Planning Hierarchical Work Orders

The article Creating Sub Work Orders explains how to split a Work Order into a Work Order and Sub Work Orders. This article shows you how to plan these hierarchically structured Work Orders — both in the Work Order detail view and in the Scheduling Board.

Since every Sub Work Order has its own Performing Person and its own schedule, you can plan every Asset within a Work Order independently of the others.

On the Main Work Order, the Sub Work Orders tab shows all Work Orders that have been nested under it.

On the Sub Work Order itself, you can see the relationship directly in the ID row at the top: the ID of the Work Order appears before the ID of the Sub Work Order (e.g. WO-193118 / WO-193119).

For a detailed overview of the Work Order detail page, see the article The Work Order Detail Page.

You can add a schedule to the Work Order as well as to each individual Sub Work Order. Whether you schedule only the Sub Work Orders or the Work Order as well is up to you.

Alternatively, you can schedule a Sub Work Order directly from the Work Order's Sub Work Orders tab: click the Sub Work Order in the list to open the Work Order preview and set the schedule there.

Sub Work Orders show up in the regular Scheduling Board — there's no separate view for them. As long as a Sub Work Order hasn't been scheduled yet, you'll find it on the right under Unscheduled Work Orders, just like any other Work Order. Use the search to look for it specifically, for example by the Work Order's subject. Alternatively, use the Hierarchy filter to find all Sub Work Orders of a specific Main Work Order.

A Sub Work Order can be recognized in this list by a small hierarchy icon next to the info icon. If you drag it onto a slot in the calendar, this icon remains visible on the scheduled bar as well — hovering over it shows a tooltip reading "Work Order has Main Work Order".

You schedule a Sub Work Order the same way as any other Work Order: by dragging it from the unscheduled Work Orders onto the desired person and day. This works regardless of whether the associated Work Order itself has already been scheduled — the Main Work Order and its Sub Work Orders can be placed on the calendar individually and independently of each other.

If you enable the Show Hierarchy option from the three-dot menu in the Scheduling Board, the relationship is displayed with connecting lines.

For more on the Scheduling Board in general, see the following articles:

Do I have to schedule both the Main Work Order and all of its Sub Work Orders? No. You can freely decide whether to schedule only individual Sub Work Orders, all Sub Work Orders, or the Work Order as well.

How can I tell in the Scheduling Board that a Work Order is a Sub Work Order? By the small hierarchy icon next to the Work Order — both among the unscheduled Work Orders and once the Work Order has a slot in the calendar. Hovering over it shows the tooltip "Work Order has a Work Order."

Can I schedule a Sub Work Order without scheduling the Main Work Order? Yes. Both can be scheduled independently of each other — so you can, for example, assign only the Sub Work Orders to individual technicians and time slots, without the Work Order itself needing its own slot.

Can I assign Sub Work Orders to different technicians? Yes. Every Sub Work Order has its own Performing Person — so you can, for example, have several Assets within one Work Order handled in parallel by different technicians.