Free work order generator

How this work order generator works

Built for people who send someone to site. Name who is doing the job and when, list labor and materials on their own lines, and pick your trade so the work order starts with lines that already make sense for it: hours, visits, meters, units.

Print it, save it as a PDF, download it as an image, or hand the phone to the client to sign. It is free, there is no signup, and what you type stays in your browser unless you sign in to send a tracked link or use the optional AI helper. Prefer a printed design? Pick one of the work order templates.

What a work order is for

A work order is the job written down before anyone starts: what is being done, who is doing it, when they are on site, and what it costs. It is the paper the client signs to say yes, and the paper you point at when the job grows.

Most disputes on site come down to scope: the client remembers one thing, you remember another, and neither of you wrote it down. A signed work order ends that conversation in ten seconds.

Six things make a work order do its job, and all six are on the document this page builds: your business, the client and the site, a unique number, the scope with quantities and units, the schedule, and a signature authorizing the work.

Need a blank form to fill in by hand? Download a blank work order template in Word, Excel or PDF.

How to write a work order

1. Customer and site. The client, their contact, and the site address with the access notes: who lets the crew in, where the keys are, where to park.
2. Scope. What is being done, in plain words, and what is not included.
3. Who and when. The crew or technician, the scheduled date, and the work order number the job will be known by.
4. Labor and materials. Hours or visits at your rate on their own lines, materials on theirs. If the job is not priced yet, estimate the cost first.
5. Sign-off before and after. The client authorizes the work before it starts, and signs it off when it is finished.

A work order example: a broken AC unit

A property manager reports an AC unit that has stopped cooling in a leased unit. The HVAC company dispatches a two-person crew for a same-day callout. Before anyone drives out, the work order is what gets signed:

• Client and site: Harborview Property Group, unit 4B, 118 Riverside Ave.
• Crew assigned: Dana Reyes and one apprentice.
• Scheduled for: today, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
• Scope of work: diagnose the unit, replace the failed capacitor, and recharge the refrigerant if the leak test comes back clean. Anything past that, a new compressor for example, is quoted separately, not assumed.
• Materials: capacitor, refrigerant by the pound, each on its own line so the client can see what was used.
• Labor: a callout fee plus an hourly rate after the first hour, each on its own line with its own unit.
• Sign-off: the property manager signs before the crew starts, authorizing the work and the rate. When the job is done, they sign again to confirm it.

This is not the invoice. The work order is the crew's authorization to do the job, an internal, crew-facing document agreed before a wrench is picked up. The invoice comes after, once the job is complete, billing the same lines to the client. Turn it into an invoice once it is signed off, or start from one of the work order templates for a design that matches your brand.

Every trade works differently, so the lines start differently

A day of carpentry and a furnace service have nothing in common except the shape of the paper. Pick your trade at the top of the builder and the scope lines, quantities and units start where that trade starts, then you edit from there.

The unit matters as much as the line. Labor can be billed by the hour, by the visit or as a fixed price for the job, and a callout fee is not the same thing as an hourly rate. Put the unit on every line, whether hours, visits, days or the job, and the sheet prints it beside the quantity, so eight means eight hours and not eight visits.

Trades this works for include general contractors, electricians, plumbers, landscapers, auto repair shops, cleaning companies and office and IT services, along with kitchens, shops, print shops, events, clinics and manufacturing.

Work order, purchase order, quote and invoice

Work order: authorization to do the job. You issue it, the client signs it, and it fixes the scope before anyone is on site.

Quote: a price offered before the client has said yes, and it can be declined. Write one here.

Invoice: the request for payment once the work is done. Raise one here.

Purchase order: you ordering materials from a supplier for the job. Order them with the purchase order generator.

A job usually runs quote, work order, invoice. The work order is the one that stops the scope moving while the work happens.

The work order number and its status

The number ties the signed scope to the job on site to the invoice that follows. When a client queries a line six weeks later, the number is how you find the sheet they signed.

Keep the format simple and sequential. WO-2026-0142 tells you the year and the count at a glance, and sorts correctly in a folder. Put the same number on the invoice and the two documents stay tied together.

The status prints at the top of the sheet. Draft is your own working copy, before the client has seen it. Scheduled is signed and booked in, with a date the client has agreed to. Completed is the job done, which is the version that goes with the invoice.

Terms worth putting on every work order

Work outside this scope is quoted separately. The most useful line on the document, and the one that ends most arguments about extras. When the scope does change after signing, write it up as a change order; the change orders guide covers how to write, price and invoice the extra.

Access is required on the dates shown. Protects you when nobody is in and the day is lost.

Materials remain ours until paid for. Worth stating when you are installing anything you bought up front.

Additional hours are charged at the rate shown. Says the rate once, in writing, so a longer day is not a negotiation.

When the job is done

A work order is signed twice. Before the work, the client authorizes it; after the work, they sign it off. The second line on the sheet reads signed off on completion, and date, so the finished copy records that the client saw the job done.

Before that signature, write down what was done against what was ordered, anything left outstanding and anything found on site. Keep dated photos with the job. Then set the status to Completed and raise the invoice from the same lines.

Getting it signed, and getting a PDF

Print or save PDF opens your own print dialogue, where the destination to choose is Save as PDF. The sheet is measured and scaled to one page before the dialogue opens, so it does not split, and printing gives the sharpest, selectable file.

Download image gives a PNG, which is the one to send when the client wants it in a message rather than an attachment.

Sign on the sheet. Type the name or draw the signature with a finger, and hand the phone over on site. The signature prints on the document and on every export.

Work order questions