Work Order Management for Increased Compliance & Safety
When it comes to work orders, businesses often struggle to align financial payments with actual on-site service delivery. This misalignment means overpayment, non-compliance and significant operational and safety risk. Discover below how businesses are overcoming this challenge by focusing on verifiable service delivery, which significantly reduces their operational risks.
TL:DR (Too Long:Didn’t Read) – Key Takeaways
- Financial Payments vs. On-site Service Delivery: Industry practice relies on contractors closing work orders on a web portal as a signal of work order completion, but this method often leads to payment of unverified maintenance and increased risks of non-compliance.
- Service Delivery and Work Orders are Often Misaligned: Many contractors use their own preventative maintenance (PM) scheduling systems not the PM work orders, which causes further discrepancies between generated work orders and what is happening on the ground.
- Shifting to Delivery-Focused Work Orders: Ensuring systems and payments are linked to independently verified, data driven work completion rather than contractual triggers can guarantee safety, compliance and value for money.
- Setting Up for Success: Setting up fit-for-purpose work orders requires a deep understanding of the relevant Australian standards, effective ERP, and understanding of contractor behaviours, and configuration and clear alignment between financial triggers and on-the-ground service delivery.
In facility management, work orders have traditionally been seen as the cornerstone of maintenance operations. The way contracts and work orders are currently being managed within the industry, however, is leading to a significant misalignment between service requirements and actual work that is completed. This misalignment could be putting your business at risk regarding critical safety and compliance requirements.
How can facility managers ensure alignment between on-site service delivery and financial payments? The answer lies in shifting the focus from contractor driven payment triggers to on-the-ground, verified data-driven metrics and an appropriate data capture system. This ensures facility managers only release payments when work is verified, completed and up to the required safety and compliance standards.
The Misalignment Between Payments vs. Service Delivery
Completed work orders are often used as financial triggers, focusing more on meeting contracted payment and service schedules than verifying the actual completion of work. This creates a system built around financial triggers rather than the real-work requirement of compliance, delivery, and visibility. As a result, this financial-centric approach reduces work orders to mere payment mechanisms, regardless of whether the services meet the required standards, legislation or are delivered at all.
To make things worse, 3rd Party Contractor Systems frequently operate on their own internal schedules for PM services that may not align with your company’s work order or ERP systems. This creates discrepancies between works being performed by technicians and work orders being issued by ERP systems.
This approach, though commonly used by many businesses, is critically flawed. It creates gaps in compliance, reduces visibility, and misaligns financial processes with actual service delivery needs. The consequences can be severe, with payments being released for incomplete or substandard work, exposing businesses to financial and compliance risks.
A Real-World Example – How Misaligned Work Orders Impact Safety
On of the most significant risks of this misalignment is when it affects safety-critical systems. Recently a client had work orders in place for the preventative maintenance of a sprinkler system. The payment method was based on each work order being closed by the contractor. However, there was no link or confirmation as to the on-site delivery, and no supporting documentation required to back it up.
The contractors’ requirements and internal schedule didn’t fully align with the facility manager’s ERP system, increasing the risk of non-compliance with Australian safety standards. Without proper ERP configuration and alignment, the work orders missed critical checks needed for safety compliance, leaving major gaps in service verification.
This disconnect could have had serious consequences. If left unresolved, essential maintenance tasks could have been skipped, exposing the sprinkler system to potential failure during an emergency. By reconfiguring the ERP system to align with Australian standards, the facility manager would be able to mitigate these risks and ensure the system met all compliance and safety requirements.
How It Should Work – Effective Work Order Contracts & Fulfilment
Work orders must be designed to reflect actual maintenance needs and ensure compliance with relevant standards. THis requires a shift from using work orders as purely financial and contractual tools to making them instruments that guide contractors on what needs to be delivered, when, and where. When aligned with ERP systems, contractor schedules, and Australian standards, work orders hold contractors accountable for completing tasks to the required specifications.
On the facility management side, to avoid misalignment and compliance risks, businesses must ensure their ERP systems are configured to capture all necessary service delivery and safety requirements. By integrating Australian standards and PM tasks into the ERP, work orders can accurately reflect the scope, frequency, and quality of the services needed. To achieve this, facility managers need:
- A deep understanding of Australian standards and contractor behaviour and how they translate into contractor tasks within the ERP system.
- An ERP setup that supports specific maintenance requirements, including service frequency and compliance checkpoints.
- The ability to create work orders within the ERP that only trigger payments once the work is verified as completed and compliant.
- An ERP system that can cancel a work order if a subsequent work order is created.
- An ERP system integrated with an on-site application to capture required legal documents and trigger work order closure.
This approach ensures financial integrity, alignment with internal contract management processes, and full compliance with both industry standards and regulations.
From Financial Transactions to Compliance
Work order management must evolve beyond being a tool for financial transactions and instead become a key instrument for ensuring service delivery and compliance. By aligning work orders with real-world performance and regulatory standards, facility managers can ensure that payments are made only for verified, completed worked. This approach safeguards compliance, enhances visibility, and ensures that critical systems operate at peak safety and reliability.
Optimising work order management can be complex and overwhelming. Learn more about how Verified can help align your work orders with actual service delivery and compliance standards, ensuring financial integrity and minimising your business risk. Contact us on 1300 133 950 or via email to find out more.