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How to Delete or Archive Work Orders

Written and video directions on how to delete or archive work orders from your account

Updated over 3 weeks ago

Available On: Essential, Premium, Professional, Enterprise


Need to delete or archive a Work Order?


As you manage Work Orders in UpKeep, there may be times when you need to remove a Work Order entirely or simply archive it for historical tracking. This article will walk you through both options so you can decide what’s best for your workflow.

⚠️ Important: Deleting a Work Order is permanent and cannot be undone. If you want to retain a record for future reference, we strongly recommend using the archive option instead.

To decide whether to archive or delete, consider the need for historical tracking or compliance requirements. Archiving retains records for future analysis, while deleting permanently removes unnecessary work orders. Always ensure the action aligns with your objectives before proceeding.


How to Delete or Archive Work Orders

On your work orders list page you have the ability to bulk delete or individually delete or archive a work order from your account. See below for how to do both!

When making the decision to either delete or archive, consider the importance of the work order for historical tracking versus the need to permanently remove outdated or erroneous data.

Understanding the Difference Between Archiving and Deleting Work Orders

When managing work orders in UpKeep, understanding the difference between archiving and deleting helps in selecting the right action based on your needs. Archiving hides work orders but keeps records for tracking, while deleting permanently removes them.

Key Recommendations

  • Archive if you want to retain history for reporting or compliance.

  • Delete only if certain the work order is of no further use.

Delete a single work order:

  1. Navigate to the work orders page

  2. apply filters to locate specific work order(s)

  3. Click in the box OR Click the 3 dots and select delete

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 6.48.57 PM
  4. review alert, and click delete

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 6.50.50 PM
  5. Work Orders page will refresh


Delete Work Orders in Bulk

In UpKeep you have the ability to delete more than 1 work order at a time.

  1. Navigate to the work orders page

  2. apply filters to locate specific work order(s)

  3. Click in the box Next to the word DUE

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 6.59.53 PM
  4. You will notice that all of your work order boxes have a blue check mark in them. NOTE!! you MUST scroll all the way down the page, to ensure ALL WORK ORDERS have a check mark in the box, see GIF below

  5. Click Delete

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 7.01.57 PM
  6. review alert, click delete

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 6.50.50 PM


Archive Work Orders

If you do not want to delete and you want to retain the historical tracking, then archiving is your best option!

Archiving ensures that work orders are hidden from active lists but remain retrievable for future needs. It is particularly useful for compliance or historical data analysis.

  1. Navigate to the work orders page

  2. apply filters to locate specific work order(s)

  3. Click in the box Next to the word DUE

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 6.59.53 PM
  4. You will notice that all of your work order boxes have a blue check mark in them. NOTE!! you MUST scroll all the way down the page, to ensure ALL WORK ORDERS have a check mark in the box, see GIF below

  5. Click Archive

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 7.07.23 PM
  6. Review Alert, click archive

    UpKeep Maintenance Management - Google Chrome 2023-01-12 at 7.08.19 PM

If you're looking to unarchive a Work Order, use the filters to find the archived Work Order and follow the same steps.

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