Maintenance
Work order
A controlled record that defines maintenance work, responsibility, priority, authorization, status, evidence, cost, and closeout.
Glossary
Maintenance
A work order turns a reported condition or planned task into an owned maintenance record. It should identify the property and location, issue, requester, access and safety information, priority, assigned party, approved scope and limit, status, dates, cost, and completion evidence.
A tenant message, maintenance request, estimate, vendor dispatch, invoice, and completed work order are different records. Keeping them linked prevents a request from being treated as a repair and a sent email from being treated as vendor acceptance.
Example: “sink leaking” begins as intake. Triage documents severity and shutoff guidance; authorization defines scope and spend; dispatch records vendor acknowledgement; closeout retains photos, invoice, resident confirmation where appropriate, and any follow-up.
Useful status model
Use observable states such as reported, triaged, awaiting approval, assigned, vendor acknowledged, scheduled, in progress, blocked, completed pending review, closed, and reopened. Record who changed the state and why.
Closeout standard
Confirm the approved scope was performed, safety or habitability follow-up is resolved, evidence and invoice match, warranties or asset history are updated, the resident receives an appropriate update, and unresolved work becomes a new owned item.