How to Keep Track of Equipment Maintenance: Downloadable Template

If your business maintains equipment inventory, it understands the importance of tracking maintenance on these assets. From scheduling preventive maintenance to recording emergency repairs, keeping records of the service performed on your assets is essential. By adequately tracking equipment maintenance, your business will better understand its assets’ lifecycles and extend each piece of equipment’s useful life by keeping better tabs on key maintenance dates. 

This article will reveal how to keep track of equipment maintenance in three general steps. We’ll also provide a free, downloadable equipment maintenance log that’s yours to customize. This log can be used to track equipment maintenance right away but is best used in conjunction with software that provides a digital record of past service—and reminds you when key dates are around the corner, too.

Step 1: Organize all equipment

The first step to keeping track of equipment maintenance is organizing all the equipment in your business’s inventory. By putting together a robust, detailed inventory list of every asset your business owns, your team can visualize all its equipment, understand where it’s located, what condition it’s in, who’s responsible for managing it, and what maintenance schedule that asset requires. 

Whether your business owns just a few pieces of equipment that all remain in one location or maintains thousands of pieces of equipment in a constant state of flux, getting organized is a can’t-miss step. To simplify the process, select an inventory management system that works for your business. Decide between a manual inventory list, an equipment spreadsheet, or inventory management software. 

Remember that inventory management software offers key automation features like barcode and QR code scanning, maintenance alerts and reminders, and the ability to store photos, attachments, and other essential documentation. Most businesses that manage more than a few pieces of equipment find that they save time, money, and stress with the right inventory app. 

No matter which inventory management system your team selects, you’ll want to put together an exhaustive list of equipment carefully. After all, this database will be the foundation for your company’s equipment maintenance strategy, affect your business’s balance sheet and depreciation claims, and determine how your business divvies up key resources.

If your business’s equipment is physically disorganized, you’ll also want to take this time to organize it properly. 

Step 2: Tag equipment properly

As your business administratively and physically organizes its equipment inventory, it should also decide how to “tag” or “label” that inventory. This process, also known as asset tagging, will allow your business to affix a physical identifier to each piece of equipment in its inventory. 

Suppose you’ve decided to use inventory management software like Sortly. In that case, you can generate, customize, and print barcode and QR code labels that sync directly to each piece of equipment’s profile and unique Sortly ID. You can also add other key item details—including the item value, condition, and maintenance history—to the item’s profile. 

If you manage equipment maintenance manually or with a spreadsheet, you’ll need to create asset tags by hand.

No matter how your business manages its equipment inventory, commit to organizing, identifying, and tagging each piece of equipment on your business’s list of assets. 

Related: What is the best barcode generator?

Step 3: Keep track of every date

Now that your equipment is organized and clearly identified, it’s time to track every bit of maintenance performed on your business’s assets. You can record this information manually (on a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet) but inventory software like Sortly is a much more powerful maintenance tracker that lets you effortlessly track equipment maintenance and manage your inventory. You can set maintenance reminders that automatically nudge you when it’s time to perform maintenance or repairs. Plus, you can customize when the notifications are sent, who receives them, and whether those recipients receive these alerts within the Sortly app, via email, or both. 

Sortly’s smart automation features can make tracking equipment maintenance a breeze. You can quickly barcode your equipment inventory, scan barcodes to pull up tracked details, update an item’s condition, record or investigate a maintenance event, view the upcoming maintenance schedule, and much more. Best of all, you can do all of this right from the Sortly app on your smartphone, making it easy for you and your team to track equipment maintenance anytime, anywhere.

On the other hand, if you use a manual asset tagging system to identify equipment, you’ll need to carve out additional time to track equipment maintenance. Remember that whenever your business wants more information about equipment, your employees will need to physically audit each equipment tag. Even if you maintain an excellent equipment maintenance log, your team may want to crosscheck records with details logged directly on a hang tag. 

While manual equipment tracking may seem like an easy way keep an eye on equipment maintenance, it’s not scalable and is prone to human error—something you can’t afford when it comes to safety and high-value equipement. In contrast, Sortly helps you manage more equipment maintenance in less time and lets you track equipment maintenance, condition, value, location, and more. You can also easily generate reports of all the equipment in your inventory that is due for maintenance repairs.

Downloadable equipment maintenance log

Suppose you’re not ready to use an inventory app to streamline your equipment maintenance strategy quite yet. In that case, Sortly’s free, downloadable equipment maintenance log can still help you get organized and track past and future maintenance events. 

About Sortly

Sortly is an inventory management solution that helps you track, manage, and organize your inventory—from any device, in any location. We’re an easy-to-use inventory software that’s perfect for small businesses. Sortly builds inventory tracking seamlessly into your workday so you can save time and money, satisfy your customers, and help your business succeed.

With Sortly, you can track inventory, supplies, parts, tools, assets like equipment and machinery, and anything else that matters to your business. It comes equipped with smart features like barcoding & QR coding, low stock alerts, customizable folders, data-rich reporting, and much more. Best of all, you can update inventory right from your smartphone, whether you’re  on the job, in the warehouse, or on the go.

Whether you’re just getting started with inventory management or you’re an expert looking for a more efficient solution, we can transform how your company manages inventory—so you can focus on building your business. That’s why over 10,000 businesses globally trust us as their inventory management solution.

If your business would benefit from smart equipment maintenance tracking, start your two-week free trial of Sortly today.