Maintenance · Daily operations · 7 min read

Record downtime and maintenance costs

Record when an asset stops, add manual costs, and read the single cost ledger and lifecycle cost.

Before you begin

• Downtime needs maintenance.edit. Money amounts (cost, rates) need maintenance.cost.view. Without it the cost columns, Costs tabs and Costs menus are hidden and the system refuses amounts: 'You do not have permission for this action.'
• Most downtime and cost is recorded by the system when jobs start and complete. Use the manual entries below for the rest.

Record downtime

1. Open Maintenance > Operations > Downtime and click Record Downtime. You can also use More > Record Downtime on an asset or work order, which takes the asset for you.
2. Choose the Asset.
3. Set Downtime Start (default now).
4. Set Downtime End. Leave it empty if the asset is still down; the list shows a Running chip and the hours count to now.
5. Choose the Reason: Breakdown, Preventive maintenance, Waiting for parts, Planned shutdown or Utility failure.
6. Tick Planned downtime if it was planned. Unplanned downtime lowers availability and MTBF; planned does not.
7. Type the Production Impact, for example Line 1 stopped, 400 cartons lost.
8. Click Save.

An end before the start is refused: 'Downtime cannot end before it starts.'

Worked example

Downtime from 09:00 to 13:30 is 4.50 hours. The company downtime rate is 500.00 AED an hour, so the cost is 2,250.00 AED, booked to the ledger under Downtime. When the work order that fixes the asset is completed, its own downtime is closed and costed the same way: 2.5 h at 500.00 is 1,250.00 AED.

Add a manual cost

1. Open Maintenance > Costs > Maintenance Costs and click Add Cost, or use More > Add Cost on a work order.
2. Choose the Asset (taken from the job when added there).
3. Choose the Category: Labor, Parts, Vendor, Travel, Tools, Downtime or Other.
4. Enter the Amount, more than 0 (rounded to 2 decimals), the Date, the Vendor and a Description such as Taxi to site.
5. Click Save.

A closed job refuses it: 'A closed work order's costs are final. Reopen it first.' Costs created by the system, such as labour, parts and downtime, cannot be deleted by hand: 'This cost comes from its source record; change it there.' Only manual costs can be removed.

Read the cost ledger

Maintenance > Costs > Maintenance Costs shows the total in AED and number of entries for a date range (default 1 January to today), with date, asset, category, source, description, vendor and amount. Labor Costs, Parts Costs, Vendor Costs and Downtime Costs show the same ledger for one category. Click a row to open its work order.

A work order's Costs tab adds up the categories. Example: labour 160.00, parts 75.00, vendor 800.00, downtime 1,250.00 and travel 120.00. The tab shows Labor 160.00, Parts 75.00, Vendor 800.00, Other 1,370.00 (downtime plus travel) and Total 2,405.00 AED.

Asset lifecycle cost

Maintenance > Costs > Asset Lifecycle Cost shows, per asset (children included), Purchase, Labor, Parts, Vendor, Downtime, Other and Lifecycle Cost. Example: a purchase cost of 185,000.00 AED plus 2,405.00 AED of maintenance gives 187,405.00 AED.

What happens next

The same ledger feeds the dashboard cost tiles, the Maintenance Costs, Vendor Costs and Parts Consumption reports, and the Total Cost on the Asset 360. See Reports and KPIs.

Good to know

• Labour and downtime costs are not posted to the accounts yet. Only the parts issue creates a journal entry.
• The cost permission lets a person add and delete manual costs, not only view them. Give it with care.
• Cost changes appear in History with the amount, so the history of a record can show money to people who open it.