What belongs on a maintenance work order
A maintenance work order is the unit of record for everything your team touches. The non-negotiable fields: a unique WO number, who requested it, who it's assigned to, priority, the location and the specific asset (an asset ID, not "the fan upstairs"), a clear description of the problem and the work performed, parts consumed, labor hours, and a sign-off with the completion date. Skip any of these and you lose the thing work orders exist for — the history. Six months from now, the question is never "did we fix it," it's "how many times have we fixed it, at what cost, and is this asset worth keeping."
Write the description in two parts: symptom as reported, then work as performed. "Bearing noise reported" is the request; "replaced bearings and belts, aligned, vibration verified" is the record. Techs who write both give the next tech a running start.
Corrective vs. preventive: same form, different discipline
Corrective work orders respond to failures; preventive maintenance (PM) work orders are generated on a schedule — weekly, monthly, by runtime hours, or by season. Use the same form for both so costs roll up in one place, but treat the description differently: a PM work order should carry the checklist (lube points, filter sizes, torque specs, readings to record), because a PM without a checklist quietly becomes a walk-past. If a PM uncovers a defect, close the PM and open a new corrective WO rather than letting one document swallow two jobs — your failure data stays clean that way.
Priority discipline matters more than the labels. Whatever scale you use (this form ships with Low / Medium / High / Emergency), define each level in writing — Emergency means safety or production stoppage now; High means it fails within days. Teams that let requesters set every job to High end up triaging by phone call, which is how emergencies get missed.
Parts and labor: capture the true cost
Log every part against the work order at the cost you paid, including consumables pulled from stock — grease, belts, filters, fasteners. Asset repair-versus-replace decisions are made from this data, and stockroom shrinkage hides in unlogged consumables. Labor lines should list each distinct task with its hours rather than one "labor: 4h" blob: diagnosis, repair, and testing are different skills and often different rates. When the total cost of ownership question comes — and it always comes — you'll have the answer in the file instead of in someone's memory.
How to fill out a maintenance work order form, in order
Take the fields in the order the job actually happens, not the order they sit on the page. First the number and the date issued — assign the number before anything else is written, because the number is how this job will be referenced for the rest of its life. Then the requester and the request as reported, in their words: "grinding noise from the supply fan," not your diagnosis of it. Then the location and the asset ID, which is the single field most often filled in badly; "AHU-02" builds a history, "the fan upstairs" does not.
Next the priority and the assignee, which together are the triage decision — if nobody makes that decision in writing, it gets made later by whoever shouts. Then the work stops and the job happens. Only afterwards do you write the findings and the work performed, the parts pulled with quantities and real costs, and the labor lines with hours against each distinct task. Last, the verification and the sign-off with a completion date: what you tested, what reading it gave, and who accepted it.
A form filled in this order is readable by someone who was not there, which is the only test that matters. Half-filled work orders almost always fail at the same two points — an asset field with a nickname in it, and a close-out that says "done" instead of what was measured.
How long to keep completed maintenance work orders
There are two clocks on a completed work order and they run at different speeds. The maintenance clock says keep it for the life of the asset: a repair-versus-replace argument you will have in four years is decided by whether you can produce the last four years of that asset's jobs, and nobody has ever regretted a full history.
The payroll clock is set by federal recordkeeping rules and it is shorter but not optional. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations, employers must record the hours worked each workday and the total hours each workweek for non-exempt employees (29 CFR 516.2(a)(7)), preserve payroll records for at least three years (29 CFR 516.5), and preserve for at least two years the basic time and earning records showing daily start and stop times or amounts of work accomplished where those determine pay, along with order and billing records (29 CFR 516.6). If your techs' hours reach payroll by way of the work order — which is exactly how most small maintenance departments run — then the work order is one of those supplementary records and the two-year floor applies to it.
The practical reading: three years is the safe minimum for any work order carrying labor hours, the life of the asset is the useful target, and the cheapest way to satisfy both is to keep the PDFs. This is general recordkeeping context rather than legal advice, and your state or your insurer may ask for longer.
Maintenance work order examples to copy
The fastest way to write a good one is to read a filled-in one. The job preloaded into the form above is complete — asset, symptom, findings, parts at real quantities, labor split across diagnosis, repair and test, and a close-out note recording the lockout point. Every field is editable, so the quickest start is to overwrite it rather than start from blank.
For more than one, the site publishes every worked job it ships in a single table — parts lines, labor lines, hours, totals and labor share for each — on the work order examples page. Reading three or four of them side by side is the clearest way to see what a specific description looks like versus a vague one.
Where the rules cited above come from
Primary sources, so you can read them rather than take our word for it. This is general recordkeeping context, not legal advice, and it does not replace the rules your own state or jurisdiction applies to your trade.
- 29 CFR 516.2(a)(7) — Requires employers to record the hours worked each workday and the total hours worked each workweek for each non-exempt employee.
- 29 CFR 516.5 — Payroll records must be preserved for at least three years.
- 29 CFR 516.6 — Two-year floor on basic time and earning records showing daily start and stop times, or amounts of work accomplished where those determine pay, and on order and billing records.
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147(c)(4)(i) — Energy control (lockout/tagout) procedures for servicing and maintenance must be developed, documented and used — which is why the close-out note on the sample job records the lockout point.
Maintenance work order FAQ
What is a maintenance work order form?
The numbered document that authorizes one maintenance job and records it: requester, assignee, priority, location, asset, the problem as reported, the work performed, parts consumed, labor hours, and a dated sign-off. "Form" and "template" describe the same document — the template is the blank, the form is the blank once it is filled in.
Is there a maintenance work order template in Excel or Word?
Yes. The printable pack has this same layout as an editable Word document, an Excel version whose parts and labor totals calculate, a print-and-fill PDF, and a work order log spreadsheet for keeping the numbering straight when forms live on clipboards. The generator on this page produces the PDF directly if you would rather not open either.
How long should completed maintenance work orders be kept?
Keep any work order carrying labor hours for at least three years: FLSA rules require payroll records to be preserved three years (29 CFR 516.5) and the underlying time and earning records at least two (29 CFR 516.6). For maintenance purposes keep them for the life of the asset — the repair-versus-replace decision is made from the history, not from the last job.
What is a building or facility maintenance work order?
The same form with a different kind of asset in the asset field. Building and facility work orders cover doors, lighting, plumbing, roofs and rooftop units rather than production equipment, so the location field does more work and the asset is often a room or a unit tag. Nothing about the numbering, priority, parts, labor or sign-off changes.
What's the difference between a work order and a work request?
A work request is what anyone can submit — "the door won't close." A work order is the approved, numbered, assigned job the maintenance team executes. Requests become work orders when someone with authority triages, prioritizes, and assigns them.
Should preventive maintenance use the same work order form?
Yes — same form, same numbering, so costs and history live in one system. The difference is content: PM work orders carry the task checklist, and defects found during a PM get their own corrective work order.
Who should be allowed to close a maintenance work order?
The assigned tech records the work; the supervisor (or the requester, for customer-facing jobs) signs it closed. The authorization line on this template exists so that closing is a decision, not an autocomplete.