How does service and maintenance work in Robaws: from installation to planning item?
Do you place appliances that need regular maintenance, such as boilers, heat pumps or air conditioners? Then let Robaws follow up that maintenance for you. You record once which maintenance an appliance needs, and each time Robaws creates an order in time that you only have to schedule. In this article you follow the complete route, from the installation to the planning item for your technician, and then on to the work order and the invoice.
Navigate quickly to:
- the flow at a glance
- one-time setup
- the maintenance schedule on the installation
- linking a subscription
- Robaws creates the maintenance service and the order
- scheduling the order
- carrying out the maintenance
- invoicing the maintenance
- a repair outside the maintenance
The flow at a glance
Example: you install a heat pump at a customer's, which needs maintenance every year around 1 March. Your customer pays a fixed amount per year for this.
Step | Who | What happens |
|---|---|---|
1. Installation | You | You create the heat pump as an installation for your customer. |
2. Maintenance schedule | You | On the installation you add the maintenance 'Annual heat pump maintenance', with 1 March as the next execution. |
3. Subscription | You (optional) | You link the installation to a subscription that invoices the fixed amount every year. |
4. Maintenance service and order | Robaws | 30 days in advance, around 30 January, Robaws creates a maintenance service and an order of the Maintenance type. |
5. Planning item | You | You schedule the order in the dayplanning for your technician. |
6. Work order | Your technician | They fill in the maintenance service on the work order, in Wappy or in Robaws. |
7. Invoice | You | You invoice the hours and the material that are not included in the fixed amount. |
Then it starts again: the next execution on the installation is already set to 1 March of next year.
One-time setup: statuses and templates
Statuses
Every maintenance service gets a status. You create your statuses via Settings > Maintenance > Statuses. There you also choose the Default status: the status that every new maintenance service gets. Every status belongs to a fixed category, which determines what Robaws does with the maintenance service:
Category | What it does |
|---|---|
Active, To do | The maintenance has not been completed yet. |
Done | The maintenance has been carried out. You can no longer change the forms of the maintenance service. |
Not done | The maintenance has not been carried out. You can no longer change the forms. |
For example, create the statuses 'To be scheduled' (To do), 'Carried out' (Done) and 'Customer not at home' (Not done).
Maintenance service templates
In a maintenance service template you record how often a maintenance recurs and how Robaws creates it. You create your templates via Settings > General > Master data > Maintenance service templates.
Field | Explanation |
|---|---|
Name | The name of the maintenance, for example 'Annual heat pump maintenance'. You choose this name as the type of maintenance on the installation, and it becomes the title of the order. |
Recurring period | How often the maintenance recurs, for example every year or every six months. |
Sync next execution with actual completion | If this is switched off, the next execution moves forward by one period each time, regardless of when the maintenance actually took place. If this is switched on, Robaws calculates from the date in Executed on, as soon as the maintenance service gets a status with the Done category. Example: scheduled on 1 March, carried out on 15 April. If it is switched on, the next maintenance becomes 15 April next year instead of 1 March. |
Combining strategy | May this maintenance service be put on one order together with other maintenance services? Choose Always, Only with the same template or Never. See Several maintenance services on one order. |
Estimated duration | Roughly how long the maintenance takes. This field is purely informative. |
Days in advance for creating maintenance task | How many days before the next execution Robaws creates the maintenance service and the order. By default this is 30 days. |
Order template | The order template with which Robaws creates the order. You choose from the templates of the Maintenance type. |
In the template you also add what belongs to every maintenance. Robaws copies this to every new maintenance service:
- Items: the items you use during the maintenance, for example a filter or a maintenance kit.
- Forms: for example a checklist that the technician fills in. You only see this if you work with forms.
- Documents and Tasks.
The maintenance schedule on the installation
On the installation file you record in the Maintenance schedule block which maintenance is needed. Every line consists of a Type of maintenance (a maintenance service template) and the date of the Next execution. A line ends up on the installation in three ways:
- Via the item. On an item of the Installation type, in the Maintenance block, add the maintenance service templates that belong to that appliance. Every installation with this item takes them over automatically, with the first recurrence after today as the next execution. That way you set it up once for all your appliances of that type.
- Via a template. On the installation, click Add line, choose a maintenance service template and click Add.
- Via a schedule of your own. On the installation, click Add line and choose Custom.... Robaws then opens a new schedule that only applies to this installation. Fill in the fields as for the templates.
