Help centre
How to use WorkOrders
Short, practical answers about setting up and running WorkOrders. If you can't find what you need, ask us and we'll write it up.
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Getting started
The first job on the board
Setting up your company, inviting your team, and getting your first real job on the board.
Getting work in
Every way a request turns into a job
Your own address, a mailbox you already run, the API, and your customers asking directly.
How work gets into WorkOrders
The four ways a request becomes a job (your own address, a mailbox you already have, the API, and your customers) and which one to pick.
Your own WorkOrders address
Every company gets an address at signup. Where to find it, what to do with it, and what happens to a message sent there.
Connect a Gmail mailbox
Step-by-step instructions for connecting a Gmail or Google Workspace inbox with a Google app password, including turning on 2-Step Verification first.
Connect any IMAP mailbox
How to connect a mailbox from any other provider. What to get from them first, the connect screen field by field, and what each error means.
Microsoft 365 and Outlook mailboxes
Microsoft no longer lets other programs read a mailbox with a password, so WorkOrders can't connect to one. Forward it to your WorkOrders address instead.
An email didn't become a job
Which emails never become jobs, why the same email arriving twice only makes one job, and how long to wait. Nothing is thrown away.
Raising jobs from another system
For when another system needs to create jobs itself. How to create an API key, and where to send the developer who builds the connection.
Running jobs
From the board to the van and back
Assigning, claiming, updating and closing work, in the office and out on site.
A work order, start to finish
The five statuses and their customer-facing names, assigning, completing, the health and safety note, deleting, and the board.
The emails WorkOrders sends
What a customer receives and when, what stays internal, what we send you about your own account, who mail comes from, and the per-person notification settings.
How long the job took
Where time on site is entered, where it shows up afterwards, and what it isn't meant for.
In the field
Using the app on site
Installing the app, signing in, taking a job, and everything else a technician can do on site without going back to the office.
The app on your phone
What the field app is, which phones it runs on, where to get it, and the few things you still need the website for.
Signing in on your phone
The code from your office first, then your own details. What the office gives you, what you see if a code is wrong, and what signing out clears.
Taking a job
A new job goes to every phone at once, and the first person to claim it gets it. How to claim one, the hours you set, and what the second person sees.
Updating a job from the van
Marking a job ongoing or completed, the note each asks for, and recording how long you were on site when you finish.
Photos and files from site
Adding a photo or a video to a job from the phone, what the office sees afterwards, and what happens when a send is interrupted.
Health and safety from the van
The health and safety note you can leave when you finish a job. Where it goes, who never sees it, and the list the office signs it off from.
When the app can't reach the office
What happens when you lose signal on a job. The offline strip, what still works, and which of the two buttons on the error screen to press.
Your customers
What your customers see
The emails customers get automatically as a job moves along, and the portal where they can see their jobs.
Organisations, customers and sites
Customers, the organisations they work for, and the sites you visit. What each one is, how sites are created from job addresses, and merging duplicates.
The customer portal
Where customers see their jobs without an account, the two kinds of link and why each is safe, and letting them raise requests if you switch that on.
Reports
Looking back at the work
Figures for any period, reports you can save and export, and a grid showing each technician's week.
Reports and saved views
The figures across the top, the five reports you already have, building one of your own, and getting any of them out as a spreadsheet.
The workload week
One row for each technician and one column for each day. Reading a week at a glance, which day a job appears on, and which row to check first.
Account and billing
Plans, seats, and who can change what
Subscriptions, invoices, and the difference between an owner, an administrator and everyone else.
Signing in securely
Two-factor authentication and passkeys for yourself, requiring two-factor for the whole company, and why a passkey doesn't meet that requirement.
Working for more than one company
Using one verified email address at two companies on WorkOrders. Switching between them, separate tabs, and each company's own two-factor rules.
Billing and plans
The free trial, the plans and their fixed monthly prices, changing plans, what happens if a payment fails, and cancelling.
Quick answers
The four questions people ask first, with short answers.
Do I have to connect a mailbox before I can use it?
What does the free trial cost, and do I need a card?
Who in my firm can change the settings?
Something isn't covered here.
You can try all of this on the free trial
Connect a mailbox, send a real email and watch it become a work order, then decide.