Work Orders

A work order turns an active bill of materials into scheduled shop-floor work. Use it to control the quantity, location, status, assignees, materials, labor, serials, cost, and transaction history for one assembly, disassembly, or conversion job.

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Check access and prerequisites

Before creating an order, confirm that you have:

• An active assembly, disassembly, or conversion BOM.
• A positive whole-number quantity.
• The manufacturing location.
• An Available source serial when a serialized source is being disassembled or converted.

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Create a work order

1. Go to Manufacturing > Work Orders.
2. Click New Work Order.
3. Search for and select an active BOM.
4. Enter the whole-number Quantity to Build, Quantity to Disassemble, or Quantity to Convert.
5. If Source Serial Number appears, select the serial for this source unit.
6. Review the availability panel. A warning identifies a shortage but does not receive, reserve, or create stock.
7. Select the Location.
8. Choose Low, Normal, High, or Urgent priority.
9. Set Start Date, an optional Due Date, and optional Notes.
10. Review Release immediately (skip draft state). It starts selected. Leave it selected to have this page request Release after creation, or clear it to request Draft. Clearing it does not override an enabled company automatic-release setting.
11. Click Create & Release or Create.

Arcus creates the work order before either release path finishes. Two independent paths can release a standalone order:

• The company Release new work orders immediately (skip draft) setting can release it as part of creation, even when you clear the checkbox on this page.
• The selected page checkbox makes a separate Release request after creation, even when the company setting is off.

Both release attempts are best-effort. A failed or unauthorized release request leaves the created order in Draft, so confirm the resulting status before floor work begins.

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Outcome

The new work order snapshots the selected BOM revision, lines, quantity, location, and estimated cost for the job. A selected source serial is allocated to the order. The resulting status is Draft or Released, depending on whether either release path succeeds. To request Draft from the manual page, the company automatic-release setting must be off and the page checkbox must be cleared.

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Work the queue

The Work Orders page provides Kanban and List views.

• Search by work-order number, product, or SKU.
• Use the Open, In Progress, Completed, and Overdue summary cards.
• Filter by type, assignee, and created date. Choose Unassigned to find work without an owner.
• In List view, add a status filter such as Open, Overdue, Closed, or Cancelled.
• In Kanban, the active columns are Draft, Released, and In Progress. Completed, Closed, and Cancelled columns start collapsed.
• A Kanban column initially shows up to eight cards. Use its controls to show more or open the full list.

The supported lifecycle is: Kanban drag follows the board sequence Draft > Released > In Progress > Completed > Closed. The board does not drag a Released card directly to Completed, even though the work-order detail page can complete a Released order. A drop from In Progress to Completed asks for a quantity, but it cannot collect serialized output details. Use the work-order detail page for serialized completion, and always enter whole units.

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Review the work-order detail

Open a work order before starting physical work. The header shows the work-order number, status, type, priority, product, completed and planned quantities, BOM revision, location, assignees, and current viewers. Use the five tabs to answer different questions: The detail page also shows GL Movements first, with typed journal rows, reversal links, amounts, and dates. Expand a row to review its debit and credit account lines, then use View journal entry for the full journal entry. Inventory Movements follows with product, movement type, signed quantity, amount, and date. Expand a row for balances, location, supply or demand, account, and posting details, and open FIFO detail when available. An untouched Draft or Released order can have honest empty states until an action posts.

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Assign owners

1. Click the add-person control beside the assignee avatars.
2. Search Add assignee and select a team member.
3. Repeat to add more owners.
4. Use the remove control beside an assignee to unassign them.

Selecting someone already assigned does not duplicate the assignment. Assignees are delegation metadata only, so they do not determine who can open, issue, complete, or cancel the order.

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Release and start

Click Release on a Draft after confirming the BOM revision, quantity, location, schedule, and material plan. Click Start on a Released order when physical work begins. Starting the job normally also starts your labor timer when all of these are true:

• The company setting to start a timer with the job is enabled.
• The BOM is not configured to auto-apply planned labor at completion.
• You do not already have a running timer on this work order.
• You have edit permission and a signed-in user context.

If status changes but the timer cannot start, the work order remains In Progress. Start the timer from its card if labor should be tracked. See Track Manufacturing Labor for timer, manual-entry, and auto-applied labor choices.

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Run materials, labor, and completion

Use the focused procedures for work that changes stock or cost:

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Common scenario: run a short assembly

1. Create the order from the active assembly BOM and confirm its location and quantity.
2. Release it only after the recipe and material plan are ready.
3. Assign the floor owner, then click Start when physical work begins.
4. Issue known staged inputs or let completion backflush the remaining requirement.
5. Track actual labor with timers or manual entries, unless the BOM intentionally auto-applies standard labor.
6. Complete only the whole units physically finished.
7. Compare output, serials, cost, Inventory Movements, and GL Movements.
8. Close after the full quantity and final variance review agree.

The order progresses from Draft through Released, In Progress, Completed, and Closed. Inventory and cost change only when the relevant material, labor, completion, or close action posts.

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Review costs and ledgers

Before closing or cancelling, compare the work order to the physical job.

• Cost separates actual material, labor, and overhead and compares total actual cost with the BOM-based estimate. Missing labor can make the variance look more favorable than the work performed.
• GL Movements shows manufacturing journal entries and linked reversals.
• Inventory Movements shows issues, returns, production, and reversal movements with FIFO detail where available. Work-order scrap does not create a second inventory movement because stock already left on issue.
• Timeline preserves who performed lifecycle and transaction actions.

Verify each posting in this order: reopen the owning Materials or Labor tab, review Cost, then GL Movements, Inventory Movements when stock changed, and Timeline. Material issue moves actual FIFO cost into material work in progress. Labor entries add labor work in progress. Each completion relieves that batch’s accumulated material, labor, and overhead into its output. Closing clears any remaining work-in-progress balance to Manufacturing Variance.

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Close completed work

Close only after the full planned quantity is Completed and these checks agree:

• Physical output and output serials.
• Materials issued, returned, substituted, and scrapped.
• Timer and manual labor entries.
• Actual cost and variance.
• Inventory and GL movements.

Click Close in the header. Arcus attempts to roll up any unbooked timer sessions, calculates the planning variance as estimated cost minus actual cost, and clears residual material, labor, or overhead WIP to Manufacturing Variance.

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Cancel unfinished work

Cancel only a Draft, Released, or In Progress order with zero completed quantity.

1. Compare the physical stock with the Materials tab and Inventory Movements.
2. Click Cancel.
3. Enter an optional reason.
4. Click Cancel Work Order.

Cancellation sends each Consume and Add line’s current issued quantity back to the work-order location, reverses accumulated labor cost out of labor WIP, releases an allocated source serial that has not been consumed, removes the order from future component demand, and records the reason. The work-order labor total returns to zero, while booked labor rows and timer-session history remain visible for audit. Cancellation is refused after any completion. Undo eligible completion batches first, or finish and close the work. A Cancelled order cannot be restored through the work-order UI.

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Troubleshoot common blocks

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Frequently asked questions

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