Managing work orders from creation to completion is a complex task. Having the right tool can make it much easier. We researched the top options using our advanced review methodology to find the best software for field service teams, manufacturing companies, property managers, and facilities maintenance teams.
- MaintainX: Best Overall
- UpKeep: Best for Facilities Maintenance
- Jobber: Best for Field Service Teams
- eMaint CMMS: Best for Manufacturers
- FMX: Best for Property Management
- Limble CMMS
- Fiix
- Maintenance Connection
- MicroMain
- Maintenance Care
1 MaintainX - Best Overall
Why We Chose It: MaintainX earned a score of 9.4 from us because it’s a maintenance and CMMS software with simple yet effective work order tools. We like that it automates work order generation through asset barcode scanning and QR codes. It also integrates with chat functionality for technicians and managers, so maintenance teams can collaborate and receive updates in real-time.
This web-based platform’s mobile app ensures easy accessibility for users on the go, enabling them to create work orders, track assets, and collaborate with their teams anywhere. We like that both the desktop and mobile versions are user-friendly for workers at all levels, facilitating quick updates and photo uploads directly from tablets and smartphones.
While advanced features like IoT sensor integrations are exclusive to Enterprise users, all MaintainX plans prioritize simplicity, mobility, and communication in work order management. Overall, it’s a solid choice for SMBs without extensive IT resources or maintenance teams, simply because it’s so easy to use.
2 UpKeep - Best for Facilities Maintenance
Why We Chose It: We gave UpKeep a score of 9.2 because it handles real-time work requests and integrated asset management. It’s a strong pick for maintenance and facilities teams because it gives technicians model details, warranty information, and maintenance history with a mobile-first approach. Because UpKeep offers an iOS and Android mobile app, maintenance teams can access work orders and interact with vendors or customers across multiple locations.
UpKeep offers a moderately priced CMMS solution, starting at $20 per user per month, making it accessible for small businesses to large enterprises. However, potential users should be mindful of the limitations in integrations and the absence of certain features in the free version when considering this work order software.
3 Jobber - Best for Field Service Teams
Why We Chose It: Jobber has a solid score of 8.9 in our books because it offers highly customizable work order management. Best for field service teams like HVAC technicians, electricians, and plumbers, it allows users to tailor job forms, checklists, and invoice schedules. It also integrates with existing tools like calendars and QuickBooks Online for a more unified workflow.
Like most work order software, Jobber has a mobile app for accessing job details, updating statuses, and communicating with the office. Beyond work order management, it handles client communication, scheduling, invoicing, and payment collection. However, our research shows that Jobber doesn’t make it easy to combine multiple visits or jobs for the same client into a single entry or appointment. That can be a problem because it complicates the scheduling process for both clients and service providers.
4 eMaint CMMS - Best for Manufacturers
Why We Chose It: eMaint CMMS is a good choice if you’re a mid-market to enterprise-level company in manufacturing. We gave it a 9.1 because it helps these organizations efficiently manage work orders, track assets, implement preventive maintenance, and optimize inventory. eMaint utilizes proprietary sensors to capture data from handheld tools and automatically store it in the system to monitor real-time asset conditions.
eMaint’s work order management tool can handle a high volume of requests by using standardized forms for work orders and allowing users to attach necessary documents, such as manuals and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This setup streamlines the process, ensuring all data is easily accessible and consistent across requests. However, eMaint’s complexity and pricing may present challenges for smaller companies.
5 FMX - Best for Property Management
Why We Chose It: We added FMX as a work order solution for property management, manufacturing, and education businesses. We like that it has the ability for building occupants to submit various work requests, from maintenance to technology tickets. Additionally, FMX makes it easy to manage work orders, schedule preventive maintenance tasks, and provide asset tracking necessary for facility operations.
Another advantage of FMX is the flexible pricing structure, which caters to different budgets, with a free trial available. On the other hand, we would caution against the software if you’re a very small business requiring a more app-centric or language-diverse solution.
6 Limble CMMS
Why We Chose It: Limble CMMS is a customizable work order solution with several features that can significantly enhance maintenance processes. It made our list because it’s fairly user-friendly, with visual dashboards to manage assets and monitor work orders. We also like the automated timer and task reminders to help streamline the logging process and improve productivity.
