Add 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 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, contact your agency administrator.

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. From the Work orders page, find and open the work order to which you want to add assignments or costs.

  2. Select the Assignments and costs tab.

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

  3. Select Look up > Look up by cost item.

  4. Select an option from the Cost type field list and/or complete the fields associated with the cost item for which you are searching.

  5. Select Submit.

  6. Do one of the following:

    • Add a single cost item. Open the 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 adding multiple cost items, go to the next step.

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

    • Add 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.

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

          Notes:

          • 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.

          • 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.

            For 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.

      2. Do one of the following:

        • You can accept the auto-populated data and repeat the previous step for subsequent cost items that you want to add.

        • You can modify the one or more of the values in the fields for the new cost item.

  7. Select Select.

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

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. From the Work orders page, find and open the work order to which you want to add assignments or costs.

  2. Select the Assignments and costs tab.

  3. Select Cost Group Management.

  4. To add a new cost group, if needed:

    1. Select New.

    2. Specify the cost group name in the Cost group detail tab, and select Submit.

    3. Select the Cost item tab, and select 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 select Select.

    5. Close the Cost group management window, return to the Assignments and costs tab.

  5. Select Look up > Look up by Cost Group

  6. Choose the cost group name you want to use and select Submit.

    Note: 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.

  7. 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 select 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.

      For 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.

  8. Verify the auto-populated values and make any needed adjustments.

  9. Select Select.

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

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. From the Work orders page, find and open the work order to which you want to add assignments or costs.

  2. Select the Assignments and costs tab.

  3. Select New.

  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.

    Note: If you are assigning an asset or human resource to the work order, you can select 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 page.

  6. Select Submit.

    Note: 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.
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