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 (the Archer app) (work in the field)

How it works, in short

A work order built from trouble spots is a Spot Fix — one of the portal's work order types. The WORK section of the portal's left-hand menu has one page per type (General, Spot Search, Spot Fix), and each page's create button makes that type.

1. A manager creates a Spot Fix from the Work → Spot Fix page — picking the spots, naming the order and optionally setting assignees and a deadline.
2. Assigned users see the work order on the Work tab of the mobile app.
3. Tapping the work order's card starts (or resumes) the work session and lands on the map with the order's spots emphasised and everything else dimmed. The ⓘ button on the card opens the details without starting work.
4. The manager watches progress on the portal. The order completes itself when the last spot is resolved (un-doing a spot reopens it), and it can be archived from the portal list once it's no longer relevant.

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

Creating a Spot Fix from Work → Spot Fix

On the portal's Work → Spot Fix page, the create button opens a wizard that starts by picking the trouble spots:

1. Pick trouble spots — a filter bar (vineyard, blocks, types), a search box, and a select-all for the filtered set let you assemble the batch spot by spot or in one sweep.
2. Details — the name is auto-suggested from the picked spots until you edit it; past start and deadline dates are blocked.
3. Assign people — tick the people who'll do the work. If every picked spot shares one type that carries a resolution process, this step splits into one picker per process step, with a Same crew for every step shortcut. Assignment is soft — it drives default views and filtering, and never blocks anyone from completing work.

Closing the dialog mid-entry asks for confirmation, so a stray click can't lose what you've entered. See Creating a work order for the full wizard.

Reviewing the pending spots first

Before you create a job, it helps to look at what's pending. In the portal, open Maps and switch to the Spots lens: the side panel lists the pending spots for the vineyard in view, with the same category / type / block / reported-since filters as the wizard's picker, an Export menu (CSV or PDF of the spots in view), and Select all → Mark complete for clearing spots that are already dealt with. There's no create-work-order button on the lens — once you know what you want to send out, go to Work → Spot Fix and pick the same set in the wizard.

Searching for trouble spots — Spot Search

When you suspect a problem but haven't logged the spots yet, create a Spot Search instead: pick the trouble-spot type you're looking for and the blocks to sweep. Crews walk the blocks row by row on the Work tab, logging finds as normal trouble spots that are tagged to the search. On the portal's Spot Search detail page, Create Spot Fix from results then opens the Spot Fix wizard prefilled with every currently-unresolved spot of that type (named "Fix — {search name}"), so the sweep flows straight into the repair job. See From Spot Search to Spot Fix for the full flow.

Managing trouble spot types

The list of categories and types that field users report against is the trouble spot taxonomy. If your organisation can customise it, the editor is at Settings → Organisation → Trouble Spot Types. See Managing trouble-spot types.

A type can also carry a multi-step resolution process that changes how its spots are completed in the field — defined at Settings → Organisation → Resolution Processes. See Resolution processes.

If you don't see these entries, your organisation isn't set up to customise them — 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.