Work: plans, jobs and problems

On this page: Jobs, plans and problems · Do first, Soon and Later · Plans · Jobs · Problems · The pages and History · What Today shows from Work · For assistants · When Work looks wrong

Work holds the jobs to do, the plans that keep making them, and the problems found aboard. This chapter gives the exact rules behind Do first, Soon and Later and what each action records, as of 2026-10-11.

Jobs, plans and problems

Record	What it is	Where it comes from
job	One piece of work, done once	Add job, a plan, or Schedule fix on a problem
plan	A repeating schedule that makes the next job each time one is done	Add plan, or a suggested plan
problem	Something wrong, with a severity, open until fixed or set aside	Something's wrong, Record a problem, or a trip

Every job is one of three kinds. A one-off job is made with Add job and belongs to nothing. A plan's job is one occurrence of a plan; its title, items and checklists come from the plan. A fix is a job made by Schedule fix; it carries its problem as its reason.

The Work page has three tabs: To do (open and deferred jobs and the problems that need a decision, in three groups), Plans and History.

Do first, Soon and Later

Each row in To do is in exactly one group. Work, Today and an assistant's work_list read the same rules (src/taskUrgency.ts).

A job is in	When
Do first	Its due date has passed. A date is stored at 09:00 on its day, so a job due today is overdue from 09:00.
Do first	Its equipment's latest engine-hours reading is at or above the job's due hours
Soon	Its due date is within the next 30 days
Soon	Its due hours are 10 hours or fewer above the latest reading
Later	It is due more than 30 days and more than 10 engine hours away
Later	It is due by engine hours and its equipment has no reading yet ("Waiting for a reading")
Later	It has no due date and no due hours ("No due date")
Later	It is deferred with Not now and the deferral still holds

A problem is in	When
Do first	Its severity is High or Critical, whatever its status, until it is fixed or set aside
Soon	Its severity is Low or Medium and it is Open or In progress
Later	Its severity is Low or Medium and you chose Keep watching

The date is checked first. A job with a due date within the next 30 days is in Soon even when its engine hours have already been reached. Only a job with no date, or a date more than 30 days away, is moved to Do first by its hours.
A problem with a fix scheduled is not a row. Its job is the row, with "Because:" and the problem's title under it, and the job takes the higher of its own group and the problem's. A fix for a High problem is in Do first even when its own date is weeks away.
Not now quiets a fix's problem only when it is Low or Medium. A deferred fix for a High or Critical problem stays in Do first.
The equipment's importance does not change a job's or a problem's group. Importance (Essential, Important, Useful) matters only when a piece of equipment is Out of service or Failed with no problem or job recorded against it; see What Today shows from Work.
Engine hours are not forecast here. A job due by hours moves only with the readings you record.

Within a group: overdue jobs, then jobs by due date, then problems by severity, then by title.

On a wide screen a job row in Do first or Soon carries Not now and Did the job, and a problem row Schedule fix. On a phone, and in Later, rows only open the record's page.

Plans

Add plan asks "What needs doing?", the equipment (or Whole boat) and Repeat by.

Repeat by	Choices	First job
Calendar	Every number of days; Monthly, on a day of the month (every 1 to 120 months, on a day from 1 to 31 or the last day); Yearly, on a date; Every season	First due: required for a number of days (a year from today unless changed); optional for the others, which then start on the next day they fall on
Engine hours	Every (hours)	First due at: optional. Left empty, the plan starts counting at the first reading you record.
With another plan	Every Nth time the other plan comes round, optionally starting with time #	None of its own: its job rides along with the other plan's job and shares its due date

A season falls due on its first day: spring 1 March, summer 1 June, autumn 1 September, winter 1 December in the northern hemisphere, and six months on in the southern.

The plan form makes a plan by calendar or by engine hours, not both. A plan with both comes only from an assistant (maintenance_plan_create), and its jobs are due by both. Editing such a plan in the app keeps only its engine-hours schedule.

What the next job is scheduled from

Each time a plan's job is done, the plan makes its next job at once, due as follows.

