Schedule and automate preventive maintenance tasks
Schedule recurring maintenance
PM plans schedule maintenance before equipment fails. Each gets a reference (PM-1, PM-2, etc.).
Next to the Equipment and Locations fields, the tree icon opens a browsable hierarchy: your sites, buildings and lines, with the equipment listed under each. You can drill down to a machine without typing its name — clicking a location expands it, clicking a piece of equipment selects it. The Group by location button switches to the plain equipment hierarchy, and your choice is remembered.
The End Date is the last day the plan may generate a work order. An occurrence due on that day is still generated; none after it. Once the date has passed, the plan shows “Ended on …” and “Execute Now” is hidden. To restart the plan, move or clear the End Date.
If your Start Date is in the past, FreeMaint automatically rolls forward by the frequency until the next future occurrence.
The Start Date is the date of the first scheduled occurrence — not just a placeholder. Following occurrences are computed from the frequency. Example: to replace equipment every 3 years with the next replacement due in 2 years, set the Start Date to today + 2 years. The cycle will then roll on its own.
Choose an inspection template in the Inspection form card and every work order this plan generates will have to fill it in before it can be completed — see Inspection forms on work orders.
In the FreeMaint app, tap + on the «Work» tab, then «Create PM Schedule». The app creates calendar plans: a name, the equipment, how often (every N days, weeks, months or years), the start date, who it is assigned to, the steps, and whether work orders are created automatically (on by default). «More options» holds the rescheduling mode, the allowed days, the end date, the team, the estimated duration, the advance notice and the work order title — left empty, it is the plan's name. Meter-based, hybrid and specific-date plans are created on the web. Your plans are listed in the «More» tab, row «PM Schedules»: open one to see its next due date, its steps and its latest work orders, run it now, pause, deactivate or activate it, and — for a calendar plan — edit it. A plan copied from the Community opens there too: add the equipment, then activate it.
Each task in a PM plan can carry reference images — for example a photo of the machine with the greasing points numbered, or which grease to use. Upload them per task when creating or editing the plan; they are copied onto every work order the plan generates, so technicians can tap to zoom while doing the job. Available on every plan.
Start with your most critical assets — those whose failure causes production impact.
Apply one routine to many machines at once
When you manage a large fleet, you don't have to create one preventive maintenance plan per machine by hand. FreeMaint gives you three fast ways to cover many pieces of equipment at once.
Usage-based plans import too. Fill Meter (Name) with the meter on that asset, Meter Interval with the service interval (every 250 hours, for example), and — for equipment already in service — Last Service Meter Reading and Next Due Meter Reading, so the first service falls due at the right reading instead of from zero. Meter Interval is required for METER_BASED and HYBRID plans: without it the plan can never trigger, and the file is rejected with that row flagged.
The equipment field on the New PM form is a multi-select: pick several assets and a single plan covers them all, generating one work order per machine each cycle. With one shared plan, each cycle's work orders are grouped under a parent work order that lists every machine with its own tasks. When you select more than one, you also choose how the plan is created:
Start with your most critical equipment — the machines whose failure stops production — then widen coverage from there.
Warning:
If the plan is meter-based (running hours, mileage, cycles) rather than calendar-based, "One shared plan for all" ties the whole group to only ONE of the selected machines' meter — the others don't advance the schedule with their own usage. When machines accumulate hours at different rates, choose "One independent plan per equipment" instead so each one tracks its own meter and its own due date.
Required parts and tools, the plan PDF, and history by period
A maintenance plan is more than a date. It can also carry the spare parts and the tools the job needs, print as a document an auditor can read, and show its own execution history grouped by period.
The History tab groups the work orders a plan has generated by week, month or year, and shows a completion rate for each period. A period is counted by when the job was DONE, falling back to when it was raised while it is still open — so a January job completed in February counts towards February.
On the plan form, the Required Parts card lists the spare parts a service consumes. Pick a category first to narrow a large catalog, then the part and the quantity. Every work order the plan generates arrives with that list already attached as its planned parts.
The Export PDF button produces a printable sheet: identity and schedule, equipment and location, assignment, the task checklist, required parts and tools, and the execution history. Available on every plan whatever your subscription — it is a read of your own data.
For an audit, the PDF and the History tab answer the same question from two angles: what the plan asks for, and what actually happened.
The Required Tools card works the same way: category, then tool. Use it for the instruments a technician must bring — a torque wrench, a thermal camera, a calibrated gauge. The list is copied onto every work order the plan generates, so the technician sees it where the job is, not only on the plan.
