What Is a Maintenance Report? (And How to Write One)

A maintenance report in its simplest essence is just what it sounds like. It’s a document or online record with information about maintenance tasks and their effect on asset performance. It keeps track of the servicing, repairs and overall condition of equipment or infrastructure. But a maintenance report also comprises details including concerns discovered, repairs completed and guidance noted for future follow-ups. The goal is simple: to track maintenance and prevent major failures. 

In my years covering facility design and maintenance operations, I’ve seen firsthand how a well-structured maintenance report separates reactive teams scrambling for answers from proactive teams who already have them.

One example of a maintenance report’s value involves a regional fleet of travel buses. Using maintenance reports to examine vehicle conditions can reveal issues like worn brakes, enabling early replacement. This saves the company money by avoiding a costly breakdown and prevents an accident involving a busload of passengers.

Read on to learn why a maintenance report is so crucial for decision-making stakeholders involved in the maintenance process.

What Exactly Is a Maintenance Report?

A maintenance report is a document produced while carrying out a work order that typically includes three pieces of information: asset data, information about who is performing the task and the work being conducted. Its main use is for tracking maintenance KPIs and overall maintenance goals.

Having reviewed hundreds of maintenance workflows across facilities of every size, I’d argue the quality of a team’s reporting says more about their operational maturity than almost any other metric.

An optimal maintenance report form should be: 

• Concise: A succinct maintenance report is critical, as it provides clarity, efficiency and effectiveness. Excess detail slows down maintenance managers and can hide critical information. That’s why a concise report makes it much more manageable to review past maintenance logs without getting bogged down.
• Accurate: While it might seem self-explanatory that a maintenance report should include correct information, this is vital for a number of reasons. Everything from safety to compliance support is enhanced by accuracy from maintenance data. And by keeping information clear and correct, potentially costly mistakes with future upkeep can be avoided. Precise reports guarantee the right people and parts are assigned, preventing wasted time and expenses.
• Contextual: A contextual maintenance report goes beyond basic raw data to provide relevant details relating to the situation and circumstances. The best reports account for context: weather, usage and prior history. 
• Timely: Listed last here, but far from least, a timely maintenance report ensures that info is fresh and accurate since equipment status and condition can change quickly depending on its function and environment. Additionally, by quickly pinpointing and addressing a problem, you reduce the chances of downtime and potential safety hazards.

Types of Maintenance Reports

Even though they’re designed to serve the same general purpose, there are several different types of maintenance reports. Here’s a look at the six main kinds:

Work Order Report 

A work order report is perhaps the most common and well-known type of maintenance report. It follows the cycle of a work order from initial work request to task completion and includes all key details as well as a work order number for tracking purposes. Key initial info includes the priority level of the task, and final details usually include notes and comments that might include guidance for future equipment maintenance. 

Total Maintenance Cost Report 

A total maintenance cost report furnishes an across-the-board assessment of all expenses tied to maintaining equipment, facilities or infrastructure during a specific period of time. It’s a huge boon to businesses by helping with tracking costs, setting budgets and forming successful maintenance approaches. 

Preventive Maintenance (PM) Report 

A preventive maintenance report records scheduled work to keep assets running smoothly. This type of report specifies frequency of the maintenance task, asset/equipment details such as a serial number and any noteworthy fine points. 

I’ve talked to facility managers who resisted PM reporting for years, thinking it was administrative overhead. However, most changed their tune after their first major unplanned failure — and the cost comparison was stark.

Asset History Report

An asset history report tracks maintenance over an asset’s entire lifecycle. It examines every key piece of info from its initial date of purchase — and records usage, maintenance, repairs and performance during its lifecycle. 

Labor Hours Report

A labor hours report is just what you’d expect from its name, focused on data such as the total hours worked by employees or contractors within a set time period, almost always in the areas of maintenance, operations and projects. It assists in overseeing productivity, labor expenses and allocation of resources — and can be vital in determining future needs for particular tasks and projects. 

Performance Report 

A performance report appraises the efficiency, usefulness and outcomes of a system, process, staff member or business project, offering insights into upsides, negatives and opportunities for easy improvement. 

What to Include in a Maintenance Report

An effective maintenance report is a bit of a balancing act. Too many details can obscure the key data and waste valuable time for maintenance teams — but leaving out essential data is even worse. If you stick to these key elements, your maintenance report will provide both accurate and actionable data without getting bogged down in minutiae. 