The availability of both desktop and mobile applications ensures accessibility from anywhere, promoting real-time maintenance options. However, Limble CMMS may not be the best fit for businesses with limited physical assets or those needing fleet management capabilities.
7 Fiix
Why We Chose It: Fiix earns a solid 8.7 from us because it helps optimize maintenance operations, reduce equipment downtime, and extend the lifespan of assets. Creating a work order is relatively simple, and the order can specify the location, which asset requires work, and even the estimated completion time.
Fiix’s user-centric interface, scalable design, and security features make it a compelling option for maintenance management. It also offers a free version with 25 active PMs and limited users. During our demo, we found Fiix a little complex to navigate at times. But it’s still a good pick for organizations in hospitality, non-profit, and manufacturing needing cloud-based CMMS software.
8 Maintenance Connection
Why We Chose It: Maintenance Connection made our list because it offers comprehensive work order management for multi-site operations. We found prioritizing, reviewing, and tracking work orders across various sites easy. We also liked that the mobile app, MC Express, allows technicians to create, edit, and complete work orders directly from their smartphones or tablets.
Another highlight of Maintenance Connection is its preventive maintenance feature. It facilitates agile programs that reduce downtime and improve asset management with streamlined scheduling and execution. However, the software can be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses or those with tighter budgets, starting at $110/user/month.
9 MicroMain
Why We Chose It: Our demo of MicroMain showed a user-friendly CMMS software with visual work order scheduling. We like that it uses color-coded line graphs that make it easy to view work orders and due dates, avoiding overbookings. The work order forms are also quite customizable, with data fields and templates organizations can tweak to fit their workflows. However, this is a platform focused mainly on manufacturing, which can limit its applicability to other sectors. It also may not be the best fit for businesses needing integrated purchase order functionality or a large number of custom integrations for smart devices.
10 Maintenance Care
Why We Chose It: We picked Maintenance Care for small to midsize businesses in housekeeping, healthcare, education, government, and senior care. We like that it offers a free plan, though users won’t have access to the mobile app. However, you can still tailor the work order management system with online request forms and task lists for better communication across maintenance teams.
Maintenance Care includes a smart feature that prevents multiple requests for the same job. The software also offers a comprehensive overview of a facility’s assets, from small tools to large equipment and structural elements. However, its API is somewhat limited, so it might not be the best choice for those needing deep customization or extensive integration with third-party apps.
What Is Work Order Software?
Work order software allows you to create a trackable document identifying what work needs to be done and how it should be accomplished.
The underlying purpose of work order software is to help your maintenance department accomplish two critical business goals: complete quality work quicker and at less cost. One could even argue that the type of software could be easily interchanged as “maintenance management software.” An even more advanced type of work order software is CMMS software, which helps track the upkeep of assets and associated costs to prolong an asset’s lifespan.
Effective work order management software minimizes the friction between conveying and executing work instructions. It provides a valuable means for key decision-makers to analyze completed work to spot process inefficiencies, identify potential improvements, and improve the overall asset management of your company.
When Does a Business Need Work Orders?
The biggest difference in when you may require a work order depends on the timing of the repair. This is a maintenance management decision your business needs to make based on their abilities, as all businesses will have varying levels of success with different methods.
For the most part, you’ll be handling maintenance requests either before or after a problem has occurred:
- Preventive Maintenance: Occurs before a problem has arose. Helps businesses service equipment regularly to ensure the equipment maintains satisfactory operating conditions and lessens the likelihood of failure. Saves time on unplanned corrective maintenance.
- Corrective Maintenance: Occurs after a problem has arose. Identifies and fixes failed equipment so it can be returned to operating status.
What Software Has Work Order Functionality?
Work order management is a functionality found as a stand-alone software, as module included in an enterprise resource planning software (ERP), or included as a feature of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
- Stand-alone options: When a company already has an existing framework in place (such as a financial management system), companies will look to add on what they need with a single-module solution. These options will provide the core work order management functionality, such as receiving requests and order creation, basic scheduling, and reporting.
- ERP solutions with work order functionality: Companies that require fully integrated solutions will want to ensure work order management is a functionality being provided by their ERP system. Field service companies scheduling work will want a work order module integrated with scheduling and dispatch management. This will ensure the right employees are assigned to jobs and that you do not have to key information into multiple systems.
