Every breakdown starts with a report: an operator who notices an odd noise, an occupant whose air conditioning fails, a worker who spots a leak. What happens after that report is the whole difference between maintenance under control and maintenance that chases problems. The maintenance request is that entry point — and managing it well is often the first project of a CMMS.
Why separate the request from the work order
A common mistake is to treat every report as an immediate work order. But not every report warrants a job, and not all are urgent. The request acts as a filter: anyone can report, but a manager decides whether — or not — to turn that report into planned work. This separates “someone spotted something” from “a job is officially started”.
Open reporting to everyone
The best field sensor is the people who work there. The simpler and wider the reporting, the earlier you see problems. In Maint Vision the requester role is free and unlimited: operators, occupants and staff can create a request without taking up a license. A request comes down to the essentials — a title, a description, the asset and location concerned, a priority — and can be created from the web or from mobile, right on the spot.
Triage, approve, reject
A request arrives with a Pending status. The manager reads it, checks the asset and location, assesses the priority, then decides. If they approve it, it becomes work. If they reject it, they must enter a reason — that is the only feedback the requester receives, and it is what keeps trust alive: people no longer report “into the void”. This triage avoids two symmetrical pitfalls: drowning the team under non-urgent jobs, and leaving real problems unanswered.
Convert into a work order
This is the key moment. Approving a request converts it into a work order in a single operation: the title, description, asset, location and priority are copied into the new WO. The original request is then frozen and keeps the link to the work order created. You can therefore, at any time, trace a job back to the report that triggered it — valuable traceability for audits and for understanding the origin of a recurring problem.
What it changes day to day
With a structured request flow, nothing gets lost. Every report has a status and a history; every decision (approval, reasoned rejection) is traced; every job keeps the thread of its origin. The manager decides on facts rather than on the pressure of whoever called last. And the metrics become readable: how many requests come in, how many are converted, and the time to handle them.
One good practice to finish
Encourage requesters to fill in as much information as possible at creation — asset, location, priority. The more precise the request, the less the manager has to re-enter after approval, and the faster the job starts.
For the next step of the journey, read our work order management guide.