Schedule	Next due
Every number of days	The interval counted from the day the job was done
Monthly, yearly or seasonal	The next day the rule falls on after the day the job was due, so finishing late does not move the schedule; slots that passed meanwhile are skipped
Engine hours	The hours typed in Did the job plus the interval; with no hours typed, the job's due hours plus the interval
With another plan	Its job is added to the other plan's next job when the count falls on that occurrence

Pause, Resume and Archive

Pause (the plan's More menu) stops the plan from making its next job. The job it already has stays in To do and can still be done.
A job done while its plan is paused makes no next job, and Resume does not make one either. The plan is then left with no job.
Archive on a plan archives its open and deferred jobs with it. A plan that another plan follows cannot be archived until the follower is archived or given its own schedule.
A plan's job cannot be archived on its own. To stop it, pause or archive the plan.

Suggested plans

Work's Plans tab and the equipment page offer Suggested plans for equipment of a known type. A diesel engine gets engine oil and filter, fuel filters, raw-water impeller, drive belt and alternator, and coolant and heat exchanger; many other types get their own.

Each suggestion is one schedule: by engine hours when it has an hours interval and the engine has a reading, otherwise every number of days, with the first job one interval from now.
Add N plans adds the ticked suggestions. "Also add the usual items to Inventory and to these plans" adds their usual items too.
A suggestion disappears once one of your plans on that equipment covers it.

Items, checklists and estimate

Items are what each job needs. A job short of one shows "Missing", and the shortfall reaches To buy.
Checklists are offered on each job's page.
Estimate is labour and services in the boat's currency, excluding items from stock. It is never copied onto the jobs: an open job without its own shows the plan's, "(from the plan)".

Jobs

Add job (Work's Add to Work menu, a project's page, the equipment page's Work section) asks "What needs doing?", the equipment (or Whole boat), Due and the project; the estimate and notes are under More details. A one-off job has a due date or none; this form cannot make it due by engine hours.

Edit is the pencil on the job's page. An open one-off job can change its title, due date, estimate, items and checklists. An open plan's job can change its own due date, due hours and estimate; its schedule, items and checklists are changed on the plan. A deferred or finished job can change only its project and notes, so a finished job can still be put under its project.

Not now

Not now defers a job On a date (any day after today; a week ahead by default) or, for equipment with an engine-hours meter, At an engine-hours reading above the current one, with an optional note.

The job moves to Later and leaves Today until the date passes or a reading reaches the hours. Not now never changes the due date: a job that was overdue is overdue again when the deferral ends.

Did the job

Did the job asks:

Field	What it records
Done on	The day, today or earlier
Engine hours	Shown when the equipment has a meter or the plan repeats by hours, prefilled with the latest reading. It is recorded as a reading on the meter.
Cost, excluding items from stock	In the boat's currency. Above zero, it becomes a paid expense.
Paid to	Who was paid; offered once a cost is typed
Note	What was done
Items used	The job's items, ticked when in stock; the quantities are taken from stock
Photo or file	A service record, receipt or photo, kept as a document attached to the job
Mark the problem as resolved	For a fix only, ticked by default

The form lists the job's checklists as completed, in progress or not run. A checklist not run does not stop you saving. A cancelled checklist run is ignored, so the job shows that checklist as not started again.

What a cost becomes. A cost above zero adds a paid expense in the same change: titled with the job, category Maintenance, paid on the day the job was done, Paid to as its vendor, linked to the job ("see expense" on its page), with the job's equipment and project while they are active. Items taken from stock are never added to the cost.

What a completion freezes. The job keeps the estimate it had when it was done, its own or its plan's. A later change to the plan's estimate does not rewrite what a finished job was estimated at.

Problems

Something's wrong (the Record menu, outside a trip) and Record a problem (Work's Add to Work menu, the equipment page) open one form. It asks a Short description and a Severity: Low, Medium (the default), High or Critical. More details holds More detail, Noticed at, Equipment, Trip and Notes. A problem found during a trip is covered in A trip.

A problem's status changes only through its actions, on its page or in its row's More menu.