- CMMS software with work order functionality: CMMS software helps ensure the operational health of your equipment. Its primary goal is to lower the overall maintenance cost for your organization for efficient asset management. CMMS software uses work orders to create documents that can be tracked and to identify the work that needs to be done. Unlike corrective maintenance, work orders are generated for predictive and preventative maintenance purposes, creating them on a recurring scheduled basis.
Features of Work Order Software
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important features and capabilities of a complete work order management program:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Work order requests and order creation | Templating and guided order entry tools can greatly improve the ability of employees to rapidly and accurately convey work requests and instructions. This most basic step is leveraged for efficiency in work order management systems. |
| Rules-based approval management | Two fundamental concepts are utilized by work order solutions when managing approvals: access control and conditional logic. Access control allows only certain employees to have higher-level privileges within the software (such as approving work orders or scheduling resources). Conditional logic can be employed to automate much of the approvals process. |
| Scheduling and resource allocation | Work order management solutions can maintain a database of information that identifies what equipment and materials are required to complete each type of job. Similarly, a work order program will let you identify which employees are qualified for what type of work. A capable work order system will include calendaring tools to optimize equipment and labor resource usage and avoid double booking. |
| Change orders | Work orders are not always static documents. Changes to the scope of work or completion method can occur after the work order has been created. A comprehensive work order management program will include the capability to manage change orders. |
| Status updates and completion monitoring | Visibility into the completion of jobs is an important part of the value of a strong work order management solution. The ability to benchmark key intervals in the completion of work and report on the attainment of those benchmarks helps stakeholders in the work anticipate completion. Accurately predicting work completion can be a critical part of ensuring customer satisfaction. |
| Reporting | A work order management system gives you a rich data source about your operational efficiency. Reporting tools in the work order tracking system help you turn this data into actionable information for improving your processes. Reporting tools can help you monitor key performance indicators on completed work, such as error rates, adherence to quality standards, and time to completion. Tracing this information back to who performed the work, with what equipment, and following which processes provide insight into where improvements can be made. |
| Web-based work order requests | With some work order situations, allowing 3rd parties to initiate work order requests can be advantageous. The most common method of meeting this need is to set up a web-based portal for customers, subcontractors, or business partners to access when needed. A web-enabled work order request portal represents a more sophisticated functionality and is a feature that won’t be found in all work order management systems. |
| Remote and mobile access | If your company is performing work in the field, remotely accessing work order information is critical. It can make you more profitable. Often, this means accessing data via smartphones or tablet devices. To meet this need, many providers have optimized their solutions for mobile web access or developed native mobile applications to extend important functionality to mobile users. |
Benefits of Work Order Management Systems
Work order management can help you meet a variety of organizational goals related to your work order process, such as improving customer service and increasing operational efficiency, including:
More Efficient Approvals Processes
Work order approvals are an important part of the work management cycle. For instance, work coded to specific areas may require different levels of approval. The level of sophistication found in different work order tracking solutions can vary widely and is an important aspect to consider when reviewing products.
Optimize Equipment and Labor Resources
Determining who does work, what is required to complete it, and when it should be done is an important task within work order management. To save time, work order management programs offer a variety of tools to manage scheduling and resource allocation.
Faster Turnaround Times
A robust work order system can decrease turnaround times, improve customer satisfaction, and complete work quicker via two main methods.
First, a work order management system that promotes visibility into your processes can help you spot and address opportunities to complete work quicker—often in real-time. Second, an intuitive, easy-to-use work order management module reduces the administrative overhead related to processing work orders.
The result is that you can more quickly and accurately convey often complicated instructions with fewer communication-related delays.
Decreased Downtime
Poor management of work orders can lead to overlapping demands on equipment and employees at some times and idle resources at others. The ability to manage resource scheduling allows for the optimization of your resources and decreased downtime. When work orders are used as part of CMMS software, preventative maintenance will decrease downtime.
More Accurate Timeline Updates for Customers
Knowing where a job is in the work cycle isn’t important internally, but is key for maintaining customer satisfaction.
Accurately predicting work timelines based on historical information and real-time resource availability means fewer customer disappointments due to timeline overruns. Transparency into work completion status also means that in the instances where you exceed completion timelines, you can identify the issue much quicker and proactively address it.
Lower Equipment Costs
How does a capable work order management software system lower equipment costs? Mainly by helping companies make more out of less equipment.
When resource allocation is not optimized, often the easy answer is to acquire more resources to prevent bottlenecks in equipment availability. While that can be an easy answer, it’s often not the most cost-effective one.
