir próxima fecha disponible (Suggest next available date): looks for the first free slot of the chosen persons in charge in the next 30 days. It appears when there is a person in charge.

Recurrencia only appears with periodic maintenance types. It turns the WO into a schedule that repeats; this is explained in Preventive maintenance and maintenance types.

Work team

With the type, assets and date chosen, Técnicos recomendados (Recommended technicians) appears, with the most suitable candidates. If someone is not available on those dates (shift, absence or another WO), they appear in Conflictos de disponibilidad (Availability conflicts). The warnings do not prevent saving.

Resources

• Materiales: Añadir material (Add material), search for the item and enter the Cantidad planificada (Planned quantity). Planning does not deduct stock: it is deducted when the material is consumed. This is explained in Inventory and warehouses.
• Documentación (Documentation): Añadir archivo (Add file) with Título del documento (Document title), Descripción (opcional) (Description (optional)) and Archivo (File) (PDF, image, Word, Excel or text).

Save

Click Crear Orden de Trabajo (Create work order). If something required is missing, the reason appears (“Debes seleccionar un tipo de mantenimiento” (You must select a maintenance type), “Responsable requerido” (Person in charge required)…). After saving, two warnings may appear that do not undo anything:

• Avisos de Stock (Stock warnings): the material requested exceeds the stock or leaves it below the minimum. The WO is saved anyway.
• Avisos de Cualificación (Qualification warnings): the assigned staff do not cover some trade or training required by the tasks. The training must be valid on the day of the Inicio previsto (without a date, today).

If the WO is saved but the Recurrencia or the upload of a Documentación file fails, “La orden se ha guardado, pero no todo” (The order has been saved, but not everything) appears. It says what failed and why (for example, “el archivo es demasiado grande” (the file is too large) or “no tienes permiso para esta acción” (you do not have permission for this action)). Open it with Editar and try again.

Cancelar (Cancel) closes the form without saving and without asking.

From an incident

In an incident's record, Crear OT opens the form already filled in with the title, the description, the address, the customer, the asset (or the point or area) and a priority based on the criticality. At the top, “Se vinculará a la incidencia…” (It will be linked to the incident…) appears.

• With the customers module, an incident without a customer cannot be converted into a WO: “Incidencia sin clasificar” (Unclassified incident) appears.
• An incident can only have one WO that resolves it.
• If the WO is created but the link fails, “OT creada, pero sin vincular” (WO created, but not linked) appears with Reintentar (Retry).

The rest of incident management is in Incidents.

Edit a work order

Click Editar on the card, in the ⋯ menu, or Editar orden (Edit order) in the record. Editar Orden de Trabajo (Edit work order) opens with the data loaded. Change what you need and click Guardar cambios (Save changes).

• Completada, Validada, Cerrada and Cancelada WOs cannot be edited or cancelled. On them, Editar and Cancelar orden do not appear. A Completada or Validada WO can only change status; to correct it, reopen it and return it to En Curso.
• If another person or another tab has saved the WO while you were editing it, the save is rejected with “Otra persona u otra pestaña ha guardado esta orden de trabajo mientras la editabas…” (Another person or another tab has saved this work order while you were editing it…). Open it again and repeat the changes.
• Changing the planned materials does not move stock; only what is consumed counts.
• If you change the customer of a WO that comes from an incident, you are offered to change the incident's customer as well.

Assign staff

Assigning staff does not change the status. Staff can be assigned on any Pendiente, En Curso or Pausada WO.

1. In the ⋯ menu, click Asignar personal…. Asignar orden de trabajo (Assign work order) opens.
2. Check Fecha de inicio (Start date) and Fecha de fin (End date) (required).
3. Click Cargar personal disponible (Load available staff). The list marks each person as Recomendado (Recommended), Disponible (Available), Sin comprobar turno (Shift not checked) or No disponible (Not available) (with the reason). Those not available cannot be ticked.
4. Tick the Personal operativo and click Asignar (Assign).

