Guidelines for Creating Work Types for Field Service

Work orders and work order line items that contain a value in the Work Type field inherit the following values from their work type:

• Duration
• Duration Type
• Required skills (found in the Skill Requirements related list)
• Required products (found in the Products Required related list)
• Linked articles (found in the Articles related list)

Service appointments with a value in the Work Type field inherit their work type’s Duration and Duration Type.

Note If a work type is updated on a work order or service appointment, the derived values, for example, skills and duration, aren’t automatically updated unless no values were initially set. Also, updating a work type after it’s been assigned to a work order or service appointment doesn’t automatically update the derived properties.

You can update a record’s settings after they’re inherited from the work type.

Skill Requirements

Skill requirements on work types represent the skills that are needed to complete the work. Work orders and work order line items inherit their work type’s skill requirements. Define required skills in the Skill Requirements related list.

You can enforce skill requirements during schedule optimization using the Match Skills work rule in a scheduling policy. If you’re not using the Field Service managed package, skill requirements serve as a suggestion rather than a requirement.

If you add a work type to an existing work order, the work order only inherits the skill requirements if the work order didn’t yet have any. Similarly, updating a work type’s skill requirements doesn’t affect work orders that were already created using that work type.

The previous rules are also true for work order line items. Work order line items don’t inherit their parent work order’s skill requirements.

Note Customizations to skill requirements, such as validation rules or Apex triggers, aren't carried over from work types to work orders and work order line items.

Required Products

Required products on work types represent the products that are needed to complete the work. Work orders and work order line items inherit their work type’s required products. Define required products in the Products Required related list.

If you add a work type to an existing work order, the work order only inherits the required products if the work order didn’t yet have any. Similarly, updating a work type’s required products doesn’t affect work orders that were already created using that work type.

The previous rules are also true for work order line items. Work order line items don’t inherit their parent work order’s required products.

Note Customizations to required products, such as validation rules or Apex triggers, aren't carried over from work types to work orders and work order line items.

Auto-Created Service Appointments

If the Auto-Create Service Appointment option on a work type is selected, a service appointment is created when the work type is applied to a work order or work order line item. The service appointment lists the work type in its Work Type field and inherits the work type’s Duration and Duration Type. A service appointment isn’t created if the work order or work order line item already has an appointment.

If a user selects Auto-Create Service Appointment on an existing work type, service appointments aren’t created on work orders and work order line items that were already using the work type.

Exact Appointments Setting

When you schedule a service appointment that has an associated work type, scheduling also considers the Exact Appointments field in the work type. If Exact Appointments is selected in the work type, the appointment is scheduled to start at the beginning of the time slot rather than during the time slot window.

Knowledge Articles

When you attach a knowledge article to a work type, the article shows up on work orders and work order line items that use the work type. For example, if you have a work type named Solar Panel Replacement, you can attach an article that explains how to replace a solar panel. Any work order using that work type automatically includes the article, and the person assigned to the work order has the instructions at their fingertips.

Articles on work types work a little differently than articles on work orders and work order line items. Here are the differences:

• A Linked Work Types related list isn’t available on article page layouts, so you can’t see which work types an article is attached to.
• The Knowledge One widget isn’t available on work types in the console in Salesforce Classic, but the Articles related list is.
• To ensure that field service records are associated with the most current versions of knowledge articles, articles attached to work types don’t specify an article version. For this reason:
  • When work orders and work order line items inherit an article from their work type, they inherit the latest version of the article published in their org’s default Knowledge Settings language.
  • An article attached to a work type can display in a different title or language in the Articles related list versus in the Knowledge Lightning component. The Articles related list shows the article version that work orders and work order line items inherit from the work type.