A work order management module can help ensure that load-sharing and equipment scheduling maximize resource use before purchasing additional ones.
Improved Quality Control
While promoting efficiency is a core benefit of work order tracking, gains in quality outcomes shouldn’t be underrated. Work order management capabilities can eliminate much of the guesswork that can lead to poor-quality manufacturing and service work.
For example, work order management programs can store documents such as equipment manuals, schematics, and process instructions. Providing an easy-to-use tool to communicate work orders greatly increases the likelihood that instructions are fully detailed, received, and executed.
CMMS software allows your maintenance department to submit requests before they are needed. With a goal of preventative maintenance, CMMS functionality should improve quality control through better maintenance management.
The tracking tools that monitor key performance indicators provide a mechanism for enforcing adherence to quality standards and increasing employee accountability.
Integration Requirements
Work order management doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Frequently, data must be passed between your work order management module and other corporate information systems.
For instance, your work order management system may identify parts or materials requirements, but you must check with the inventory control system for availability. In some cases, you may need to initiate purchase requests to acquire the inventory. Communicating customer order status data may entail links with invoicing or customer relationship management (CRM) modules.
Different work order systems have different integration and data export capabilities. Assessing whether or not real-time or batch integration capabilities are needed, and which systems will accommodate the required approach is an important part of evaluating work order software.
Industry-Specific Work Order Applications
Different work order solutions exist on the market, designed for companies doing all sorts of different work. But there are industry-specific sub-categories of work order management that bear a closer look, in terms of understanding how they are optimized for particular industry requirements.
- Delivery and travel-related work order management. Having vehicles in the field introduces several additional requirements. Work order systems can include routing and dispatching capabilities. Features such as GPS tracking on mobile apps and managing truck inventories are common elements of solutions designed for businesses with delivery or vehicle-based needs.
- Custom manufacturing. Manufacturing-oriented work order programs differ from service-oriented options in some significant respects. For example, incorporating or communicating a bill of materials required for completing a given order is an important part of manufacturing work order management. Quality management is often of elevated importance in manufacturing work order management. Features designed to coordinate product inspections and quality assessment are a hallmark of a work order program optimized for the manufacturing environment. CMMS solutions can also help ensure the machines used in manufacturing remain as close to 100% uptime as possible.
- Facilities maintenance. Another common utilization of work order software is managing facilities’ work. Location-based tracking capabilities are often important for tracking maintenance work. For a property management company, identifying where the work was performed, for which tenant, and which owner is responsible for costs is an important dimension of successful work order management.
Trends in Work Order Management
Improved Enterprise Asset Management with IoT. Asset management software has an increasing potential for utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) in asset tracking. Field service organizations have found that technicians can solve 10% of customer-reported issues without an on-site visit. This level of automation is expected to grow and improve asset performance management for all levels of customers.
The rise of mobile device accessibility. Businesses providing off-site service-based work need to identify support needed off-site. In addition, they’ll need to be synced with other field service tasks such as dispatching and GPS tracking. Employees can be far more efficient if they can check for new jobs while in the field via a mobile app and get customer approvals without leaving the job site. Management can have a better understanding of how long workers take to complete jobs in the field and have a more open path of communication when images or other files need to be sent back to the office. Teams can complete up to 30% more work orders by using a mobile solution.
Robotics & Automation. Robots are already being used to clean facilities. Automated processes may improve to the point that tasks and work orders may be triggered based on a worker’s location.
Pain Points of Work Order Software
Properly prioritizing maintenance requests. When work requests come in, it can be overwhelming for a facilities manager to decide when and in what order an issue should be handled. A small business may lack the personnel to get to everything as needed. The circumvent this, a business should categorize work orders as follows: Emergencies (drop everything), High (do this after your current job), Safety (hazards in the workplace), Low (simple requests), and Scheduled (planned in advanced).
Difficulty digitalizing work orders. With the recent desire for mobile-based solutions, field service companies still dealing with manual paperwork may be hard-pressed to change to a new solution. The conversion process to go digital seems beneficial but can be a hill to climb for some businesses with historical records.
Taking the Next Steps
If you are ready to find which work order software options are right for you, we can help. Through a brief phone call, our software specialists will help you locate a handful of solutions that can address the issues you are experiencing. Get started today!