The ticked staff replace the operational staff the WO had. The persons in charge do not change. To change the person in charge, use Editar.

Assignment by dragging in the calendar, dispatch and the optimiser are explained in Planning and dispatch.

Multiple selection and bulk actions

Multiple selection applies the same action to many WOs at once. It requires the edit permission.

1. Click Seleccionar varias in the panel header.
2. Tick the WOs: - by clicking their cards or their points on the map; - by dragging a rectangle over the map (while the selection lasts, dragging does not move the map); - with Todas las del listado (All in the list). Ninguna (None) unticks them all.
3. Choose the action in the bottom bar.

Each WO is processed separately, with the same rules as one by one. If any fails, a list appears with the code and the reason, and the ones that failed stay selected so you can review them. At most 200 WOs are processed per action.

The work order record

The record opens with Ver or by clicking the card. The header shows the code, the title, the status, the priority and the customer. It has four tabs: Info, Formularios (Forms), Fotos (Photos) and Actividad (Activity).

Info tab

Dates are shown in the time zone of the WO's branch, even if someone views it from another zone.

Actual cost

The Coste real section appears if your company tracks costs and your role has Reportes · Ver and Costes. It adds up:

• Mano de obra (Labour): each person's timesheet multiplied by their hourly rate.
• Materiales: what was consumed minus what was returned.
• Vehículo (Vehicle): road kilometres to the WO and fuel at each day's price. With fleet tracking, Ver ruta en el mapa (View route on the map) draws the journeys (departure in green, arrival in red).

Below, warnings appear if there are hours without a rate, hours to review in the timesheet or journeys without a fuel cost. Costs by period and by customer are explained in Costs and reports.

Timesheet

The duration of the WO is not its labour. Parte de horas, in the Personal Operativo header, shows each person's hours day by day: the WO's time in progress trimmed to their working day. Anything outside working hours with signs of work appears as hora extra por revisar (overtime to review) and does not count until it is approved. How it is built, with an example, is in Costs and reports.

With Personal (Staff) · Editar you can Aprobar (Approve) or Rechazar (Reject) what is pending, Corregir (Correct) a time slot, Quitar (Remove) hours and Añadir horas a mano (Add hours manually), for example for someone who worked without the app. Anything reviewed or entered by hand stays fixed; Recalcular día (Recalculate day) returns it to the automatic calculation. Everything pending across all WOs is in Horas por revisar (Hours to review), in the administrator menu.

Forms and Photos

Formularios shows the responses the technician has sent from the app. It does not appear for system maintenance types that do not carry forms. Fotos shows the WO's photographs; clicking one opens the gallery, which you browse with the arrows.

Activity tab

The Actividad tab tells you what has happened to the WO. It reloads every time you open it.

The Fechas (Dates) block shows the Inicio previsto and the Fin previsto, the arrival detected by the geofence, and the actual start and end with their source. Tiempo en curso adds up the stretches between each start or resumption and the next pause or closure, without counting pauses or nights.

The Actividad block is the timeline, from most recent to oldest:

Geofence: arrival and departure

With staff tracking contracted, Maptainer detects when an assigned technician arrives in the WO's zone (less than 200 m from an asset, the point or the area) and when they leave.

• The geofence never changes the status. On arrival, the app asks the technician whether they want to start or resume the WO; it is their decision.
• When they leave with the WO in progress, the app asks them whether they want to close it. Depending on the configuration, the supervisor is also notified.
• If a WO is still in progress with the technician in the zone and the phone stops sending positions, it is flagged for review.

The only automatic status change is the end-of-day pause: with staff tracking, 15 minutes after the end of the technician's shift, their WOs in progress move to Pausada.

The parameters (minimum accuracy, points and minutes to confirm, departure radius, no-GPS alert, simulated positions) are adjusted in Configuración General → Geovalla de órdenes de trabajo (Work order geofence). Each parameter has its explanation on screen.

