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Question

Best Practices for Time Tracking & Work Order Completion

  • March 30, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 136 views
C

Hi everyone,

I recently started a new position with a company that began using MaintainX in January. I’ve used MaintainX in a previous role, but since this team is still relatively new to the platform, we’re running into some challenges.

Specifically, we’re seeing:

  • Inaccurate or incomplete time entries on work orders
  • Work orders being completed at the end of a shift instead of immediately after the task is finished

Does anyone have best practices or strategies for improving team buy‑in and encouraging accurate, real‑time work order updates?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

2 replies

J
  • Jessica RuizMaintainX Community Team
  • MaintainX Community Team
  • April 7, 2026

Hi ​@Colotonr, thank you for sharing your story here, totally normal challenge to face!

Two features I'd start with:

QR codes: stick them on your assets so techs can pull up or create work orders instantly on the spot. Works for requesters too, great for overall buy-in. Watch how it works

In-app messaging: get the team communicating inside work orders instead of by text/call. It naturally keeps them in the app and updating in real time. See it in action

Also, make sure your techs are using the mobile app, it's by far the easiest way to update work orders on the go. Here's a quick intro video to share with the team.

A few extra tips:

  • When asking the team to close work orders right away, position it as keeping the data accurate for future fixes, not as checking up on them
  • For time entries, remind them to start the timer when the task begins rather than estimating at the end. This video covers it
  • Try a friendly competition: who logs the most accurate work orders this week?

Hope that helps!

    A
    • ASchur
    • Emerging Technician
    • April 24, 2026

    This is a common problem. The first thing is to understand the reason for the behavior. Often it’s gaming the system because the accurate times might expose the staff has more available time. If all tasks are in perfect increments like 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 90 minutes etc. They are fudging it. For our team I’m working on training that’s pretty much standard operating procedures for Maintenance. It’s for everything they do. With regards to the topic. Proper completion of the workorders is part of doing a quality job. It’s not optional. Sometimes you need to have conversation with people. Something else I do is report maintenance performance during communication meeting. I’ll show all sorts of data. Who completed the most work orders, who proactively started and completed the most work orders etc. I won’t public shame anyone but there’s information that can be inferred by what’s displayed. Also generally it’s a good idea to daily review the work orders with the team, challenge the data and eventually the team should come around. If someone doesn’t come around they’re probably short cutting their other tasks too. Handle that as needed. We are now using the quality of their MaintainX use as a metric for reviews. Lastly I randomly reward the team members who do a great job. The rewards are nice tools they would never purchase for themselves. They like getting a new Milwaukee power tool or a quality tool from Knipex, Wera, Wiha etc.

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