Linking a subscription (optional)
Does your customer pay a fixed amount for the maintenance, for example per year? Then create a subscription of the Invoice type that invoices that amount, and link the installation to it. To do so, fill in the Subscription field on the installation, or on the subscription, in the Overview block, click the plus sign next to 'Installations'.
The subscription does not schedule any maintenance itself: the maintenance schedule does that. The subscription:
- invoices the fixed amount at its own rhythm;
- appears on every maintenance order of the installation;
- determines with the Maintenance invoicing strategy card whether the hours and the material of the maintenance are still invoiced, see Invoicing the maintenance;
- stops the maintenance: as long as the subscription is not active, Robaws does not create maintenance services for the installation.
The flow also works without a subscription: you then invoice every maintenance separately.
Robaws creates the maintenance service and the order
Every night Robaws checks which maintenance will be needed soon. If the Next execution of a line falls within the days in advance of the template, then:
- Robaws creates a maintenance service, with the items, forms, documents and tasks of the template and the default status;
- the Next execution on the installation moves forward by one period;
- Robaws puts the maintenance service on an order of the Maintenance type, with the customer, the project, the address and the subscription of the installation.
Don't want to wait until the next night? Then click the Create maintenances action button (spanner) in the overview of your installations or of your maintenance services.
Several maintenance services on one order
If there are several installations at the same customer, their maintenance services end up on one order if the installations have the same project, the same customer and the same address, and the templates use the same order template. The Combining strategy of the template refines this:
- Always: the maintenance service may be combined with any other maintenance service that meets those conditions.
- Only with the same template: the maintenance service is only combined with maintenance services of the same template.
- Never: the maintenance service always gets an order of its own.
If an installation has no project, no customer and no address, every maintenance service gets an order of its own.
Scheduling the order
Robaws does not put the order in the planning itself. Schedule the order in the dayplanning for the technician who carries out the maintenance. That creates the planning item: your technician sees the maintenance in their planning, and the date appears on the maintenance service as Planned execution. On the planning item, in the Overview block, you see at 'Maintenance' which maintenance services belong to it.
Carrying out the maintenance
You fill in the maintenance in one of two ways:
- On site in Wappy. The technician opens the work order of the order, fills in the maintenance service and sends the work order. The maintenance service is then immediately on that work order. See Wappy | Filling in a maintenance service on site.
- In Robaws. You fill in the maintenance service yourself and then put it on a work order with the Add work order action button. See Maintenance services | General.
Once the maintenance has been carried out, the maintenance service should have a status with the Done category: in Wappy the technician chooses that status, in Robaws you set it yourself. You find all your maintenance services in the Maintenance services module, and also via the Overview block on the installation, the order and the work order.
Invoicing the maintenance
Without a subscription you invoice the work order or the order like any other work: the hours and the material of the work order appear on the invoice. See Invoicing one or more work orders
With a subscription the subscription invoices the fixed amount. What comes on top of that, you determine on the subscription in the Maintenance invoicing strategy card:
Setting | To be invoiced | Do not invoice |
|---|---|---|
Employee hours | The hours of the work order appear on the invoice of the order. | The hours are included in the fixed amount. |
Material | The items of the work order appear on the invoice of the order. | The material is included in the fixed amount. |
Then invoice the maintenance order via the Execution tab of the order. Robaws immediately sets the lines to 'To be invoiced' or 'Do not invoice' according to the strategy. You can still change that per line. To do so, switch on Use execution-based billing in the orders settings. How that works is explained in Execution based invoicing.
Example: your customer pays 180 euros per year for the maintenance of their heat pump, including the working hours but without parts. On the subscription, set Employee hours to Do not invoice and Material to To be invoiced. If your technician replaces a filter, you only invoice that filter via the order.
Via Discounts and surcharges below the strategy, you determine which surcharges and discounts appear on the invoice of those orders.
A repair outside the maintenance
Does an appliance break down in between? Then on the installation, in the Overview block, click the plus sign next to 'Orders' and choose an order template of the Service type. Robaws creates an order of the Service type, with the installation, the customer, the address and the subscription on it. You schedule and carry out that order like a maintenance order. If the installation belongs to a subscription, the Service invoicing strategy card of the subscription determines what you invoice.
Updated on: 06/11/2026
Thank you!