All articles
Maintenance management
Work orders that survive a shift change
What a work order needs so the next person doesn't start the job over.
Mend team · 18 June 2026 · 6 min read
The test for a good work order is simple: can someone who has never seen it pick it up cold and keep going?
The five fields that matter
Everything else is optional detail.
- What is wrong, in the reporter's own words.
- Exact location and asset.
- A photo taken at the time.
- Who owns it right now.
- What has already been tried.
Keep the conversation attached
When updates live in a group chat, the job loses its memory at the end of every shift. Keeping notes on the job itself is the whole difference between a handover and a restart.
