Work order
A work order is a written instruction to carry out a defined piece of work at an agreed price, authorised before the work starts. It names the scope, the price, who authorised it and who is doing it.
In practice for trades
A quote asks for the work. A work order is the go-ahead. The distinction matters most on variations and reactive jobs, where work starts on a phone call and the paperwork never catches up. If scope and price were agreed verbally, there is nothing to point at when the invoice is queried.
Four fields carry the weight: what is being done, what it costs, who authorised it, and who it is assigned to. The authorisation is the one trades skip and the one that decides arguments. A named person who agreed a figure, on a dated document, is a different conversation from "your site manager said it was fine".
On commercial work the customer issues the work order to you as their instruction to proceed. On domestic and subcontract work you issue it yourself and have the customer sign it. Either way it fixes scope and price before the labour is spent.
Keep it distinct from the job sheet. A work order authorises work. A job sheet records it. A well-run job has both, and the pair is what makes an invoice hard to argue with.
Worked example
A landlord asks for extra second-fix sockets mid-job. A work order is issued for £1,850, scope listed, authorised by the letting agent by name and dated. The work is done, the job sheet records it, and the invoice is backed by both.
Related terms
- Job sheet: the record of the work once it is done
- Purchase order: the same idea pointed at goods rather than labour
- Quote vs estimate: whether the authorised price is fixed or indicative
Do it in FieldHive
Issue an instruction to start with agreed scope, price and authorised-by using the Work Order Generator.
Work Order Generator→
