Managing trouble spot work

Reporting and completing individual trouble spots (see Reporting and Completing) covers the simple case: someone finds a thing, someone fixes it. Real vineyard operations usually need more structure — grouping spots into batches, assigning them to specific people, and tracking progress.

In Archer, that's what work orders are for.

Platform: Portal (create and track) and Mobile (Archer Setup app) (work in the field)

How it works, in short

A work order is a named group of pending trouble spots, created in the portal and worked from the mobile app.

1. A manager filters the Trouble Spots page in the portal, clicks New work order, names the order and (optionally) sets assignees and a deadline.
2. Assigned users see the work order on the Work Orders tab of the mobile app.
3. They open it, walk up to each spot, and complete it from the field map. A focus session keeps the work order's spots visible while dimming everything else.
4. The manager watches progress on the portal. Once everything's done (or the order's no longer relevant), it can be archived.

The underlying trouble spots are unchanged — a work order is just a container.

A work order captures the whole filtered set

When you create a work order from the portal Trouble Spots page, it captures every pending spot currently matching your filters — not a hand-picked few. So narrow your filters first (by category, type, vineyard, block, or date) until the pending list shows exactly the spots you want to send out, then create the order.

The page header and the New work order button both show a live count of the pending spots in the current filter, so you can confirm the batch size before you create anything.

📷 Screenshot: Portal Trouble Spots top-right action cluster — Edit trouble spot types, Export, and the New work order button with its count badge.

This is different from the per-row selection used for completion. On the Pending Trouble Spots table you can tick individual rows and choose Approve Selected to mark just those spots complete (see Completing trouble spots). That per-row select has nothing to do with the work order — the work order always takes the filtered set as a whole.

Creating a work order from the portal

1. Open the Trouble Spots page in the portal and apply filters until the pending list contains the spots you want to assign.
2. In the top-right, click New work order. The button shows the count of filtered pending spots and is disabled until at least one spot matches your filters.
3. An inline Create Work Order from N filtered pending spots panel opens. Fill it in:
   • Work order name — a name is pre-filled; edit it to something the field team will recognise.
   • Assign to — optionally tick one or more users from your organisation.
   • Deadline — optionally pick a due date.
4. Click Create to make the order, or Cancel to close the panel without creating anything.

📷 Screenshot: The inline "Create Work Order from N filtered pending spots" panel showing the name field, Assign to dropdown, Deadline picker, and Create / Cancel buttons.

Managing trouble spot types

The list of categories and types that field users report against is the trouble spot taxonomy. If your account has permission to edit it, an Edit trouble spot types link appears in the top-right of the Trouble Spots page, alongside Export and New work order. It opens the trouble spot types settings page where you can manage the categories and types reported in the field.

If you don't see the link, your organisation isn't set up to customise the taxonomy — that's expected, and nothing else on this page changes.

Read next

• What work orders are and when to use one — concept and lifecycle.
• Creating a work order — portal.
• Assigning and tracking a work order — portal.
• Working a work order — mobile.