📘 Screen: Downtime Reason
This is the list of reasons a maintenance job sits idle: "waiting for parts", "waiting for quote", "no mechanic available", "machine in use in the field", "waiting for outside shop". It's a simple record with three fields, but it's what explains why a work order that should have taken four hours took three days.
The reasons show up in the time entries of the maintenance work order, including in the field app, where the mechanic records time worked and downtime.
📍 Location in the system
Menu: Fleet > Downtime Reason
🧩 Main function
Standardize the downtime reasons used in maintenance time entries, so lost time can be totaled by cause instead of staying buried in each work order's free-text description.
📝 Main fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Code | Short identifier for the reason. |
| Description | Required. The reason as the mechanic would recognize it: "Waiting for parts", "Waiting for quote", "No mechanic available". |
| Active | Uncheck it to remove the reason from the lists without erasing the history of work orders that already used it. |
- You can total how many hours the shop lost waiting for parts during the season
- Downtime no longer gets mixed up with time worked
- Every time entry uses the same vocabulary, which makes the report comparable
❓ Frequently asked questions
How many downtime reasons is it worth setting up?
A few, clearly distinct ones: somewhere between five and ten is usually enough. Too many reasons and the mechanic picks any of them; too few and everything ends up as "other". Start with the causes that actually keep happening in the shop.
Where is the downtime reason chosen?
In the time entries of the maintenance work order, together with the employee, the activity and the period worked, including from the field app, when the mechanic records the job straight from their phone.
I no longer use a reason. Should I delete or deactivate it?
Deactivate it. A record already used in work orders can't be deleted, and unchecking the Active field removes the reason from the selection lists without touching what has already been recorded.