Managing Work Order Assignments and Costs

Adding a Work Order Assignment or Cost

You can add cost items to a work order either as assignments or costs.

• Assignments are the cost item arrangement for the work order. They do not comprise the total work order cost but can be converted into costs.

• Costs are the actual spending on a work order and comprise the total work order cost.

You can add cost items to a work order manually, or use cost items available on the work order template. Your agency administrator pre-defines cost items on work order templates. For information on how to set up new costing items or associate costing with a work order template, see your agency administrator.

Topics

• Looking Up Cost Items to Add Assignments or Costs

• Looking Up Cost Groups to Add Assignments or Costs

• Adding a New Assignment or Cost

Looking Up Cost Items to Add Assignments or Costs

You can search the cost items defined by your agency administrator and add them as assignments or costs into a work order.

To look up cost items and add assignments or costs

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to add assignments or costs to.

   Civic Platform displays the work order detail portlet.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Click Look Up.

4. Select Look up by Cost Item from the drop-down menu.

   Civic Platform displays detail fields associated with the cost item.

   
   

   

   
   

5. Choose an option from the Cost Type drop-down list and/or complete the fields associated with the cost item you are searching for.

6. Click Submit.

   Civic Platform returns a list of work order cost items matching your search parameters.

7. If you are adding a single cost item, select the cost item you want to associate with the work order, complete the fields with available data (see Costing Fields for field definitions). If you are adding multiple cost items, go to the next step.

   If you are assigning an asset or human resource to the work order, you can select the asset or human resource, and then click Resource Calendar to view the availability of the asset or human resource. The calendar displays in day, week, or month view.

   
   

   

   
   

8. If you are adding multiple cost items,

   1. Select the first cost item you want to associate with the work order and complete the fields with available data. See Costing Fields for field definitions. Use the Resource Calendar to view the availability of the assets or human resources as needed (see previous step).

   2. Select the next cost item that you want to associate with the work order.

      The following fields auto-populate, provided you entered data into the same fields for the previous cost item, and provided you have not entered data into the current cost item fields: Work Order Task, Type, Quantity, Date, Start Time, End Time, and All Day Event checkbox.

      Note: When you select the next cost item, the values from the previous cost item are auto-populated to the new item unless the newly marked item had previously entered data. Previously entered data is not overwritten. EXAMPLE: Cost item one is added as Type = Assignment, Quantity = 1, and Start/End times = 3:00pm-4:00pm. Cost item two has the same values for all of the fields, so when you mark the box to select the second item, all of the item one data values copy to the item two fields. Cost item three has the same values for all the fields except for Quantity. For Cost item three, Quantity = 5. Enter 5 in the Quantity field, then check the box to select the third item. All of the item two data values except for Quantity copy to the item three fields.

   3. You can accept the auto-populated data, and repeat the previous step for subsequent cost items that you want to add, or you can modify the one or more of the values in the fields for the new cost item.

9. Click Select.

   Civic Platform creates an association between the selected assignment and cost items and the work order, and it displays them in a list.

Looking Up Cost Groups to Add Assignments or Costs

If you work frequently with certain cost items, you can apply the cost group management functionality to group the cost items as needed. This enables you to look up and add costs by group, adding each cost item in the group to work orders in a single step.

To look up cost groups and add assignments or costs

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to add assignments or costs to.

   Civic Platform displays the work order detail portlet.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Click Cost Group Management.

   Civic Platform opens a new Cost Group Management window displaying a list of existing cost groups.

   
   

   

   
   

4. If necessary, add a new cost group

   1. Click New.

   2. Specify the cost group name in the Cost Group Detail tab, and click Submit.

   3. Select the Cost Item tab, and click Look Up to search for cost items you plan to add in the cost group.

   4. Select the cost item(s) you want to add, and click Select.

   5. Close the Cost Group Management window, return to the Work Order Details portlet.

5. Click Look up.

6. Select Look up by Cost Group from the drop-down menu.

   Civic Platform displays the cost group selection drop-down list.

   
   

   

   
   

7. Choose the cost group name you want to use, and click Submit.

   Civic Platform returns a list of all work order cost items in the cost group. You can use the auto-populate feature to add multiple cost items quickly and efficiently.

8. If the cost items you are adding have similar data (such as Work Order Task, Type, Quantity, Date, Start Time, End Time, and/or All Day Event), do the following:

   1. Select the first cost item you want to associate with the work order and complete the fields with available data. See Costing Fields for field definitions.

