What is the difference between a work order and a purchase order?

A work order authorises work to be carried out, usually by your own team for a customer. A purchase order commits you to buying goods or services from a supplier. One is about labour you supply, the other about materials you buy in.

Who raises a work order?

Usually the office or a dispatcher, after a customer request, a service agreement, or an inspection finding. In larger operations a client may raise it in a portal. In Omni Field a customer request submitted through the client portal can create the job directly.

Does a work order need a signature?

Not always, but it helps. A customer signature on completion is the cleanest evidence that the work was accepted, and it heads off disputes at invoicing. Omni Field captures a signature on screen and attaches it to the document without printing or scanning.

Work order

A work order is the instruction that authorises a specific piece of work. It names the customer, the site, what needs doing, when, and who is responsible. It is the document the technician works from and the office bills against, and it carries a status from raised through to completed and invoiced.

What a work order contains

A work order contains everything the technician needs and everything the office will later bill from. In practice that means the customer and contact details, the site address and access notes, a description of the fault or the scope, the priority, the scheduled window, the assigned technician, and the parts expected.

It also carries a status. Raised, scheduled, assigned, in progress, completed, invoiced. The status is what lets a coordinator answer a customer's question without phoning the van.

Work order compared with a job card

A work order authorises the work. A job card records what was actually done. The work order is written before the visit by the office, and the job card is completed during or after the visit by the technician.

They are often merged into one digital record, which is why the terms get used interchangeably. Keeping the distinction in mind still helps: the first is an instruction, the second is evidence.

Why work orders matter for getting paid

Work orders matter because they are the audit trail behind an invoice. When a client queries a charge three weeks later, the work order plus its completion evidence is what settles the question, and a settled question is a paid invoice.

In Omni Field the work order, the technician's on-site notes and photos, the customer signature and the invoice all hang off the same job, so the evidence is attached rather than searched for. Purchase orders and deposits sit on the same chain through document controls.

Common questions

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