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Assign a Work Order to a Technician

Assignment puts a technician on a work order, sets when they should arrive, and how long it's expected to take. Status auto-transitions from unassigned to pending the moment a technician is set and saved.

There are two paths: one work order at a time from its edit screen, or several at once from the Work Orders list using the bulk assign bar.

Before you start​

  • You have the work_orders.supervise permission. Without it, the Assignment card and bulk assign bar don't appear at all. Editors without supervise can still open work orders but can't change the technician.
  • The user you want to assign to has the Technician role. Only users with that role show up in the dropdown.
  • The work order is in unassigned or pending status. Reassigning is fine — pending work orders can be moved to a different technician until the tech starts the job. Once status is ongoing or beyond, change of technician is rare and usually means cancelling and recreating.

Steps​

Assign one work order​

  1. Open the work order

    Select Work Orders in the top navigation bar, then select the Edit action for the work order you want to assign.

  2. Pick the technician

    Open the Technician dropdown in the Assignment card on the right (it's a searchable list — start typing the name to filter). Default value is -- Unassigned --.

  3. Set the due date

    Fill in Due Date with the date and time you want the technician to arrive. This drives the technician's day-by-day job list in their app.

  4. Set the estimated duration

    Fill in Estimated Duration (hours). Half-hour increments. Defaults to the system default from Settings, typically 2.

  5. (Optional) Check availability

    Select Check Availability to open the availability modal. It shows when each technician already has work scheduled around your chosen date and time, so you can avoid double-booking.

  6. Save

    Select the green Update Work Order button. Status auto-transitions from unassigned to pending and the technician sees the work order in their app.

Assign several work orders at once​

Use this when the same technician has a batch of jobs the same day — typically right after converting a multi-unit quotation, or when you imported a maintenance batch.

  1. Open the Work Orders list

    Select Work Orders in the top navigation bar.

  2. Select the work orders

    Tick the checkbox at the start of each row, or use the Select all on this page checkbox at the top to grab the whole page. A blue N selected bar appears fixed at the bottom of the screen.

  3. Open the assign dialog

    Select the green Assign Technician button in the bottom bar. The Assign Technician modal opens with a count message: Assigning N work order(s). Each will be scheduled sequentially based on estimated duration.

  4. Pick the technician

    Use the Technician dropdown.

  5. Set the start time

    Fill in Start Date & Time. The first work order is scheduled here. The rest are scheduled in the order they appear in the list, each starting after the previous one's estimated duration.

  6. Set the duration

    Fill in Estimated Duration per WO (hours). The same value applies to every work order in the batch. Defaults to the system default.

  7. (Optional) Check availability

    Same modal as the single-WO flow.

  8. Confirm

    Select the green Assign button. Each selected work order is updated with the technician, its sequential due time, and the duration. The page reloads with a confirmation banner.

warning

Bulk assign overwrites any existing technician, due date, and estimated duration on the selected work orders. There's no undo. If you need to assign different durations to different work orders, do them one at a time.

What happens next​

  • For every work order whose technician changed from null to a real value, status auto-transitions from unassigned to pending. A status history row is created.
  • A Pending notification or in-app alert may fire depending on your alert settings.
  • The technician sees the work order in their TuffOps Driver app under the day matching Due Date, sorted by time.
  • The Status card on the work order edit screen now shows the Pending badge.
  • Reassignment from one tech to another does not change status — it stays pending and the new tech inherits the existing due date.
  • If status was already pending and you only changed the due date or duration, status stays pending — only the schedule moves.

Common situations​

SituationWhat to do
Same technician, four installs at one customer siteConvert the multi-unit quotation. Open the Work Orders list, filter by that customer, select all four, bulk-assign with 2 hours each starting at 9:00. They get 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00.
Need to reassign because a tech called in sickOpen each affected work order. Change the Technician dropdown and save. Status stays pending. The original technician loses it from their list, the new one sees it.
Want a tech to do them in a different order than the listBulk assign sequences by list order. Either re-sort the list before selecting (the index page supports sort), or assign individually with custom Due Date values.
Two techs on one jobNot supported — one work order has one technician. Either split into two work orders, or leave one technician and use Customer Requests to note the helper.
Tech doesn't appear in the dropdownThey don't have the Technician role, or they're soft-deleted. Check Settings → Users.

Troubleshooting​

The Assignment card isn't on the page.

You don't have the work_orders.supervise permission. Editors without supervise can read work orders but can't change the technician. Ask an admin to grant it under Settings → Users.

The Assign Technician button at the bottom of the list isn't there.

Same cause — work_orders.supervise is required for the bulk bar.

You see N work order(s) assigned. but nothing on screen changed.

The page didn't reload. Refresh — the technician column and status badges update on next load.

Bulk assign sequenced the work orders in the wrong order.

Sequence follows ID order ascending (oldest WO first). To control sequence, sort the list, deselect, and re-select in the order you want — or assign individually with explicit Due Date values.

Tech says the work order isn't in their app.

Three checks: (1) Status card shows Pending, not Unassigned. (2) Due Date is set and in the future, not the past. (3) The user you assigned is the same one logged into the Driver app.