Max Priority Days to Set Needed by Date on WO ~ Process Guide

Set the Needed By date based on the Priority of the work being done to help ensure that high priority work orders are completed on time and increase your organization’s success rate.

Setting up the new feature
From the main CMS page, click on the “App Selector” button and select the Admin Console. Not all users will have permission to get into the admin console, so check with your facility administrator if you do not have access and feel that you should.

In the Admin Console under Facility Configuration on the Work Order tab, set the checkbox to indicate if you want the Max Days by Priority feature enabled. This setting will not be set by default.

You will also be able to force the Priority setting for the needed by date to take priority over the Common Problem needed by date. This is done when editing or adding Common Problems in the admin console, set the checkbox to enable the “Date needed by gets set by priority.” This setting will not be set by default.

When creating a Priority, the needed by date can be configured by day, hours, and minutes.

To see the hours and minutes of a priority that were entered for the Needed By Date in the Work Order, be sure to confirm the settings in the Admin Console-> Work Orders-> Field Configuration match to either Date or DateTime.

When the Needed By Date is set up using the date field (not the DateTime option which provides entries for hours or minutes) and a priority type is a Emergency that is less than a day, the user will get a warning when adding and editing this Priority that the Needed By Date field needs to get set to a date/time field for the time to be taken into consideration.

If the facility does not want the Needed By Date to be changed by certain roles after the Work Order is created, the field locking feature, which is set by role, can be used to make that field not editable after initial creation.

Using the new feature

When a Work Order is created and there is an associated number of days/hours/minutes for the selected Priority, then the Work Order will populate the Needed by Date automatically.
If the user has permission, the Needed By Date can be manually adjusted by the user creating the Work Order after it is set by the Priority.

Creating a Work Order from an Asset
When creating a Work Order from an asset, the Needed By Date is set according to the Work Order Priority configured on the Asset. If the 'Needed By Date' is configured as a 'Date' type, then only the Priority's 'Max Complete Days' are considered (hours and minutes are ignored in case they are set).

If the user selects a Common Problem on a Work Order and the checkbox for “Date needed by gets set by Priority” is set, the Needed By Date associated with the Priority will override what is selected for the Common Problem. Please note that if after this is done, the user updates the Common Problem again, the Needed By Date will be set to what is most recently updated. If both the Common Problem and the Priority have a date needed/max complete time associated with them, whichever selection is made last will change the Needed By Date when the Work Order is being edited. The Needed By Date can manually alter the date as required by users with permission to edit this.

Adding an Asset to a Work Order
When adding an Asset to a Work Order that doesn’t have a Max Priority Days date, the Needed By Date will populate on the Work Order according to the Priority that is set on the associated asset.

If there is an existing priority on the work order before this asset is added, the selection to “Allow Work Order Asset Override” should be set in the Admin Console. This is set in Work Order Facility Configuration.

If there is not an existing Priority on the Work Order before the asset is added, the Priority will be set regardless of the selection to “Allow Work Order Asset Override” as it did before the enhancement. With this enhancement, if there is an applicable Max Priority Days associated with that Priority, it will also be set.

Work Orders through Online Requests
When a Work Order is created with a Priority through an Online Request, whatever is last selected takes priority. Even if the Needed by Date is not visible as part of the Online Request form, when the Work Order gets created, the Needed by Date will be populated if this feature is set up and a Priority is set – either manually by the user entering the request, or automatically by something automatically setting the Priority for the request. If the Common Problem is on the Online Request form and there is not a Priority or the Priority is not set with the Needed By Date feature, the Common Problem will still set the Needed By Date when the Work Order is created as it did before the enhancement.

Duplicating a Work Order
In CMS and CMS Tech when the “Update Needed By Date Based on Priority” is selected in the Admin Console and a Work Order is duplicated, if there is a Needed By Date on the original Work Order, the Needed By Date on the new Work Order will be set considering the date of the newly created Work Order. If the Priority doesn’t have a Needed By Date set, it will behave as it always has on duplication of the Work Order - it can use the Common Problem, or a date will simply not be set.

Revised/Reviewed: September 2024