Assigning Vendors to Work Orders

1. Two Ways to Involve a Vendor on a Work Order

Vendors are external — they don't have Xenia accounts and don't log into your workspace. Xenia involves them via email notification, not by adding them as a user or an assignee in the traditional sense.

There are two ways a vendor gets notified on a Work Order:

Method 1 — Automatic via Routing Rules: When a Work Request matches a routing rule that includes a vendor notification, the vendor receives an email the moment the request is converted to a Work Order. No manual action required. The routing rule fires, the Work Order is created, and the vendor email goes out simultaneously.

Method 2 — Manual via Workflow or notification on the Work Order: A facilities coordinator reviews a Work Order and manually triggers a vendor notification — either by adding the vendor as a notification recipient on the Work Order form, or via a workflow that routes based on a category selection made when the Work Order was created. 

2. Automatic Vendor Notification via Routing Rules

The cleanest setup: build a Routing Rule that includes the vendor as a notification recipient.

1. Go to Facilities → Routing Rules → Create Rule
2. Set the condition — e.g., Category = HVAC, or Category = Pest Control
3. Set the internal assignee — Maintenance role or a specific team
4. In the Vendor Notification field (or Notification Recipients), add the vendor from your Vendors contact book
5. Set the email threading preference — grouped (vendor and internal team on the same thread) or separate
6. Save

When a Work Request matching this rule comes in, the vendor receives an email with:

• The Work Order title and issue description
• The location and priority
• Any photos attached to the original request
• Your organization as sender — the vendor replies directly to this thread

The vendor does not need a Xenia account. The email is the interface. 

3. Manual Vendor Notification on a Work Order

For situations where the right vendor isn't determined by a routing rule — perhaps the coordinator reviews the issue and decides which contractor to send it to — the vendor can be added manually:

1. Open the Work Order (in Facilities → Work Orders)
2. Find the Vendor or Notification Recipients field
3. Search for the vendor name from your Vendors contact book, or type an external email address directly
4. Save or confirm

The vendor receives an email notification with the Work Order details at that moment.

If no Vendors module: vendors can also be added as external email address recipients directly on workflow notifications configured in the template builder (for Work Request-triggered workflows). The Vendors module provides the contact book structure; direct external email entry is the fallback.

4. What the Vendor Receives

When a vendor is notified on a Work Order, their email includes:

• Work Order title and description
• Location (store/facility address or name)
• Priority level
• Photos from the Work Request if attached
• Contact information for the internal coordinator

The vendor can reply to the email. Their replies are captured in the Work Order's communication thread in Xenia (email-to-comment integration). The coordinator sees the vendor's response without leaving Xenia.

Important: Marking the Work Order as Complete is always done internally. The vendor cannot close a Work Order. Someone at your organization marks it complete after confirming the work was done. 

5. Using On Hold Status for External Vendor Work

A practical approach many facilities teams use when a Work Order is waiting on an external vendor:

1. Create or accept the Work Order internally
2. Notify the vendor
3. Change the Work Order status to On Hold with a comment: "Assigned to Elite HVAC Solutions — awaiting scheduling"
4. The Work Order stays visible but is clearly marked as pending external action
5. When the vendor completes the work, update the status to Completed and add a completion note

This keeps the Work Order board accurate — the issue isn't being ignored, it's waiting on a vendor — without it sitting indefinitely as Open or In Progress with no explanation.