Work orders: the complete guide
A work order is a document on which a technician records the work that was carried out: customer, address, date, work performed, materials used, hours and usually the customer's signature. It serves as proof of completion and as the basis for the invoice. Work orders can be kept on paper or digitally.
By the makers of stiptUpdated July 22, 2026
What is a work order?
A work order is the document a trade business uses to record the work that was carried out. The technician fills it in on site: what was done, which materials were used and how many hours it took. The customer usually signs it as confirmation.
A work order has three functions. It is the record of the work performed. It supports the invoice, especially for work billed by the hour. And it is evidence when questions or disputes come up later, for example about warranty.
Work orders are also called job sheets, service reports or field reports. The format differs per trade, the function is the same everywhere.
What goes on a work order? An example
There is no mandatory format, but in practice a complete work order has a fixed core. At the top are the details of the business doing the work and of the customer, with the job location and the date and time of the work.
Then comes the substance: a description of the work performed, the materials used with quantities, and the hours worked, possibly per technician. Extra work and remarks, such as defects found on site, get their own spot. Photos of the situation before and after complete the order.
The order ends with the technician's name and the customer's signature as confirmation. Use this as an example and adapt it to your own work: a repair technician needs different fields than an installer handing over a complete installation.
Is a work order required by law?
No. There is no law that requires a work order for every job. In practice, however, it is rarely optional.
Businesses in the Netherlands have a legal duty to keep records. Work orders that are part of your records, for example because they support an invoice, fall under the tax retention period of seven years.
Beyond that, a work order is often needed contractually or practically. For work billed by the hour, it substantiates the hours and materials on the invoice. In case of warranty claims or disputes, it is the evidence of what was done. And some clients, such as main contractors and insurers, require a signed work order before they pay.
Paper versus digital work orders
Paper work orders look simple, but the real work starts after the job.
Retyping. The order has to travel back to the office, where someone copies it into the records or the invoicing system. That takes time, and illegible handwriting causes errors. Invoices go out days later than necessary.
Getting lost. An order stays in the van, blows away or the carbon copy is unreadable. No order means no basis for the invoice.
Photos separated from the order. The technician photographs the situation with his phone and sends the photos to the office in a chat message. Months later, when a warranty question comes up, nobody knows which photo belongs to which job.
A digital work order solves this by capturing input, photos and signature in one place, linked directly to the job.
What should a digital work order do as a minimum?
Not every forms app makes a good work order app. The minimum: filling in on a phone with large fields and little typing, photos directly on the order taken with the phone camera, and a customer signature on the screen.
Just as important is that the order is linked to the customer and the appointment, so it lives in the file and not in a separate folder. Beyond that you want custom fields, because every business records different things, a PDF export to share with the customer or a client, and an overview of open orders so the office sees what is still missing.
Saving as you go is not a luxury. A technician gets a call, walks to the van and picks the form up again later. That should never lose answers that were already filled in.
How does a digital work order work in stipt?
In stipt, a work order is a form you build yourself. You choose your own fields: text, numbers, dates, dropdowns, photos and a signature. Questions can be conditional: a field or an entire page only appears when an earlier answer calls for it. If the technician answers 'no' to 'fault found?', the follow-up questions stay hidden.
The technician fills in the order on his phone, in the portal: a mobile-friendly web app, so there is no separate app to install and keep updated. The photo field opens the rear camera directly, and each field can hold multiple photos. iPhone photos are converted automatically to a format that can be viewed on any device. The form saves automatically while it is being filled in. The customer signs on the screen.
Every order is linked to the customer and the appointment. When an appointment is scheduled, the matching work order can be prepared automatically. For a step-by-step guide to building a form, see the guide on building forms.
Approval, versions and automatic tasks in stipt
On submission, stipt automatically generates a PDF of the order, with the photos and the signature embedded. That PDF is attached to the customer file, so everything about a job sits in one place.
The office approves or rejects the order; a rejection comes with a note explaining why, and the technician's task automatically reopens. When he resubmits, version 2 is created and the PDF on the file is replaced. The office always looks at the current version.
Open work orders do not get forgotten. Every assigned order that has not been submitted automatically becomes a task: visible at the office in the task list and for the technician in the portal. A submitted or approved order can also move the file to the next status automatically, for example from 'in progress' to 'ready for invoicing'.
Common mistakes when introducing digital work orders
The biggest mistake is recreating the paper form one to one. Paper forces a fixed layout; a digital form can be much shorter with conditional questions. Start from what the office really needs and cut the rest.
Too many required fields backfire: the technician fills in something just to continue, and the data becomes unreliable. Also appoint a fixed owner for reviewing submitted orders, because without a reviewer they stay open. And do not run paper and digital side by side: pick a date and switch over in one go.
Finally, involve the technicians. Let one or two of them trial the form for a week and adjust it based on their feedback. And avoid standalone forms without a link to the customer and the appointment, otherwise the search problem just moves from a paper pile to a digital folder.
Frequently asked questions
What is a digital work order?
A digital work order is a form the technician fills in on a phone or tablet instead of on paper. Photos and the signature sit directly on the order, the data is available at the office immediately, and the order is linked to the customer and the appointment.
What is the difference between a work order and an invoice?
A work order records the work that was carried out and serves as evidence and internal administration. An invoice is the payment request that follows. The work order often substantiates the invoice, especially for work billed by the hour.
Is a digital signature on a work order legally valid?
Yes, in most cases. The EU recognizes electronic signatures under the eIDAS regulation. For a work order, a simple electronic signature such as signing on a screen is usually sufficient. In a dispute, what matters is how reliably the signature was recorded, for example with date, time and context.
How long do you need to keep work orders?
Work orders that are part of your business records fall under the Dutch tax retention period of seven years. So keep orders that substantiate an invoice at least that long. Digital storage is allowed, as long as the data remains readable and accessible.
Does a digital work order work without an internet connection?
That differs per system. When choosing a work order app, check how it handles poor coverage, for example in basements or rural areas. In stipt, a work order saves automatically while it is being filled in, as soon as there is a connection.
Can the customer fill in a form themselves?
Yes. Besides the order the technician fills in, a form can also be sent to the customer directly. In stipt this works through a secure link that stays valid for seven days. The submission lands on the same customer file as an order from the technician.