Applies to: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Asset management. Tested on version 10.0.46 (platform update 70) in the USMF demo company, September 2026.
CodeCore Dynamics LLC. 5 October 2026.
In Brief
- A preventive maintenance plan in Dynamics 365 will only create work orders when 2 separate settings are both switched on. If either one is off, the plan will keep scheduling jobs without showing an error.
- 1 of the 2 settings appears on screen under a different name from the one on the main Microsoft Learn page.
- Our test run with both settings on removed 129 jobs waiting beyond the scheduling period and reset a service level that had been changed by hand.
The standard Dynamics 365 demo company has 62 maintenance jobs waiting without a work order, dated from 10 August 2019 onwards.
52 of them come from a weekly check on 2 emergency generators. The lines of that plan have Auto create cleared. The plan then keeps scheduling jobs but does not create work orders.
Microsoft Learn does not mention that a run with both settings on can also remove the waiting jobs beyond the scheduling period and reset values a planner has edited.
62 waiting jobs in the USMF demo company, none with a work order.
Cause
A maintenance plan does not create work orders itself. Schedule maintenance plans creates maintenance schedule lines, which Microsoft Learn calls work order proposals. The proposal will then only become a work order when both of these are on:
- Auto create, a check box on each line of the maintenance plan;
- Automatically create work order from schedule, a toggle in the scheduling dialog.
With only 1 of them on, the run will create schedule lines at status Created and no work orders (Schedule maintenance plans).
We scheduled the Extruder Line PM plan in USMF, 1 weekly job on 3 extruders, with the settings in each position:
| Toggle on the run | Auto create on the line | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Cleared | 1 year | 144 schedule lines at Created, no work orders |
| No | Selected | 1 year | The same 144 lines, no work orders |
| Yes | Selected | 1 month | 12 work orders, WO-000016 to WO-000027, 1 per job, 1 to 22 October |
| Yes | Selected | 2 months | 12 work orders, WO-000029 to WO-000040, 1 per job, 5 to 26 November |
| No | Cleared | Not run |
The first 2 runs produced the same screen.
144 lines with no work orders, with the toggle on and the check box cleared.
The same 144 lines with the check box selected and the toggle off.
Settings
The Schedule maintenance plans page on Learn lists the toggle as Auto create if specified in the line. In 10.0.46 the label reads Automatically create work order from schedule, the name used on another Learn page, Creating work orders. The label is cut short in the dialog. Hovering over it will show the full name.
The toggle's full name appears in its tooltip.
You will find the dialog under Asset management > Periodic > Preventive maintenance > Schedule maintenance plans. It also opens from the maintenance schedule pages (Action Pane, Schedule group, Maintenance plan), where its title is Maintenance plan.
The same dialog, titled Maintenance plan, limited to 1 plan through Records to include.
The Auto create check box sits on the plan's Lines FastTab (Asset management > Setup > Preventive maintenance > Maintenance plans), to the right of Interval type, Period and Plan date. It is also set separately on each line.
Auto create is cleared on every plan in the USMF demo data.
Questions for Leaders
| Ask your team | Warning sign | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Do our maintenance plans create work orders automatically, or does someone convert them by hand? | Nobody is sure | If neither happens, planned maintenance will not reach the technicians |
| Is the list of open maintenance schedule lines growing while the work order list is not? | Yes | 1 of the 2 settings is off |
| Before automatic creation is switched on, have the waiting jobs and any changes to them been released or recorded? | No | A run with both settings on may remove them |
| How far ahead does the scheduling job create work orders? | "A year", or nobody knows | A long period may flood the technicians; a short one may remove waiting jobs |
Checks
| Check | Where | You should see | If not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the waiting line comes from | Reference type on Open maintenance schedule lines | Maintenance plans | Maintenance requests are not converted by any plan setting: see Other causes |
| Auto create | Maintenance plans > your plan > Lines | Selected | Step 2 |
| The toggle | The scheduling dialog, or the recurring batch job's parameters | Yes | Steps 3 and 4 |
| The plan is active | Maintenance plans > your plan > Details > Active | Yes | See Other causes |
2 open lines from maintenance requests.