• Business/technician information: Include details about the worker or vendor actually handling the maintenance task. This info should include the name of the company or service provider responsible for the maintenance in addition to the name of the assigned technician(s). Contact information and relevant certifications should also be included when possible. 
• Work order number: This is a unique identifier allotted to every single maintenance request or task. These make it easy to track the status, background and existing documentation for the work performed.
• Equipment details: Provide a quick snapshot of the equipment being maintained, including the type and model, serial number, current (pre-maintenance) condition, exact location and any relevant maintenance history.
• Timeframe: This pinpoints when the maintenance occurred, including the scheduled date and time for servicing, actual duration of how long the task took and its next scheduled maintenance service. 
• Maintenance details: These should focus on the purpose of the visit and the actual work completed. For example, was it just a routine check-in, or was troubleshooting or a serious repair conducted? Tasks performed — such as cleaning or calibration — should also be noted as well as any parts that were fixed or replaced. Also include any testing that was conducted on equipment status or function. 
• Additional information: Anything that doesn’t fit any of the above categories but might be pivotal to future maintenance should also be included — especially if potential issues regarding safety are of concern. 

How to Create a Good Maintenance Report

An effective maintenance report should include all the facets above but also comprise vital intangibles that will guide future maintenance tasks and decisions. From what I’ve observed, the teams that nail this step-by-step approach consistently outperform those who improvise. Here’s a six-step guide to success:

1. Determine priorities: Recognize the most critical maintenance tasks, which leads to wiser allocation of resources. Urgently needed repairs are typically at the top of the list, while other vital priorities might include preventive measures or equipment upgrades.
2. Set goals: Spell out definable targets, such as decreased asset downtime, less waste or better operational efficiency. When possible, use KPIs to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
3. Record detailed information regarding costs: Expenses related to materials, labor, equipment usage and even costs associated with downtime should be documented. This assists greatly in future budgeting, analyzing cost-effectiveness and making better-informed decisions moving ahead.
4. Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and checklists: SOPs ensure dependable maintenance regularity, while checklists make sure you’re up to date on completed tasks. These tools make maintenance activities more structured and efficient.
5. Describe maintenance activities and equipment status: Include a summary of finished work, ongoing concerns and asset condition. Succinct descriptions are better, and when possible, it’s helpful to provide images or charts for transparency.
6. Define timeframe: Identify when work was conducted and delineate upcoming maintenance agendas. A structured maintenance schedule is a huge boon to planning tasks and avoiding holdups with crucial work.

Maintenance Report Best Practices

In addition to knowing how to create optimal reports, these three best practices turn a good maintenance report into an invaluable one. 

• Use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS): A CMMS simplifies maintenance by automating data, work orders and historical archives. It makes certain that all maintenance info is stored in one central place digitally and is accessible even remotely.
• Standardize data management for consistency: Uniform data entry across all reports is ensured by standardizing your data management, alleviating mistakes and informational discrepancies. A consistent templated formula of codes and data provides much more accurate comparisons and analytics.
• Provide proper training: Thorough training is vital to ensure that maintenance personnel completely understand how to document key details accurately and consistently. With effective instruction, personnel can develop the skills needed to generate high-quality reports that contain reliable and precise data. These well-prepared reports furnish maintenance leaders with the reliable facts needed to reach informed decisions that drive efficient operations. 

Using a CMMS to Build Maintenance Reports

Using a CMMS (or work order software) to create a maintenance report streamlines and enriches the process by gathering, organizing and evaluating maintenance metrics. This gives businesses the ability to track work orders, equipment and asset history — and even technician performance — precisely.

A maintenance software helps log activities in real time, which keeps reports accurate and up-to-the-minute. Human error is drastically minimized with automated data collection, which also generates a standardized reporting format — making it simple to compare and analyze trends. The system can quickly formulate reports on equipment data ranging from reliability and downtime to costs and worker efficiency.

Sophisticated CMMS platforms allow users to customize reports based on specific business needs, displaying charts and graphs to highlight key insights. These reports enhance predictive maintenance, lessen unscheduled downtime and improve regulatory compliance.

CMMS software gives maintenance leaders insight for better asset management and lower costs. The capacity to quickly review past data is also a huge help in mapping out proactive maintenance approaches — boosting equipment life and lowering operational risks overall.

How Coast Helps With Maintenance Reporting

After years of watching teams struggle with spreadsheets, whiteboards and paper logs, I can say without hesitation: A dedicated CMMS is the single biggest upgrade most maintenance operations can make. The reporting alone pays for it.

Ready to bring your maintenance reporting under control? Coast makes it easy to track work orders, document asset history and generate reports your whole team can act on. Sign up for a free Coast account to see how your team can reduce downtime and make smarter maintenance decisions starting today.