The Maintenance Job Workflow
A maintenance job moves through a fixed set of states, and each move is an action with its own button, its own popup and its own permission. That separation is what lets a supervisor approve and close work while a technician starts and completes it, without either being able to do the other's part.
The states
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Pending Approval | Raised, waiting for someone to agree it should happen. |
| Approved | Agreed, not yet given to anyone. |
| Assigned | With a named employee or contractor. |
| In Progress | Being worked on. |
| Completed | The work is done. |
| Closed | Signed off and finished with. |
| Cancelled | Abandoned — it will not be done. |
The actions
| Action | From | To | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve | Pending Approval | Approved | Approve, Close and Cancel Jobs |
| Assign / Re-assign | Any open state, including In Progress | Assigned | Maintenance Jobs |
| Start Work | Any open state | In Progress | Service Logs and Spare Parts |
| Mark Completed | In Progress | Completed | Service Logs and Spare Parts |
| Close | Completed | Closed | Approve, Close and Cancel Jobs |
| Cancel | Any open state | Cancelled | Approve, Close and Cancel Jobs |
| Reopen | Completed, Closed or Cancelled | In Progress | Approve, Close and Cancel Jobs |
Only the actions a job can take right now, by the user looking at it, are shown. A button that is missing means either the job is in the wrong state for it or you do not have the permission — the view does not offer actions that would then be refused.
Running without approval
New jobs need approval in General settings changes the shape of the workflow:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| On | A new job starts Pending Approval, and work cannot start until it is approved or assigned. |
| Off | Work can start on a job the moment it is raised. The Approve step still exists but is no longer a gate. |
Small teams generally turn it off — the approval step costs more in delay than it saves in control when the person raising the job is the person doing it. Turn it on where maintenance spend needs signing off before it is incurred.
The log
Every action writes a line: what was done, the status before and after, who did it, when, and any memo given in the popup. The log is on the job view and cannot be edited. It is what the Job Card report prints as the history of the work.
Completing a job
Mark Completed asks for the completion date. It cannot be in the future. If the job came from a preventive schedule, completing it is what rolls the schedule forward to its next due date — see Preventive schedules.
Complete and Close are separate on purpose. Completed means the spanner is down; Closed means the costs are all in and somebody has checked the job. Parts and bills often arrive after the work is finished, which is why the gap between the two is useful.