Submit, track, and manage maintenance requests and approvals
Submit an intervention request
Intervention requests let anyone formally report a maintenance need. Each gets a reference (REQ-1, REQ-2, etc.). You can also start one directly from an asset's page using the Report a problem button — the asset is filled in for you.
Be specific — include when the issue started, error messages, and impact on operations.
Statuses from submission to closure
Requests follow a defined lifecycle through approval to resolution.
These two look alike but mean different things. Completed is the maintenance team’s statement: the work is done. Closed is the requester’s: they have seen the result and accepted it. That is why a request stops at Completed — it is waiting for the person who raised it to confirm, from the request page or from the closure link they were emailed. If your team already validates the work inside the work order, an administrator can switch this step off under Company settings → System; requests then close by themselves when their work order closes.
Open any intervention request and click Print (top right) to download it as a branded PDF. The PDF includes the request details, the requester, the decision (who approved or rejected it, when, and the reason) and any attachment names — handy for archiving or sharing offline.
Admins can close an active request directly — useful when it has no work order or its work order was deleted.
When a request's linked work order is completed, the request automatically moves to Completed so the requester can confirm and optionally rate the work.
An administrator can decide whether closing a request needs the requester's confirmation, under Company settings → System. It is on by default. Turn it off if you validate the work inside the work order instead — the request then closes by itself when its work order is closed.
The request status now follows its linked work order: it moves to In Progress when the technician starts, and to Completed when the work order is completed or validated. The work order's own status is also shown on the request, so you can see Scheduled or Validated even though a request has no such status.
Track your requests from 'My Requests'. You get notifications on status changes.
Report conditions and suggestions without creating a work order
Field Observations let anyone — employees, tenants, or guests — report a condition, a suggestion, or an early warning without requesting work. They are information for the Facility Manager to review, not work orders, so the maintenance team stays aware of field conditions without unnecessary workload.
A normal request asks for work and is expected to become a work order; you find it in the Requests list. An observation is information only — it keeps the Facility Manager aware without adding to the technicians’ workload, and it has its own view under Requests → Observations, so it never appears in the Requests list. Both can appear on a wallboard, where an observation is marked as such.
An observation never creates a work order automatically. A work order is created only if the Facility Manager chooses "Convert to Work Order".
How requests are reviewed
The approval workflow ensures requests are properly reviewed before committing resources.
FreeMaint supports per-company approval workflows. Go to Company Settings → Workflows and add steps for Requests with different approver types.
Once a request is approved or rejected, a banner at the top of the request shows who made the decision, when, and the rejection reason. This helps when several managers or maintenance planners can review requests. The same information appears in the request PDF and in the Activity tab.
Open Company Settings → Workflows → Requests and turn on 'Auto-approve emergency requests'. When enabled, any request flagged as Emergency skips the approval workflow and a work order is created immediately. When disabled (the default), emergency requests follow the normal approval routing. Every auto-approval is recorded in the request history for traceability.
Rather than building steps by hand, open Company Settings → Workflows, choose the Request tab, and apply a Quick preset: 'Manager approval before work order' for a single gate, or 'Two-level request approval' for a department review followed by a facility-manager approval. Each preset creates editable steps you can re-point to your exact roles.
A request can be rejected only while it is Pending or Under review. Once approved, a request automatically becomes a work order and can no longer be rejected — cancel the resulting work order instead. If the Reject button is not shown, the request has already moved past the reviewable stage.
Each step can require fields such as description, asset, location, category, photos, or any company-defined custom field (custom:<name>) before allowing the transition. For work-order completion you can also require a meter reading — handy for hour-meter or odometer-based maintenance.
The requests list can be narrowed to one or several Responsible Sections. Open the filter bar and pick the sections you own — the filter is multi-select, so 'Electrical or Mechanical' is one question, not two. It combines with every other filter and never widens what you are allowed to see: if your role is scoped to your own teams, asking for a section outside that scope returns nothing rather than someone else's requests. The control is hidden for tenants that do not use sections at all.
Approval can follow either where the work is (Location) or who is responsible (Section). For organizational responsibility — Building, Electrical, Workshop, etc. — model each section as a Team and set its leader as the section manager. Turn on the 'Responsible Section' field in your request form, then add a Request workflow step with the 'Section Manager (Team Leader)' approver. The request is then routed only to the manager of the section the requester selected, regardless of location — one location can host work owned by several sections. For organizations whose responsibility really is location-owned, the 'Target Location Manager' approver routes by Location instead.
Rejecting or cancelling a request needs a reason of at least 10 characters; a counter under the field shows how many are still missing.
For emergencies, fast-track approval and immediately convert to a work order.
On the Business plan, each Request workflow step can be limited to specific request types. Open Company Settings → Workflows → Requests, expand a step and tick the types under 'Applies to request types'. Typical setup: an 'Improvement approval' step restricted to the Improvement type, routed to the Target Location Manager — the zone's production manager, set on each location via its 'Manager / department head' field — plus a 'Repair approval' step for the other types routed to your maintenance manager role. Each request then follows only the approval chain of its own type; a step with no types ticked keeps applying to every request. The one-click preset 'Route by request type (improvement vs repair)' sets this up for you.
Turn approved requests into work orders
Approved requests can be converted into work orders for formal tracking and cost management.
In the mobile app, approving a request opens Who does the work?. Pick one or several people from the full list: the first one picked is the main assignee, and if you pick nobody the work order comes to you. The team starts on the request's Responsible Section, and you can choose another of your teams. When no other team is chosen, on the web too, the work order goes to the request's Responsible Section.
When you approve a request or convert it, the "Work order priority" field is pre-filled with the request's priority. Change it if the job is more or less urgent than reported: only the new work order takes it, the request keeps its own. Available on the web and in the mobile app.
Navigate between linked request and work order from either detail page.
If you can assign work orders, the approval dialog — for one request or for several selected at once — also has a Watchers field. The people you pick follow every work order the approval creates and are notified when it changes. The requester, and you when you assign the work order, are added as watchers automatically.
Handling urgent situations
Emergency requests require immediate attention with priority notifications.
Define an emergency response protocol with notification chains and expected response times.
Track discussions and changes
Every request has a comment thread and automatic activity log.
Automatically records every status change, assignment, and modification with timestamps.
Add updates, questions, or information. Visible to anyone with access.
Type @ in a comment to mention a colleague by name. They are notified — but only if they can open this request: a mention does not give access. If someone you named cannot see the request, FreeMaint tells you right away so you can reach them another way. Editing a comment only notifies the people you add.
Keep requesters informed with progress updates.
Submit requests from your phone
Report issues the moment you discover them with the mobile app.
In the app, reporting a problem is always called "New request". On a location's page, "New request here" opens a request already filled in with that location.
Scan an asset's QR code to auto-fill asset and location fields.
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