Watchers

Watchers let people follow a work order and get notified of its progress without being the creator, an assignee, or a team member. This is ideal for supervisors, safety officers, or QA staff who need visibility but do not perform the work themselves.

The person who assigns is added automatically

When you assign a work order to someone else, you are added as a watcher automatically. So a supervisor who assigns work on behalf of a technician keeps full visibility into status changes, comments and photos — even without being the creator or assignee.

The requester follows the work order automatically

When a work order names someone in Requested By, that person is added as a watcher. They can then open the work order and are notified of status changes and new comments — even though they did not create it and are not assigned to it. This covers the common case of a department head or manager who asked for the work but had someone else record it. They are added only at the moment the requester is first set, so removing them from the Watchers card is permanent: a later edit will not bring them back.

Adding watchers manually

Open a work order and use the Watchers card in the sidebar. Anyone who can edit work orders can add or remove watchers. Search for a colleague and select them; remove a watcher with the X next to their name.

What watchers receive

Watchers can open the work order (even under a restricted data-scope role) and are notified on status changes and new comments, subject to each user’s own notification preferences.

Tip

Adding someone as a watcher grants them read access to that specific work order — a simple way to give visibility without changing their role.

Adding or removing watchers on several work orders

In the Work Orders list, tick the work orders (or use Select all), then click Watchers in the bar that appears. Choose Add or Remove, pick the people and click Apply. Adding never removes the watchers a work order already has, and a work order you are not allowed to see is skipped and reported. The button needs the same right as the Watchers card: assigning work orders.

Watchers on preventive plans

A preventive plan can carry default watchers, copied onto every work order it generates. To set them on several plans at once, tick the plans in the preventive maintenance list, click "Bulk edit" and fill in the "Watchers" field, then choose "Add to each plan's current watchers" or "Replace each plan's watchers". Work orders already open keep their own watchers.