Fix
Before you start, you will need to be able to edit maintenance plans and run Schedule maintenance plans. If you can, try the steps in a test environment first.
1. Convert Waiting Jobs
Jobs already at Created can be converted without running the schedule again (Creating work orders).
- Go to Asset management > Maintenance schedule > Open maintenance schedule lines and select the jobs.
- On the Action Pane, select Work order.
- Choose One work order per line, or One work order per and set Yes against the fields to group by, such as Asset, Trade or Date.
- Select a Work order type and select OK.
3 jobs with 7.50 forecast hours, grouped by date.
We tested grouping by date only. The 3 extruder jobs due on 29 October then became 1 work order, WO-000028, with 3 lines. Grouping by date would suit a crew that services a whole line in 1 visit, while grouping by asset would suit 1 technician per machine.
WO-000028, with 3 lines.
The extruder list on Open maintenance schedule lines went from 144 lines to 141 after the conversion.
141 lines left, starting on 5 November.
They stay on All maintenance schedule with the status Work order created and the work order number.
The 29 October lines, each showing WO-000028.
2. Auto Create
On the plan's Lines FastTab, select Auto create on every line that should produce work orders without review, and save. You may also set a Work order type on the line. If you leave it blank, the Preventive work order type in Asset management parameters will be used (Maintenance plans). The change applies from the next scheduling run. Lines that already exist stay as they are.
Auto create selected, with work order type Preventive.
The default type for lines with no work order type.
3. Run the Schedule
In our test, this run removed the plan's waiting jobs beyond the period and reset an edited service level.
- Open Schedule maintenance plans.
- Set Period frequency and Period.
- Set Automatically create work order from schedule to Yes and choose the grouping.
- Under Records to include, set Maintenance plan to the plan you are fixing, and select OK.
The run with both settings on, set to 2 months and limited to EX-PM.
4. Batch Job
The toggle is saved with each scheduling run and is not stored on the plan. A recurring batch job saved with the toggle at No will then go on producing schedule lines without work orders.
To set one up, fill in the dialog as in step 3, set Batch processing to Yes on the Run in the background FastTab, select Recurrence, and select OK.
The dialog set up as a batch job, with the toggle on and grouping by asset.
An existing job will be under System administration > Inquiries > Batch jobs. Learn describes setting a job to Withhold to stop it running (Create a batch job). Change status is on the Action Pane in 10.0.46. To see the job's saved settings, open it by its Job ID, select its task under Batch tasks, and select Parameters. The View tasks button that Learn mentions does not appear on this page in 10.0.46.
Parameters, on the job's task, shows the saved settings.
Results
We made the run in step 3 on 30 September, when EX-PM had 141 jobs waiting from 5 November 2026 to September 2027. We had changed the service level on EX-101's 5 November job from 4 to 2 beforehand, using Edit on Open maintenance schedule lines.
Service level changed from 4 to 2 before the runs.
Runs with only 1 setting on kept all 144 lines and the edited value over the same year.
144 lines and service level 2 after a run with 1 setting on.
After the run:
- 12 work orders, WO-000029 to WO-000040, had been created for the jobs from 5 to 26 November;
- All maintenance schedule held no EX-PM line after 26 November;
- Open maintenance schedule lines for EX-PM had fallen from 141 to 0;
- the 5 November line for EX-101 and its work order, WO-000029, both showed service level 4.
WO-000029 to WO-000040, with WO-000029 at service level 4.
The EX-PM lines end on 26 November.
No open lines left for EX-PM.
We had run the plan twice on 25 September, first with the toggle only and then with both settings on. None of its 74 waiting jobs from 2019 and 2020 remained afterwards. Lines dated before the current date are not created again (Schedule maintenance plans). Those 74 jobs will therefore not return.
