How to Allocate a Single Work Order to a Mechanic

Allocating a work order tells Latner who is doing the job, so the mechanic sees it on their list and the workshop can plan the day around it.

Overview

Every work order starts life unallocated, and somebody has to decide who picks it up. In Latner that decision lives on the work order itself: set the Fulfillment, choose a Mechanic, and the work order is theirs.

A work order has one primary mechanic. Extra hands are added separately as secondary technicians.
Choosing a Mechanic moves the Tech Status from Unallocated to Allocated on its own. You never set that status by hand.
The Mechanic dropdown lists every active skilled person, so anyone set up as a skilled person can take a work order.
Allocating and scheduling are two different things. Allocating names the mechanic; scheduling gives the job a start and end time, and that happens on the Service Allocation screen.
Switching Fulfillment to External replaces the Mechanic field with a Supplier field, for work you send out to a contractor.

Before You Begin

Allocating is a permission-gated action, and the person you are allocating to has to exist as a skilled person first.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Work Order screen permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, then Service › Screen. Lets you open Service › Work Orders.
Edit Work Order permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, then Service › Option. Required to save any change to a work order.
Assign Work Order Technician permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, then Service › Option. Unlocks the Fulfillment and Mechanic fields.
Service Allocation screen permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups, then Service › Screen. Only needed for the scheduling step.
The mechanic set up as a skilled person	Service › Configuration › Skilled Persons. The person must be Active to appear in the dropdown.
A work order in Open status	Service › Work Orders. The Mechanic field is read-only once a work order is completed or cancelled.

The Assign Work Order Technician permission on the Service Manager group. Without it the Fulfillment and Mechanic fields stay greyed out, with a tooltip explaining why

Only Field Technician and Workshop Technician skilled persons appear as lanes on the Service Allocation screen. Someone whose only role is Driver or Yard can still be picked in the Mechanic dropdown, but you will not be able to schedule their job on the allocation board.

Allocating the Work Order

Step 1 - Find the work order

Go to Service › Work Orders and look for the jobs with a Tech Status of Unallocated. Click the work order number to open it.

The Work Orders screen. Tech Status is the column that tells you what still needs a mechanic

Step 2 - Check the Fulfillment

On the work order, scroll the General Details card down to Fulfillment. Leave it on Internal to allocate the job to one of your own mechanics. The field directly beneath it changes to suit: Mechanic for internal work, Supplier for external.

Fulfillment set to Internal with the Mechanic field still empty. Note that Scheduled Start Date and Scheduled End Date are greyed out here

Step 3 - Choose the mechanic

Click the Mechanic field. The card switches into edit mode, Cancel and Save appear in the card header, and a search box opens listing your active skilled persons. Type a name to narrow the list, then click the person you want.

The Mechanic dropdown open. Every active skilled person is listed, whatever their role

Step 4 - Save

Click Save in the General Details header. The Tech Status at the top of the page changes from Unallocated to Allocated, and the mechanic's name now sits in the Mechanic field.

Work order 13 allocated to Dwight Schrute. Tech Status has moved to Allocated, but the scheduled dates are still empty

Scheduling the Allocated Work Order

Allocating names the mechanic but does not book any time. Scheduled Start Date and Scheduled End Date are read-only on the work order on purpose - they are set by dragging the job onto the Service Allocation board.

Step 5 - Open the Service Allocation screen

Go to Service › Service Allocation. The panel on the left, Unscheduled Work Orders, groups work orders by due date. Your newly allocated work order is still in that list, because a job only leaves it once it has both a mechanic and a scheduled start and end time.

The allocated work order still sitting in Unscheduled Work Orders, grouped under its due date

Step 6 - Drag it onto the mechanic's row

Pick the day you want with the arrows or the Today button, switch the view selector to Daily for an hour-by-hour timeline, then drag the card from Unscheduled Work Orders onto the mechanic's row at the time the job should start. The block is created at the duration set in Security › Settings › Service › Service Scheduler Default Duration (Minutes), which is 120 minutes unless your organisation has changed it.

Once it is on the board you can drag the block to move it, drag its edge to resize it, and double-click it to jump back to the work order.

The Daily view with work scheduled across three mechanics. Dropping a card onto a row sets the mechanic and the scheduled times in one action

After Allocation

The work order's Tech Status is Allocated, and it shows that way on Service › Work Orders and in the Work Order Daybook.
The job appears in the mechanic's list on the mobile work order screen, so they can accept it and update their own tech status as they travel and work.
Once scheduled, the work order leaves Unscheduled Work Orders and shows as a block on the mechanic's row on the Service Allocation screen.
The Mechanic stays editable while the work order is Open, so reallocating is just a matter of picking someone else and saving again.

Dragging a scheduled block back into the Unscheduled Work Orders panel does more than clear the times. It removes the mechanic as well and puts the work order back to Unallocated. If you only meant to move the job to another day or another mechanic, drag the block to its new spot on the board instead of unscheduling it first.

FAQs

The Mechanic field is greyed out. Why?

Either you do not have the Assign Work Order Technician permission, in which case hovering the field shows "You do not have permission to Allocate Work Orders", or the work order is no longer Open. Completed and cancelled work orders cannot be reallocated until they are reopened.

Someone is missing from the Mechanic dropdown.

The dropdown only lists skilled persons with a status of Active. Check the person at Service › Configuration › Skilled Persons, and if they are not there at all they need to be set up as a skilled person first.

The mechanic has no row on the Service Allocation screen.

The board only shows skilled persons whose roles include Field Technician or Workshop Technician, and by default only those in your own branch. Tick Show All Mechanics to see mechanics from every branch, and add the missing role to the skilled person if they should be schedulable.

How do I allocate several work orders at once?

Use Service › Service Planning. On the Unallocated tab, tick the work orders you want, then pick a mechanic and enter a date and time. All the selected work orders are allocated and scheduled together.

How do I put a second mechanic on the same job?

Open the work order and choose Options › Assign Secondary Techs. This needs the Assign Secondary Technician permission, and the people already on the work order are excluded from the list. Secondary technicians appear on the Secondary Skilled Persons tab and get their own greyed-out block on their own row on the allocation board, which cannot be dragged.

How do I unallocate a work order?

Clear the Mechanic field on the work order and save. The Tech Status goes back to Unallocated. Changing Fulfillment from Internal to External does the same thing, because the mechanic is cleared when the work moves to a supplier.

Does reallocating reset the tech status?

No. Once a mechanic has moved the job past Allocated - to Accepted, Travelling or On Site - swapping the mechanic leaves that status where it is. Only clearing the mechanic sends it back to Unallocated.

What happens to the mechanic if a completed work order is reopened?

The mechanic is kept. Reopening sets the Tech Status back to Allocated if a mechanic or supplier is still on the work order, and to Unallocated if there is not.

Watch the Demo

Prefer to watch it? Step through the same flow here.