Updated on 30 September 2026 by the Proposal Expert editorial team
A work order form for service and maintenance jobs, with scope, parts, schedule, costs and sign-off, and a worked HVAC example
A free work order template for service businesses and maintenance teams: job details, scope of work, materials and parts, schedule, cost summary, terms and a sign-off by the client. With a worked commercial HVAC example in dollars, as a Word download you can adapt to other trades.
A work order says which job will be done, where, by whom, with which parts and at what cost, and it gives someone the authority to start. Service businesses send one to a client before a repair or maintenance visit. Maintenance teams issue them internally, so a technician knows exactly what to do. Either way, the work order is the document everyone goes back to when the invoice arrives. This template gives you the sections a work order needs, with a worked example for an HVAC contractor repairing and servicing the rooftop units of a dental practice.
A work order is an authorisation to carry out a specific job. It describes the task, the location and any equipment involved, lists the parts and labour, sets a date and says what the job will cost. For an outside client, a signed work order is their approval to go ahead on those terms. For an in-house maintenance team, it is the instruction that assigns the job and records the time and parts used. When the job is done, the technician completes the work order with what was actually done, and it becomes the basis for the invoice or the maintenance record.
These documents often travel together, and each does a different job. A quote or estimate comes first and offers a price. A work order authorises and describes the work itself: what to do, where and when. A purchase order is the buyer's document: the client's commitment to buy goods or services at an agreed price, which their accounts team later matches against your invoice. The invoice comes last and bills what was done. Business clients often want their purchase order number on your invoice, so the example puts it in the job details. In short, a purchase order is about buying, and a work order is about doing.
A work order number and date, the client and the site address, a contact on site, the equipment or area concerned and the priority. Then a scope of work a technician can follow without a phone call, the materials and parts with quantities, the schedule and the access arrangements, a cost summary, terms and a sign-off. Leave room for the technician's notes on completion, with the actual hours, any parts that differ from the plan and any readings taken. That completion record is what turns a work order from a to-do list into evidence of what was done.
A service work order is usually reactive. Something broke, a technician diagnosed it, and the work order sets out the repair, with the fault, the parts and a price or a not-to-exceed limit. A maintenance work order is planned: a filter change, an inspection or a seasonal service on a fixed cycle, best run from a checklist with the last and next service dates. The example combines both. It repairs one rooftop unit and uses the same visit for planned maintenance on both units, which saves the client a second call-out.
Charge labour at an hourly or flat rate, parts at your selling price, and put fixed charges such as a diagnostic visit or an out-of-hours premium on their own lines. When you cannot know the full job until the equipment is open, set a limit and say that anything above it needs the client's approval first. If the scope grows after the client signs, do not stretch the work order to cover it. Issue a change order with the extra price and any effect on the schedule, and get it signed before you carry on.
Clients rarely want to print a work order. Send it as a link, and they can read it and sign on a phone while the technician waits. In Proposal Expert, a pricing table adds up the lines, the client can tick optional items such as extra maintenance, and the sign-off is an eIDAS simple electronic signature with a trusted timestamp and a sealed audit trail. The free plan includes 3 proposals and 3 electronic signatures a month.
This example shows an HVAC contractor turning a diagnostic visit into a signed work order for a dental practice. The job details name the site, the contact, the two rooftop units and the client's purchase order number. The scope separates the repair on unit 2 from the planned maintenance on both units, and the cost summary adds up to $1,656, with each charge on its own line. The terms set an approval limit, so the technician calls before doing anything outside the scope. For another trade, keep the seven headings and swap the lines. The US example has no tax line. Add sales tax where it applies, and VAT for a UK client.
This proposal can be downloaded as a Word document (.docx) on this page.
From: Ridgeway Mechanical, Phoenix, Arizona
To: Palo Verde Family Dental, Tempe, Arizona
Date: 1 October 2026
Reference: WO-2026-0934
Valid until: 31 October 2026
Site: your Tempe practice, with two 5-ton packaged rooftop units installed in 2016. Unit 1 serves reception and the offices, and unit 2 serves the four treatment rooms. Contact on site: Rosa Delgado, office manager. Your purchase order number: PO-2026-117. Priority: urgent, because unit 2 stopped cooling on 29 September. On 30 September our technician found a failed condenser fan motor, a swollen run capacitor and a worn contactor on unit 2.
