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External Work Orders

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Feature availability by platform, plan type, and user type
Platform:AvailableWebAvailableMobile
Plan Type:Not availableBasicNot availableEssentialAvailablePremiumAvailableEnterprise
User Type:Not availableRequesterNot availableFull UserAvailableAdministrator

About External Work Orders​

External work orders are shareable work orders that you can send to people outside of your MaintainX® organization by email or through an external link.

Depending on how your organization uses MaintainX, external contacts are either:

  • Vendor contacts, when you outsource work to vendors set up in your organization. The vendor completes the external work order when they do the work.

    This lets your organization track work involving external contributors in the same place you track work done by team members in your organization.

  • Customer contacts, when your organization provides services and the Customers module is enabled. Your team does the work. Customer contacts follow progress and can mark the work as finished.

    This lets your organization update customers on the status of work in the same place your team tracks the work.

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  • In the MaintainX mobile application, external work orders are only available for vendors.
  • When the Customers module is enabled, customer work order sharing replaces vendor work order sharing. An organization can't have both options available simultaneously.

External Work Orders and Privacy​

Administrators can customize external contacts' access to external work orders. In Settings, through the Work Orders preferences, you can select which fields external contacts can view only and which fields are hidden from them. For vendor work orders, external contacts can typically view and interact with the Procedure and Comments fields. Customer contacts have a more limited experience: they can comment and mark the work as finished, but they can't update the work order or complete procedure steps. For more information, see Manage Access to External Work Orders.

For privacy and security, you can deactivate or reset an external work order link directly in the work order. Resetting the external work order link is useful when, for example, the link is compromised and shared with several people. For more information, see Deactivate or Reset an External Work Order Link.

Share an External Work Order​

You share an external work order from the work order details by selecting Share Externally.

Before you share:

  • Vendor work orders: the work order must have a vendor. When you share it, you choose which vendor contacts get the external work order link and can optionally include a message.
  • Customer work orders: the customer and customer contacts are already specified on the work order. You only need to enable sharing. When notifications are enabled for the work order, MaintainX emails those contacts about key updates, and each email includes an external work order link.

For more information about adding customer contacts and customer work order sharing defaults, see Managing Customer Work Orders.

Enable External Sharing​

Use these steps for both vendor and customer work orders.

To enable external sharing:

  1. From the sidebar, select Work Orders.

  2. Locate the work order you want to share externally, and select it to view its details.

  3. In the work order details, select Share Externally.

  4. In the Share Work Order dialog, toggle Enable External Link on.

  5. For vendor work orders, follow the steps in Email the External Work Order Link to Vendor Contacts.

    For customer work orders, enabling the external work order link is all that's required in the Share Work Order dialog. Customer contacts get the external work order link through work order notification emails when notifications are enabled.

These steps apply only to vendor work orders. After you enable the external work order link, choose which vendor contacts receive it.

To email the external work order link to vendor contacts:

  1. In the Share Work Order dialog, in the Email Link to Vendor Contacts section, select the Vendor Contacts.

    • You can create a vendor contact if needed by selecting Add Vendor Contacts.

  2. (Optional) Add a message to the email for your vendors.

  3. Select Send to Contacts.

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You can copy the external work order link and share it with external contacts who aren't part of your Vendor Contact list by selecting Copy external link.

Want to send a work order as a PDF?

In the Share Work Order dialog, select Email a PDF instead. This generates an email with a PDF version of the work order and sends it to your selected vendor contacts. Your vendor contacts can't interact with the work order as they would with the external work order.

Interact with External Work Orders​

Vendor Contacts​

From an external work order, vendor contacts can:

  • View a limited version of the work order and perform the requested tasks without logging into MaintainX.
  • Complete procedure steps and update the work order as the work progresses (based on your organization's external work order access preferences).
  • Add comments and a file or an attachment.
  • Mark the work as finished when their part is complete.

For more information, see Complete a Work Order (external contact view).

When a vendor contact marks the work as finished, MaintainX notifies the Administrator by email or mobile notification so they can mark the work order Done (see Complete a Vendor Work Order as an Administrator).

Customer Contacts​

Customer contacts follow work that your service team performs. From the external work order, they can:

  • View a limited version of the work order.
  • Add comments.
  • Mark the work as finished by selecting Finish Work Order.

