How to put a work order on hold

Why put a work order on hold?

Putting a work order on hold is a useful feature, especially if you send notifications to your customers. It allows you to:

• Identify the jobs for which you are waiting for a confirmation of availability from your customers.
• Prioritize certain orders over others during optimization.
• Announce a more precise time window to your customers (if the dedicated option is enabled in the settings; see below).

⚠️ The first two uses do not require any specific configuration. However, to automatically refine time slots when a work order is put on hold, you must first enable the corresponding option in the settings.
 

Configuring the announcement of a more precise time slot

To use the on-hold status to announce a more precise time slot, you must enable the following setting: Automatically adjust time slots when putting work orders on hold.

In practice, putting a job on hold automatically restricts its time slot to the smallest time slot defined in your settings, while ensuring that the scheduled time of the job is included within that window.

Steps to follow

1. Go to the “Settings” module.
2. Click on “General” settings.
3. Enable the option “Automatically adjust time slots when putting on hold or confirming”.
4. Select the time slots to be adjusted when orders are put on hold.
5. Click the “Save” button.

💡 Good to know: You can choose which time slots the automatic adjustment will apply to when putting work orders on hold. By default, all time slots are selected.

Example of how it works

For example, if a work order is scheduled within a large time window (such as 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.), putting it on hold allows the system to narrow it down to the shortest compatible time window defined in your Settings > Time slots (e.g., 5:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.).

⚠️ If several time slots (with the shortest duration) are compatible, AntsRoute always selects the last compatible slot in the list.
For example, if your settings display in this order 09:00–18:00 then 08:00–17:00, and you define a wide slot 08:00–18:00, AntsRoute will select 08:00–17:00, since it is the last matching slot in the list.

⚠️ In case of overlap between two slots, AntsRoute always chooses the later one.
For example, if your settings contain the slots 13:00–15:00 and 14:00–16:00, and you schedule a job with a slot 13:00–16:00 and an expected arrival at 14:20, AntsRoute will select the slot 14:00–16:00.
 

Impact of putting work orders on hold on job priority

Priority rules during optimization:

1. Confirmed work orders are given the highest priority.
2. On-hold work orders come next.
3. Planned work orders have the lowest priority.

So, if certain work orders cannot be included in a route (due to, for instance, agent working hours), planned work orders will be the first to be excluded, followed by on-hold work orders, and lastly confirmed work orders.
 

How to put a work order on hold?

You can place a work order on hold from any of the four tabs in the “Organize” module. Here's how to do it from the “List of work orders” tab:

1. Go to the “Organize” module.
2. Click the “List of work orders” tab.
3. Use the date selector to choose the day the work order is scheduled.
4. Find the work order, click “…”, then select “Put on hold”.

💡 Work orders that are on hold appear in yellow in the schedule.

☝️ Good to know: You can also put all work orders of a route on hold in one action, from the “Agenda” or “Routes” tab. Here's how to do it from the Agenda tab:

1. Go to the “Organize” module.
2. Click the “Agenda” tab.
3. Use the date selector to choose the relevant day.
4. Tick the checkbox for the route whose work orders you want to put on hold.
5. Click the “Put on hold” button.

☝️ Good to know: you can also put a work order on hold in an ongoing route.
 

How to cancel the on-hold status of a work order?

To remove a work order from hold, you can also use any of the tabs in the “Organize” module. Here’s how from the “List of work orders” tab:

1. Go to the “Organize” module.
2. Click the “List of work orders” tab.
3. Use the date selector to choose the work order’s scheduled day.
4. Find the work order in the list, click “…”, then select “Remove hold”.