Two dates and a description
The works job is opened with its client, address, and expected start and end dates. That’s what defines the period in which work orders will be generated.
Feature
When the work lasts weeks and needs logging every day
A team on a works job doesn’t generate one work order: it generates twenty, one per shift. Creating them by hand every morning is why that work ends up being logged from memory at the end of the month.
What the works module actually does
A works job in GMAO CLOUD is work fenced to a client and an address, with a start and end date, with one or more workers hanging off it — in-house or subcontracted. While it lasts, the system automatically generates each day’s work order for each assigned worker, so all they have to do is open it and log their hours, materials and travel. On closing, all that consumption is aggregated under the works job, with its sale price and cost, so you can tell whether it came in as planned.
What happens without that separation
The work still gets done. What’s lost is control.
- The project’s cost is spread across fifty work orders and nobody can add it up.
- The month it runs looks like a cost disaster, but it was the project.
- You can’t say how much has been done or how much is left.
- Billing the client is rebuilt by hand at the end.
- The project’s work competes with urgent jobs and always loses.
How it works
You set it up once, at the start, and the rest happens on its own.
The assigned workers
Each technician or subcontractor who’ll be on the job, with their own date range if it doesn’t match the whole job’s.
One work order per day and per worker
The system creates them only while the date falls within the range. You can decide whether they’re also generated on weekends and how many days ahead they appear.
The worker logs their own
They open the day’s work order in the app, enter hours, materials, travel and per diem, and close it. Without creating anything or having to remember anything.
Sale price, cost and subcontracting
The works job stores what’s being sold, what it costs, and the budget for what a third party executes, so you can see the margin on what’s been done.
Inside a project, if needed
A works job can belong to a project when it’s useful to aggregate several of them under the same cost umbrella.
And what it doesn’t do
Worth saying early so nobody wastes time: this is not works management software. There are no bid items or budget chapters, no measurements, no partial certifications released as execution progresses, and no task planning with dependencies between tasks. If your works job needs that, you need a budgeting and works-control tool — Presto or equivalent — and this doesn’t replace it. What it does solve, and it’s a real problem for maintenance companies that also do works, is the daily logging of the team’s work and the aggregate cost of what was executed.
Shall we look at it with your way of working?
Leave your details and we will get in touch to see whether we fit. No commitment, no lock-in period.
Why the daily work order matters
On a job lasting several weeks, the difference between logging every day and logging at the end is the whole difference. What gets written down at closing is rounded hours and remembered materials; what gets written down every afternoon is real hours and counted materials. Since the works job’s cost comes from that, the margin you calculate will only be as reliable as when it was logged. Generating the work order automatically removes the one excuse left: that someone had to create it.
The end of the works job is the start of maintenance
Whoever carries out a refurbishment usually ends up maintaining what they installed, and that handover is where the most information gets lost. The day the works job closes, you know exactly which equipment was installed, what make and model, who installed it, what warranty it has and where the manuals are. Six months later, when one fails, nobody knows any of that. Registering that equipment as assets on closing — with its install date, warranty and documentation — turns the works job’s closing into the starting inventory for the contract that follows. It costs one afternoon and saves years of archaeology.
Knowing whether the works job is on track
The question asked halfway through an installation — are we on track? — almost always gets answered badly, because it’s answered with impressions. And yet the information needed exists: how many work orders were generated for that job, how many are closed, how many hours have been logged, and what materials have been consumed. Comparing that against what was estimated at the start doesn’t give a sophisticated progress percentage, but it gives something better: an early, honest signal. If halfway through the schedule you’ve used seventy percent of the estimated hours, you know that now, not when billing. And if the deviation repeats job after job in the same direction, the problem isn’t the jobs: it’s how they’re estimated.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a works management program?
No. There are no bid items, measurements, partial certifications, or task planning with dependencies between tasks. If you need that, you need a budgeting and works-control tool; this doesn’t replace it. What it solves is the daily logging of the team’s work and the cost of what’s been executed.
How are the work orders generated?
Automatically, one per day and per assigned worker, while the date falls within the works job’s period. You can configure whether they’re also generated on weekends and how many days ahead they appear.
Does it work for subcontractors?
Yes. Automatic work orders can be assigned to an in-house technician or to a supplier, and the works job also stores the external budget for what that third party executes.
Can I know whether the works job came in as planned?
The works job aggregates the hours, materials and travel from all its work orders, and stores its sale price and cost. That shows the margin on what was executed, not a progress certification.
What happens with the equipment I install?
It’s worth registering it as assets when the works job closes, with its install date, warranty and documentation. That’s what turns the closing into the starting inventory for the maintenance that follows.
Do you have teams working for weeks at a time?
In the demo we set up a works job with its dates and workers, and see how the daily work orders look.