The 30 September run also used a shorter period than the run before it. Our tests do not show whether the removals came from the settings or from the period. We did not test whether later runs recreate the removed future jobs.
Period
Every job inside the period becomes a work order on the day of a run with both settings on. The number is roughly:
assets on the plan × occurrences of each plan line within the period
1 weekly line on 3 extruders gave 12 work orders for a month in the demo. A year on the same plan produced 144 schedule lines. All of them would have become work orders with both settings on.
The waiting jobs beyond the period were removed in our test. A longer period would keep more of them, but it would also create more work orders at once. How far ahead to create them would be a decision for your maintenance team. We would suggest a shorter period on a more frequent batch job for teams that work week to week, and a longer one for teams that plan labour and parts months ahead.
Other Causes
| What you see | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Lines with reference type Maintenance requests | Created from maintenance requests, which no plan setting converts (Creating work orders) | Convert them as in step 1 |
| A counter line creates no lines | No counter readings on the asset, or the counter type is not active on it (Maintenance plans) | Register readings and activate the counter type |
| No lines for any line on the plan | The plan's Active setting is No (same page) | Set Active to Yes |
| Earlier dates missing | Lines dated before the current date are not created (Schedule maintenance plans) | Check All work orders for those dates |
| "Number sequence ... has been exceeded" when creating work orders | The work order number sequence has reached the end of its range (troubleshooting article) | Extend the range of the Work order sequence in Asset management parameters > Number sequences (AM_104 in USMF) |
| A job no longer comes back | It was discarded; a discarded line will not appear again for that plan (Maintenance schedule) | Use Delete for lines that should be recreated |
The Work order number sequence, AM_104 in USMF.
Testing
All runs used the USMF demo company on Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management 10.0.46 (platform update 70), on 25, 28 and 30 September 2026. The test plan was Extruder Line PM (EX-PM): 1 weekly line, repeated from the plan date, with 3 extruders attached from 28 September 2026. Every run was limited to that plan through Records to include.
| Date | Toggle | Auto create | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Sep | Yes, then Yes | Cleared, then Selected | 1 month | WO-000016 to WO-000027 for 1 to 22 October; none of the 74 waiting jobs from 2019 and 2020 remained |
| 28 Sep | Yes | Cleared | 1 year | 144 lines at Created from 29 October |
| 28 Sep | Yes | Cleared | 1 year | Same 144 lines; edited service level kept |
| 28 Sep | No | Selected | 1 year | Same 144 lines; edited service level kept |
| 28 Sep | Manual | 3 jobs on 29 October grouped into WO-000028 | ||
| 30 Sep | Yes | Selected | 2 months | WO-000029 to WO-000040; 129 waiting jobs removed; service level 4 |
WO-000016, created on 25 September.
The test plan, with 1 weekly line and 3 extruders.
Times on screen show 7:00 AM or 8:00 AM because the demo user's time zone is UTC. Both correspond to midnight US Pacific time, before and after daylight saving ends on 1 November. Learn states that time-based lines start at the beginning of the day (Maintenance plans).
Sources
- Schedule maintenance plans
- Maintenance plans
- Creating work orders
- Maintenance schedule
- Conversion of maintenance schedule to work orders fails
- Create a batch job
On Method
This article was drafted with the help of Claude (Anthropic) from the author's captures in the demo environment and the Microsoft Learn pages listed above, and was checked and edited by the author.
About Author
Dean Fachrie is a Functional Analyst at CodeCore Dynamics LLC, working on Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O architecture and enterprise system design.
Setting up preventive maintenance in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, or finding planned jobs that never reach your technicians as work orders?
We help enterprise maintenance and operations teams configure Asset management so that maintenance plans, scheduling batch jobs and work order creation work together, and switch on automatic creation without losing the jobs already waiting.
Contact us or connect on LinkedIn for architecture reviews.
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