Customer contacts can complete procedure steps, and mark the work as finished (see Mark a Customer Work Order Finished as a Customer Contact).

Full User​

As a Full User, you have access to the work orders of the organization you're part of. In the comments of an external work order, you can see whether a vendor or customer contact interacted with it.

Administrator​

As an Administrator, you can:

  • Share work orders with external contacts outside of the organization via email within MaintainX, or by sharing an external work order link.
  • Deactivate or reset the external work order link.
  • Manage the visibility of work orders for external contacts in a way that ensures privacy and security for your organization.
  • Track the activity and progress of external work orders, including, for vendor work orders, real-time updates to procedure checklists and activity history.
  • Mark a work order as Done once the vendor contact marks the work as finished.

Finish External Work Orders​

Complete a Vendor Work Order as an Administrator​

After a vendor contact marks a vendor work order as finished, an Administrator has to close it in MaintainX. When you get a notification from the vendor contact, do the following:

  1. From the sidebar, select Work Orders.

  2. Locate the work order you shared externally, and select it to view its details.

  3. Navigate to the Comments section. See if there are any additional notes left on the work order from your contacts.

  4. Navigate to the Status section and select Done.

    • Marking the work order as Done in MaintainX automatically deactivates the external work order link. External contacts won't be able to return to the link.

Mark a Customer Work Order Finished as a Customer Contact​

Customer contacts can mark an external work order as finished from the external work order view.

To mark an external work order as finished as a customer contact:

  1. Open the work order from the external work order link in a work order notification email.
  2. Select Finish Work Order.
  3. In the Finish Work Order dialog, enter the time it took to complete the work and the cost. Upload pictures as needed.
  4. Select Submit.

MaintainX notifies the Administrator that the customer contact marked the work as finished. The Administrator can then mark the work order Done, which deactivates the external work order link.

You can revoke access to an external work order by deactivating or resetting the link.

  • Deactivating the external work order link lets Administrators turn it on and off. This is useful when you want to temporarily stop access to a work order as you make modifications.

  • Resetting the external work order link lets Administrators permanently revoke access. This is useful when you think that the link is compromised.

To deactivate an external work order link:

  1. From the sidebar, select Work Orders.
  2. Locate the work order whose external work order link you want to deactivate. Select it to view its details.
  3. In the work order details, select the (Share) icon.
  4. In the Share Work Order dialog, toggle Enable external link off.
    • If you want to reactivate the external work order link, from the Share Work Order dialog, toggle Enable external link back on. People who had access to the link will be able to click on it again and access the work order.

To reset an external work order link:

  1. From the sidebar, select Work Orders.
  2. Locate the work order whose external work order link you want to reset. Select it to view its details.
  3. In the work order details, select the (Share) icon.
  4. In the Share Work Order dialog, select Reset Link.
  5. When prompted, select Reset Link to confirm.
  6. If you need a new external work order link, MaintainX creates it. It's up to you to share it with your external contact through the (Share) icon. For more information about how to share the external work order link, see Share an External Work Order.

Manage Access to External Work Orders​

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Administrators can access external work order access preferences in the MaintainX web app only.

You can manage how your organization shares a work order externally, including:

  • What external contacts see.
  • Which fields external contacts can interact with and which fields are hidden.
  • Permissions for all external work orders of the organization.

To access the settings:

  1. From the sidebar, select Settings > Features.

  2. Navigate to the Work Orders section and select Set Preferences.

  3. From the Work Orders preferences, select one of the following options to customize:

Share Work Orders Externally​

Make sure Share Work Order Externally is toggled on. This lets you share work orders with external contacts.

Customize External Work Order Access and Permissions​

Specify how external contacts can interact with different work order fields. You can decide which fields they can view only, which they can view and interact with, or which are hidden within your organization. Manage vendor contact access as follows:

AccessDescription
Can ViewExternal contacts can only view the work order field.
Can View and InteractExternal contacts can view and interact with the field, meaning that they can edit it or add an attachment. The only fields they can edit are the Procedure and Comments fields.
HiddenExternal contacts can't see the field in their work orders.

Sharing Permissions​

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To have access to Sharing Permissions as part of your organization's settings, contact your MaintainX Account Manager.

Specify which user roles can share work orders with external contacts. You can select:

  • Administrators only
  • Administrators and Full Users
  • Full Users only