In the activity, anyone with permission to view staff can click Ver en el mapa on an arrival or departure. The entry and exit zones and the GPS points around the crossing are drawn. Quitar del mapa (Remove from map) clears them. An arrival confirmed with simulated positions is marked “Con posiciones simuladas” (With simulated positions).

Revert an automatic start

Older WOs may have starts made by the geofence when it still did this on its own. Their card shows Auto and the record shows “Iniciada automáticamente” (Started automatically). If it was a mistake:

1. In Actividad, find the arrival and click Revertir (Revert). You need the close permission.
2. Enter the reason and confirm.

The WO returns to its previous status, the actual start time set by the geofence is deleted and the arrival no longer counts towards durations. For a resumption, the WO returns to Pausada.

Record buttons

The edit form has the same Cancelar orden button. When you confirm, the message repeats the saved reason.

Validate and close

Closure depends on your lifecycle. In the full cycle:

1. The technician finishes in the app and the WO arrives as Completada. It can also be completed from the web with Completar.
2. The supervisor reviews the record: tasks, forms, photos, materials and activity.
3. If it is correct, click Acciones → Validar and confirm. If something is missing, Reabrir (Reopen) returns it to En Curso.
4. When appropriate (for example, when invoicing), Cerrar. A Cerrada WO no longer changes status.

The map's Por validar counter lists the completed WOs awaiting this step. In the supervised cycle it is called Por cerrar and step 3 does not exist: Completada moves to Cerrada.

Customer signature. If the customer's signature policy requires it, a WO cannot move to Completada, Validada or Cerrada without the signature or a signature exception recorded in the app. “La orden … requiere la firma del cliente o una excepción de firma antes de completarla” (Order … requires the customer's signature or a signature exception before it is completed) appears. Quick reports from the phone are exempt.

Mandatory forms. A WO with an uncompleted mandatory form cannot move to Completada, Validada or Cerrada; it can be cancelled. “No se puede …” (Cannot …) appears with the list of the missing ones. See Mandatory forms and WO closure.

Customer approval. If the customer has Exigir su conformidad para cerrar (Require their approval to close) enabled, the WO does not move to Cerrada without their “Conforme” (Approved) approval in the portal, or tacit approval once the time limit has passed. Their latest response counts. When you click Cerrar, “Falta la conformidad del cliente” (Customer approval missing) appears; the batch and the app do not close it either. The record of a finished WO carries the badge Pendiente de conformidad (Approval pending), Cliente conforme (Customer approved), Conformidad tácita (Tacit approval) or Cliente no conforme (Customer not approved) (or Sin conformidad del cliente (No customer approval) if it is not required). A non-approval does not change the status: it notifies you in the bell and you decide whether to reopen it. See Customer approval.

Cancel

Cancelling closes a WO that is not going to be done. It is only possible from Pendiente, En Curso or Pausada, and it cannot be undone.

1. In the ⋯ menu, click Cancelar orden….
2. Enter the Motivo de cancelación (Cancellation reason) (required).
3. Click Confirmar cancelación (Confirm cancellation).

Actual dates to review

This administrator screen gathers the WOs whose actual start or end dates do not add up, so you can correct them. It opens from Ir al administrador (Go to administrator) → Fechas reales por revisar (Actual dates to review), in the Configuración (Settings) group, which only the Administrador role sees.

At the top there is a summary by type of problem; clicking one filters the list. You can also filter with Incidencia (Issue), and Incluir revisadas (Include reviewed) shows those already reviewed.

Each row has three actions:

• Ver OT (View WO): opens the record.
• Corregir: lets you change Inicio real and Fin real (Actual end), in the WO's time zone, with a Motivo (Reason) of at least 5 characters. If the dates still do not add up, a warning is shown.
• Revisada (Reviewed): accepts the date as correct with an optional note. The WO leaves the list until a new problem appears.

Viewing the screen only requires viewing WOs; Corregir and Revisada require the close permission.

Common problems

Last updated: OCT 2, 2026