# Operate a Service

URL: /products/service/operate · Id: `page:products/service/operate`

> Run a Service day to day so every open Order keeps its promise: the numbers to watch and what to do when one moves.

Operating a [Service](/business/nouns/service) means keeping every open [Order](/business/nouns/order) inside its deadline, every step staffed, and every miss remedied before the buyer asks. The [Delivery Manager](/agents/operations/delivery-manager) seat owns it through [Delivery](/workflows/processes/delivery).

## What to watch
| Number | Read from | Act when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Orders at risk | Each Order's clock against its deadline | One passes the contract's `atRisk` share of its deadline |
| First-pass rate | Each step's checker verdicts | A step fails more often than the [Price](/business/nouns/price) assumed |
| Revisions per line | `revisionsUsed` on each Order | Buyers use the allowance on most lines |
| [Disputes](/business/nouns/dispute) per hundred lines | [Disputes](/business/nouns/dispute) by [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) | The `done` term reads two ways |
| Staffed hours against forecast | [Dispatch](/systems/dispatch) | Booked hours fall short of the Orders due |

A vague `done` term raises every number above. Sharpening it is the cheapest margin a Service finds.

## Keep the clock
The deadline counts only the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup)'s time, and it waits while the buyer holds the next move. An Order past its `atRisk` share shows as at risk while there is still time to act.

A step past its `timeout` escalates to its `escalatesTo` [Role](/business/nouns/role). [Deadline clocks](/products/service/deadline-clocks) has the rules.

## Staff each step
A step that needs a person and finds none free waits as `pending` with reason `awaitingWorker`, and Dispatch offers it to the next qualified [Supplier](/business/nouns/supplier). Before a buyer pays, the Offer checks that the Startup can staff the Order on time, and offers the next open slot when it cannot.

[Setting](/business/nouns/setting) how many Orders a Service takes at once is [Service capacity](/products/service/capacity), with status `planned`.

## Remedy every miss
A miss runs the contract's remedies in order, cheapest first: redo, have a person finish, refund, or credit. A remedy with no claim runs on a `measured` miss, such as a deadline passed. [Start the remedy](/workflows/processes/delivery/start-remedy) runs each one and holds the disputed fee until it completes, and [disputes](/products/service/disputes) covers the rest.

Add each disputed case to its step's rubric before changing the step. The next [Version](/business/nouns/version) then proves the fix on that case.