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Eptura Knowledge Center

Work Order Dates – The Who, What, and Why

Defining the date fields on a work order

Work doesn’t always start and stop when you open and close the Work Order in Hippo. You may be manually entering in old paper work orders or you had to reschedule some. These date fields allow for more flexible tracking than just having an open and close. Here is an overview of what they mean and how they affect each other. Some of these fields can be changed and some can't be. This provides a great balance between keeping a flexible schedule to complete and manage work loads and record keeping, but also security that people aren’t taking advantage of the system.

Dates you can’t change

Who: Created Date 

What: The created date is the timestamp of when the work order was created within Hippo.

Why: Showing the date a work order was created in Hippo helps keep people honest, because if you were able to freely change these dates that can lead to a messy database. That is why we have included other options that factor in time work was actually started, stopped or rescheduled.

Who: Last Updated Date

What: The last updated date will show the time the work order was last updated and who it was updated by.

Why: Work orders can go through many changes and pass through the hands of many people. Having a sense of who was making changes last provides an easy way to find someone if you need additional information or context.

Who: Start Date 

What: The start date is the timestamp of when the work order was first changed from not started to any other status.

Why: Having a start date is a good way to show the first time a work order gets into the real world and out of being a line on your screen. 

Dates you can change

Who: Rescheduled Date

What:  The rescheduled date is used to push work forward or backward.

Why: For better managing resource work loads and useful to take advantage of newly opened up time to complete tasks. This can also be used for entering old work into the system if you wish to keep all records in one place. 

*Some successful customer uses have been using this field to show the date a pre-hippo work order was started.*

Who: Due Date 

What: The due date is always an important field to update any time you are rescheduling work orders, and for ensuring work is completed in a relevant and timely manner. 

Why: This is especially important if you are tracking KPI’s like time to complete and days late for completed work. Having accurate estimations of time allows for more efficient scheduling over time and managing your resources effectively.

Who: Completed Date

What: The completed date is the date the work was actually completed.

Why: The completed date field is only able to be changed when you change the status of a work order to completed but before the completed work order is saved. This is very important to be mindful of, since the date it is closed in Hippo isn’t always the date the work was completed.