      If you are assigning assets or human resources to the work order, you can select the assets or human resources, and then click Resource Calendar to view the availability of the assets or human resources in a calendar. The calendar displays in date range view.

   2. Select the next cost item in the group that you want to associate with the work order.

      The following fields auto-populate, provided you entered data into the same fields for the previous cost item, and provided you have not entered data into the current cost item fields: Work Order Task, Type, Quantity, Date, Start Time, End Time, and All Day Event checkbox.

      Note: When you select the next cost item, the values of the cost item preceding the new item are auto-populated to the newly marked item unless the newly marked item had previously entered data. Previously entered data is not overwritten. EXAMPLE: Cost item one is added as Type = Assignment, Quantity = 1, and Start/End times = 3:00pm-4:00pm. Cost item two has the same values for all of the fields, so when you mark the box to select the second item, all of the item one data values copy to the item two fields. Cost item three has the same values for all the fields except for Quantity. For Cost item three, Quantity = 5. Enter 5 in the Quantity field, then check the box to select the third item. All of the item two data values except for Quantity copy to the item three fields.

   3. You can accept the auto-populated data, and repeat the previous step for subsequent cost items that you want to add, or you can modify the one or more of the values in the fields for the new cost item.

9. Double check the auto-populated values and make any needed adjustments.

10. Click Select.

    Civic Platform creates an association between the selected assignment and cost items and the work order, and it displays them in a list.

Adding a New Assignment or Cost

In some circumstances you may want to add a new assignment or cost to a work order directly.

To add a new assignment or cost

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to work with.

   Civic Platform displays the work order detail portlet.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Click New.

   Civic Platform displays the fields related to cost items.

4. Select the cost type and cost item, then set the type to Assignment or Cost.

5. Complete the fields with available data. See Costing Fields for field definitions.

   If you are assigning an asset or human resource to the work order, you can click the Show Calendar link next to the Date field to view the availability of the asset or human resource in a calendar. The calendar that displays is the same one shown on the Calendar tab of the Assets portlet.

6. Click Submit.

   Civic Platform creates an association for the selected assignment or cost item with the work order and displays the work order assignments and costs list.

Editing Work Order Assignments and Costs

You can edit the assignments and costs for a work order as needed, and as permitted.

To edit work order assignments and costs

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to work with.

   Civic Platform displays the detail of the work order selected.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Open the assignment or cost item you want to view or edit.

   Civic Platform displays detail fields associated with the cost item.

4. Make changes as needed. See Costing Fields for field definitions

5. Click Submit.

   Civic Platform returns a list of all cost items associated with the work order.

Deleting an Assignment or Cost Item from a Work Order

When a cost item is deleted, the association between the cost item and the work order is removed. However, the cost item is still available in the cost item definition list and you can use it to associate with other work orders and work order templates.

To delete a work order assignment or cost item

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to work with.

   Civic Platform displays the detail of the work order selected.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Select the cost item(s) you want to remove.

4. Click Delete.

   Civic Platform displays a message indicating record(s) deleted successfully.

Converting Assignments to Costs

When managing a work order, you may find that an assignment that is associated with the work order needs be converted to a cost.

To convert an assignment to cost

1. Navigate to the Work Orders portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to work with.

   Civic Platform displays the detail of the work order selected.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Select each assignment item that you want to convert to costs. You can select multiple assignments. However, if an assignment is converted to cost before, you cannot do it again.

4. Click Convert to Cost.

   Civic Platform displays a Usage/Time Tracking window.

   
   

   

   
   

5. Enter the usage/time tracking information for the cost item, and click Submit.

   Civic Platform generates a cost item for each selected assignment while still keeping the assignment entry.

Creating Cost Groups

Some cost items may always work together, you can group them for convenience. You can manage cost groups in either the Work Orders or Asset Condition Assessment portlet.

To create a Cost Group

1. Navigate to the Work Orders or Asset Condition Assessment portlet and use Search to locate and select the work order you want to work with.

   Civic Platform displays the work order detail portlet.

2. Click the Assignments and Costs tab.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing assignment and cost items associated with the work order.

3. Click Cost Group Management.

   Civic Platform displays a list of existing cost group and cost items associated with the work order.

4. Click New.

5. Specify the cost group name and click Submit.

   Civic Platform creates a cost group.