The work below covers the repair of unit 2 and planned maintenance on both units during the same visit.
We supply all parts from stock or from our local supplier. All parts are new and match the unit manufacturer's specification.
Friday 2 October, starting at 6 am, before your first patients at 8 am. We repair unit 2 first, so the treatment rooms are cooling by opening time, and then service both units during the morning, each off for about 45 minutes. Roof access is through the hatch in the storage room, so please have the building open at 6 am and the hatch clear. If you need to move the date, the prices hold until 31 October.
The lines below add up to $1,656. The diagnostic visit of 30 September is billed on this work order, not separately. Repair labour is quoted at three hours at our standard rate of $125 per hour and billed at the actual time, up to that amount. Maintenance is a flat rate per unit.
If we find another fault, we stop and call you. Extra work up to $250 can be approved by phone and is confirmed by email. Anything above that is priced in a separate change order before we do it. Payment is due within 15 days of the invoice, which we send on completion with your purchase order number. New parts carry the manufacturer's one-year warranty, and our labour is warranted for 90 days. If you cancel less than 24 hours before the visit, we may charge the early start fee.
Sign below to authorise this work order, or accept electronically through the link in the email. On completion, our technician records the work done, the actual hours, any parts that differ from this list and the test readings, and asks Rosa Delgado to sign the completion sheet on site. A copy of the completed work order goes with the invoice.
| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit on 30 September, one technician, first hour included | US$165.00 |
| Parts for unit 2: condenser fan motor, run capacitor and contactor | US$540.00 |
| Labour: repair, startup and testing of unit 2, 3 hours at $125 per hour | US$375.00 |
| Planned maintenance: coil cleaning and checks of belts, electrics and drains, 2 units at $180 per unit | US$360.00 |
| Filters: 8 pleated MERV 8 filters at $12 each, supplied and fitted | US$96.00 |
| Early start before 7 am, flat fee | US$120.00 |
| Total | US$1,656.00 |
Accepted for Palo Verde Family Dental
Treat a signed work order as part of your contract with the client, because it records the scope and price they agreed to. An internal work order is an instruction, not a contract. For outside clients, make the work order complete, because the law fills the gaps you leave. In the UK, section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats every contract to supply a service to a consumer as including a term that the trader performs it with reasonable care and skill, and section 52 requires a reasonable time where the contract fixes none. For business clients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, sections 13 and 14 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 imply the same. A date and a clear scope leave much less to argue about.
Sometimes. In the US, the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule covers sales of consumer goods or services of $25 or more made at the buyer's home. It excludes a visit the buyer asked for to repair or maintain their personal property, although anything extra you sell on that visit, other than the replacement parts the repair needs, is not excluded. A genuine emergency the buyer contacted you about is also excluded, if the buyer gives you a separate dated and signed statement in their own handwriting that describes the emergency and waives the right to cancel. The rule only covers purchases mainly for personal, family or household purposes, so a work order for a business, like the dental practice in the example, falls outside it. In the UK, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 generally let a consumer cancel a service contract made away from your premises within 14 days after the day it was made. That right does not apply where the consumer specifically asked you to visit for urgent repairs or maintenance, but it still covers extra services and goods other than the replacement parts the job needed.
Whoever authorises the work starts it, and whoever does the work finishes it. For a client job, the service business usually prepares the work order from the request or the diagnostic visit, the client signs it, and the technician completes it on site. In a maintenance team, a request from a tenant or a member of staff becomes a work order when a supervisor approves it and assigns a technician. Either way, one person should own each work order until it is closed.
For a client, yes. The client approves the cost as well as the work, and a price on the work order prevents a dispute when the invoice arrives. For an internal maintenance work order, prices are optional, but record the hours and parts used, because that is how you learn what each piece of equipment costs to keep running.
Not silently. If the technician finds more work, stop and agree it first. Small additions can go on the work order within the approval limit in the terms, recorded with the time and the name of the person who approved them. Anything larger belongs in a change order with its own price and signature, which keeps the original work order clean and the invoice easy to check.