Work order categories let you classify work orders and work order requests by type, for example as maintenance, malfunction repair or inspection. Each category can define default values that are transferred to the document when the category is selected. This saves you from entering recurring information manually every time.
Work order categories are also used for:
- Automatic email notifications: emails are only sent for documents whose category allows sending.
- Reporting: several work order reports can be filtered and grouped by category.
- The maintool app: when creating a work order in the app, the category is a mandatory field.
Fields of a work order category
| Field | Meaning |
| Code | Unique code of the category, e.g. MAINTENANCE. |
| Description | Name of the category. It also appears in the subject of the email sent when a work order request is registered. |
| Def. Type of Activity | Type of activity transferred to the document. |
| Def. Malfunction Code | Malfunction code transferred to the document. |
| Def. Work Order Posting Group | Work order posting group transferred to the document. |
| Global dimensions 1 and 2 | Default dimension values for the two global dimensions. The field names depend on your dimension setup, e.g. Department (set up via General Ledger Setup). |
| Def. Further Job Costing | Specifies that work orders in this category are charged on by default. |
| Send E-Mail | Allows automatic email notifications for documents in this category. |
Setup
- Open the page
Use the search (Alt+Q) to find Work Order Categories and open the page. - Create a category
Choose New and fill in the Code and Description fields. - Define default values
Fill in the default fields that are to apply to this category. Empty fields are not transferred. - Set up dimensions (optional)
If further dimensions besides the two global dimensions are to be prefilled, select the category and choose the Dimensions action. Enter all required dimension values there. - Enable email notifications (optional)
Enable Send E-Mail if emails are to be sent automatically for documents in this category. The remaining setup is described in the article on automatic email notifications.
Which default values are transferred where?
When you select a category in the Work Order Category Code field of a document, maintool transfers the category's default values. Which values are transferred depends on the document:
| Document | Transferred default values |
| Work order, work order feedback | Type of activity, malfunction code, work order posting group, further job costing, dimensions |
| Work order request | Malfunction code, dimensions |
| Time schedule | Type of activity, work order posting group, further job costing, dimensions |
| Contract | Type of activity, work order posting group, dimensions |
| Work plan | Type of activity |
If the document already contains different values, maintool asks whether the category's default values should be transferred. If you confirm, the existing values are overwritten.
| Note: If the category has dimensions, they replace all dimensions in the document. Lines that already exist in the document keep their previous dimensions. Therefore, select the category before entering lines whenever possible. |
Things to keep in mind
- The category is only evaluated when it is selected. If you change the default values of a category later, existing documents remain unchanged.
- If you remove the category from a document, the transferred values are retained.
- Def. Futher Job Costing is only transferred if the field is enabled. A category without further job costing does not turn off further job costing in a document.
- In a work order, you can only change the category as long as the work order has not yet been opened.
- If a work order is created from a work order request, it takes over the request's category together with its default values. If dimensions are also to be transferred, the request's dimensions apply.
- If a work order is created from a time schedule or an object monitoring line, it takes over the values of the time schedule. The category's default values are not applied again.