Action	Offered	Result
Schedule fix	Unfinished, no fix open	A job titled "Fix:" and the problem's title, with the problem as its reason; the problem becomes In progress
Keep watching	Unfinished, no fix open, not already watched	Watching. A Low or Medium problem moves to Later and leaves Today.
Mark fixed	Unfinished, no fix open	Fixed, with an optional "What was done?"
Not a problem	Unfinished, no fix open	Not a problem, at once, without a question
Reopen	Fixed or Not a problem	Open again; the fixed date and note are dropped

Schedule fix suggests a due date from the severity, which you can change:

Severity	Suggested due
Critical	Today
High	7 days ahead
Medium	30 days ahead
Low	90 days ahead

While a fix is open the problem page says "A fix is scheduled. Finish or archive that job to change this." Doing the job with "Mark the problem as resolved" ticked marks the problem Fixed, with the job's note as its note.

The pages and History

Every job, problem and plan row opens its page at /work/<id>, even a finished or archived one, which is then read-only. The job page's Why says what the job fixes or which plan it belongs to, its project, "Last done" and its estimate; below come its items, reference documents, checklists, what was recorded when it was done, and its documents. The problem page says when and on which trip it was noticed, and names its fix. The plan page lists its Next job, What each job needs and the jobs Done under it.

Work's History tab lists finished jobs ("Did the job") and settled problems ("Fixed", "Not a problem"), newest first, 30 at a time with "Show all".

What Today shows from Work

Today's Do first and Soon hold the same jobs and problems as Work's, in Work's order, beside other facts such as papers, items to buy and checklists. Later is never on Today. Today shows five Do first rows and three Soon rows, with "Show all N". The Work badge in the navigation counts Work's Do first rows.

Two equipment facts sit beside them. They are not Work rows.

Out of service or Failed, when the equipment has no unfinished problem and no open or deferred job. It is in Do first for Essential and Important equipment and in Soon for Useful.
Service or expiry due, a date on the equipment itself: in Do first once the day has passed, in Soon from 60 days before. It makes no job and has no items, checklists, estimate or cost, as a plan does; tracking one service both ways gives two rows on Today.

For assistants

If you are an assistant connected to LazyJack, these are the rules for work.

Read work_list before proposing work. It answers Do first, Soon and Later as the Work page shows them, with each job's reason. Say which group a thing is in; do not re-rank.
Never mark a job done or a problem fixed unasked. maintenance_task_complete, defect_update to resolved or dismissed, and maintenance_task_defer each change the record for good; confirm one record per answer.
One call records a job done. maintenance_task_complete takes completedHours, cost, vendor, the items used and the documents; it makes the reading and the expense itself. Do not also call reading_record or expense_create for the same job.
Not now needs a date or an engine-hours count (maintenance_task_defer); "later" is not a deferral.
Something wrong is defect_create, with the equipment and a severity the owner agreed to; a fix is maintenance_task_create with the problem's defectId, never a second problem.
A plan with both a calendar and an hours schedule can be made over MCP but not in the app, and the owner's Edit plan keeps only its hours schedule. Prefer one schedule unless the owner asks for both and knows this.
Engine hours are not forecast. A job due by hours moves only when a reading is recorded; say "due at 2,500 h, now at 2,470 h", not a date.

When Work looks wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
"Waiting for a reading"	The job is due by engine hours and the equipment has no reading	Add a reading
"No due date" on a plan's job	An hours plan made without "First due at" has had no reading yet	Add a reading; the plan sets the due hours from it
A job with its hours reached is in Soon	Its due date is within 30 days, and the date is checked first	Do it, or move its date with Edit
A plan has no Next job	A job was done while the plan was paused	Add a one-off job for now

Not in this chapter

The ideas behind statuses, Archive and Delete: How LazyJack thinks. Setting up the engine and accepting the first plans: Setting up the boat and engine. Problems and engine hours recorded during a trip: A trip. Items, stock and To buy: Inventory and To buy. How estimates, expenses and plans feed the forecast: Budget and projects. Documents attached to jobs and plans: Documents and papers. A Did the job that waits in Sync problems: Troubleshooting sync. Backup and restore: Backup, restore and moving devices. What an assistant may do: Assistants.

This chapter as Markdown · llms.txt