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Feature Request: Work Orders

Feature Request: Work Orders

When is Square going to get Work Orders? Not Purchase Orders or Sales Receipts... Work Orders. Work Orders are different from Purchase Orders as Purchase Orders are for purchasing inventory from Vendors. Work Orders are similar to Sales Receipts as I am selling a customer an item, but unlike a Sales Receipt, the order is not fulfilled in the moment, it takes time to fulfill and the Work Order tracks progress. The current Ticket System is similar but not a true Work Order system.

 

For example... A customer comes to the store and would like something custom made, not a standard stock inventory item. This process will take several weeks. We create a Work Order with the customer's information. The work order has a notes section so we can add instructions / comments about the order. Notes can be added as the Work Order progresses as well about the progress being made. As we use items from inventory (or parts of items... think 3 feet of material from a bolt of fabric) for the item being made, they are added to the work order. Once the order is complete, the Work Order is then 'sold' to the customer. This closes the Work Order, debits inventory for all parts used and generates a Sales Receipt (which references the Work Order Number that generated it) for the sale of the created item.

 

Once you have a Work Order system, you could then use the same core system to build a Sales Order and Layaway system. Generally the only difference between these systems is when inventory is debited.

 

I have been asking for this feature since 2013. I was hoping to see it in your Retail app years ago but it has never appeared and it is the ONLY item that is preventing us from moving completely over to Square as our POS and Payment Processor.

 

I find it hard to believe that with as much retail business you all do that more people are not asking for this type system. Is there really no demand for this component?

62 Comments

In my business customers often bring things in that need repair. I want to capture the customer contact information, the description of work required, and the promised date. I want to print a "claim check" for the customer, and a work order for the repair. Later, when it is repaired, I want to convert the work order to a sales order which can either be emailed, or paid at the register at time of pickup. Surely someone has figured out how to do part or all of this using square?

 

ideas anyone?

Beta Member

All of that what you are looking for is more repair-industry specific, some ot things Square can do (catch customer info, print ticket...)


Other things such as have tickets and status updated, track by serial number, is more of a repair-industry thing. Try repairshopr.com (They integrate square payments) They have everything you are looking for.

I'm not affiliated with any of them, just talking from my personal experience.

I have not used it in this way before, but I believe you can set your printer to print an additional ticket and allow the sqare register to automatically assign a number or in your case a claim-check.  I think you can set up to 3 different printouts at time of purchase.  Play with your printer settings and set up "open tickets" like a restraunt would use.  This should get you what you are looking for.

Square Community Moderator

@LockPro You might be able to use Square Invoices as a work around for your specific needs. 

 

This way you can capture the customers information within the notes/descriptions section, and use the invoice due date as the Promised Date that it will be repaired. 

 

When the customer pays the invoice, either in person or via email, it will convert to a sale and will appear in your transaction history. 

I am a small ink supply business. All orders are produced to the order. Stock items available in verious size incraments. Can I produce a work order for my warehouse directly from square?

Admin

Hi @wtjohnson1919, welcome to the seller community!

 

Thanks for bringing this up. Yes, it sounds like you would find what you're looking for in the Square for Retail app. Square for Retail allows you to create purchase orders. For more information on setting them up, have a look here: Purchase Order Management.

 

Does that help get you where you need to be? Please don't hesitate to reply if I'm missing the mark or if you have any other questions. I'll be happy to have another look. 🙂

Admin

Hello @AdminBoB, very sorry for this late reply. I checked with the Retail team and this is a request we're still tracking. I appreciate the detailed description of how you'd like it to work at your business. 

 

I definitely understand how useful it would be for your business — and I encourage any other sellers who are also interested in a work orders feature to post here too! Have you looked into using Square Invoices in the meantime (if you're not already!)? You can now send estimates and request deposits, you can add more items to an Invoice before it's paid, and inventory levels are not updated until the invoice is paid. There's even an app for Square Invoices! 

 

I hope that this helps in the meantime. 

Beta Member

I came here for this exact thing.  We work in the glass industry and deal with workorders as well.  I would be very excited to see this feature become available.  LOVE the estimates feature!  Please keep us posted.  Thanks!

I’ve been needing work orders FOREVER!!! I have a cell phone repair store and need to have work orders available to log customers in and keep track of the status of the repair and parts that are needed during the process.  I’ve asked square for years also, seems that they just don’t care about service related companies, they only focus on restaurants and general retail stores.

 

I Guarantee you there are THOUSANDS of small businesses that would utilize work orders with square but they just have to result in using alternative apps like Lightspeed etc... and never waste their time to write anything here knowing the requests don’t get noticed or fulfilled or even acknowledged quick enough ☹️

 

Applemeister

Admin

Thanks for your post @AppleMeister. I don't have any updates to share right now but we'll continue to track this request for a specific work order feature.

 

I wonder if Square Estimates would help in the meantime? Or with work orders, would you like to notify a customer every time you log work or update the order? (Right now customers are not notified of changes made to an estimates, but you can share a link to an updated estimate with your customer at any time.)

 

We do appreciate your business so any insight you can provide will help the Point of Sale team to understand what you need!