Changing a Work Type on a Work Order

Overview

Field technicians now have the ability to change the Work Type associated to the Work Order directly from the Field Service Technician app. This feature streamlines adjustments when the Work Type was set incorrectly (e.g., aerial vs. buried drop), allowing technicians to take corrective action without dispatch support.

In this article, we'll be covering how to change the assigned Work Type, what the impacts are and the current limitations.

Changing a Work Type

The process to change a Work Type is super straightforward! From within the Field Service Technician app, technicians can open the Work Order and click Edit

After that, you'll have a new modal appear in which you can choose your new Work Type

Select the new Work Type from the drop down menu that appears

Then you can hit Save, which will prompt a confirmation modal to appear an explain what's going to happen by completing this action.

Impacts and Limitations

Impacts

1. Original Work Order Changes: The original Work Order is cancelled and the technician is unassigned. However, the Work Order itself will still be viewable on the linked entity (i.e., Account or Network site).
2. New Work Order Created: Following the cancellation of the original Work Order, a new Work Order is created. The previous date and time slot are used and the same technician is scheduled, ensuring no confusion happens.
3. Procedure Steps: The new procedure steps are shown on the new Work Order. If any steps were taken before changing the Work Type, that information is maintained and displayed on the original Work Order.
4. Technician Status: If the technician had marked themselves as en-route before the Work Type change, that status will be maintained on the new Work Order.
5. Linked Account Data: With the creation of the new Work Order, all of the information of the original Work Order will be brought over. The description will be carried over, any notes on the original Work Order will be carried over and displayed as historical, any actions regarding equipment and workflows launched via entity association.
6. Work Location & Entity: The work location & entity (Account/Network site) will be maintained on the new Work Order.

Limitations (as of May 27th, 2025)

1. Not available in browser: This function is only available through the Field Service Technician app and is not supported on the desktop version.
2. No Work Order linkage: The new Work Order is not linked to the original Work Order in any way and does not highlight it was created from a change in Work Type.
3. Tickets/Links break: Any prior links (such as tickets or incidents) are not maintained on the new Work Order.
4. Notes cannot be edited: Once notes are submitted in the Workforce work order system, they cannot be edited. If you need to correct or update information in a note, you must create an additional note with the corrected information.