Work order vs job vs job card: the same work, three documents
A job is the work. A work order is the instruction to do it. A job card is the record of what was done. How the three fit together, and when a small business needs all of them.
By Primemgr TeamHow we research and check this
A job is the piece of work a customer wants done. A work order is the instruction that authorises someone to do it: what, where, when and by whom. A job card is the record, filled in on site, of what was actually done, the time taken and the materials used. Large organisations keep them as separate documents. Most small service businesses are better off keeping them as one record that changes as the job moves along.
The three side by side
Job | Work order | Job card | |
|---|---|---|---|
Answers | What does the customer want? | Who does what, where and when? | What was actually done? |
Written by | The office, from the enquiry | The office or a supervisor | The technician on site |
Written when | At the first call or the accepted quote | Before the work is scheduled | During and after the visit |
Typical contents | Customer, address, description, price | Tasks, assignee, date, parts, access notes | Time on site, materials, notes, photos, sign-off |
Feeds into | The quote and the invoice | The schedule | The invoice and the service history |
Why larger organisations split them
In a maintenance department or a big contractor, the person who approves the work, the person who plans it and the person who does it are different people, sometimes in different companies. A separate work order is the authorisation: it says the work is approved and chargeable to a budget. Wikipedia’s summary of work orders describes this: a task for a customer that can be scheduled or assigned to someone.
Why small businesses usually should not
When the same three or ten people take the call, book the work and do it, three separate documents means typing the same address three times and three places for it to be wrong. The work order and the job card become stages of the job rather than documents of their own:
- Enquiry: the job is created with the customer and what they want.
- Quoted and accepted: the price is agreed; the accepted quote is attached.
- Scheduled: someone is assigned with a date and time. This is the work order stage.
- On site: the technician records time, materials, notes, photos and a checklist. This is the job card stage.
- Done: the customer signs off, and the job becomes an invoice.
Each stage adds to one record, so the history of a job reads top to bottom: what was asked for, what was agreed, who went, and what they did.
What must be on the record at each stage
- Before scheduling: the site address, access notes, the customer’s contact number and the scope.
- Before the visit: the assigned person, the time window, and parts or equipment to bring.
- Before leaving site: time on site, materials used, what was found, photos, and anything left for next time.
- Before invoicing: the sign-off, and any extra work agreed on site with the customer’s approval.
The free work order generator prints a work order with these fields, including space for time, materials and the sign-off.
How Primemgr handles it
In Primemgr a job is one record from the first call to the invoice. It carries the customer, site and equipment, the assigned people and times, the checklists filled in on a phone, notes, photos and files, time entries and materials, and the quote and invoice it links to. The stages are statuses your business names for itself, so an automotive workshop and a cleaning business do not have to share the same words.
Choosing a system for this is covered in job management vs project management. Glossary: work order, job card, dispatch.
Official guidance
- Going online and digital (business.gov.au (Australia))
- Small business guide (U.S. Small Business Administration)