Operator rounds: simple checks and upkeep at the machine, with the consumables they use
Level 1 maintenance is the work an operator does at their own machine: simple checks, cleaning, tightening, topping up, replacing an easily accessible consumable — no dismantling, no specialist. The French standard NF X 60-000 defines it as the first of five maintenance levels, and TPM calls the same routine Clean, Inspect, Lubricate. FreeMaint runs it on the inspection engine: you build a template once, pin the machines and zones it covers, set the order the operator walks them, and the round appears every day on their phone.
An Act done / not done checkpoint can consume a part: grease, oil, a filter, a lamp. Pick the part in the Consumable field and set the quantity normally used. When the operator answers Done, FreeMaint takes that quantity out of stock and records a stock movement of type Inspection, traced to the run and to the person. The operator can correct the quantity before saving; answering Not done afterwards returns what was taken.
A round often visits machines of different kinds: a pump, then a compressor, then a conveyor. Each needs its own checks. In the template, edit a section and pick its Equipment: that section becomes one stop of the round, with its own checkpoints (and a photo per line if needed). Run the template on the zone as usual. A failed point then raises its corrective work order against that machine — one work order per machine and per run — a meter reading goes to that machine's meter, and the run appears in the machine's inspection history. Sections without equipment work exactly as before. The annual grid stays per run target: it shows the zone, not each machine.
Every run can be exported as a PDF: the checkpoints, the answers, the notes and photos, and the consumable actually taken out of stock. That is the sheet an auditor asks for, and it replaces the paper one.
Reading rounds and printing their reports is available on every plan. Creating templates, scheduling them and recording results requires the Starter plan.
If Inspections is enough for your teams, an administrator can hide this menu entry by turning the Level 1 Maintenance module off in Company Settings → Modules. Nothing is deleted.
Scanning the machine QR code starts the right round directly, without going through any list. It is the fastest way in, and it records that the operator was at the machine.
Warning:
If there is not enough of the part in stock, the check is still recorded but the stock does not move, and the line shows stock not updated. The act is never lost; only the withdrawal is refused.
Fixed interval maintenance
Time-based PM runs on a fixed calendar: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or custom.
Each schedule reschedules either from the completion date (the default — the next occurrence is set from when the work order is actually completed, so a late completion shifts the whole cycle) or on a fixed calendar (from the due date, regardless of when the work is completed — best for regulatory or compliance schedules). Choose this per schedule in the PM form.
If monthly inspections always pass, consider extending to bi-monthly.
The interval is counted in days, so a plan set to every week falls on whatever weekday its start date happened to be. Under "On these days only" you can pick the weekdays the plan is allowed to fall on: a due date computed on any other day moves forward to the next one you selected. Leave every day unselected to keep the plan exactly where the interval places it. This is also the simplest way to keep due dates off Saturdays and Sundays.
Seasonal or irregular maintenance on exact calendar dates
Specific-dates scheduling runs a preventive maintenance on an explicit list of calendar dates instead of a fixed interval — ideal for seasonal or irregular work such as pest control, HVAC season prep, or grounds upkeep.
The list of dates repeats automatically every year, so you only enter them once.
Trigger PM on equipment readings
Meter-based PM triggers when a reading reaches a threshold — ideal when usage varies.
You can be warned before a meter-based plan becomes due so you can prepare parts, manpower and scheduling. On the plan, set "Advance notification" to either a percentage of the interval (for example 95% of a 1,000-hour interval warns at 950 hours) or a number of units before the trigger (for example 50 hours before due). A notification is then sent once per cycle as soon as a reading enters that window, before the work order is generated. Leave it Off to keep the previous behavior.
When you add equipment that has already been in service — and its previous maintenance was done outside FreeMaint at a different point in the cycle — use the "Next due at reading" field to set the exact reading at which the PM should fire next. Example: a ship's main engine at 6,700 running hours with three PMs every 1,000 h whose previous services landed at different times: Oil change next due at 6,800 h, Fuel filter at 7,100 h, Oil filter at 7,300 h. Type those values directly in "Next due at reading" — no need to lie about the current reading. The field defaults to current + interval when left empty (greenfield setup).
Meter-based PMs have no fixed calendar date — they trigger on usage. They appear in the “Usage-based maintenance” panel below the calendar, showing each plan’s progress toward its next service. Once a couple of readings have been logged over time, FreeMaint estimates a due date and adds a dashed “~” marker on the grid. With no readings yet, the panel shows a “Log reading” shortcut to get started.
A meter records readings; a meter-based PM is what watches those readings. Recording readings on a meter alone does not trigger anything — you must create a Preventive Maintenance with its Schedule Type set to Meter-Based, pointing to the meter's asset. The PM then generates a work order automatically every time the threshold is reached.
If maintenance happens before the scheduled trigger (e.g. an unplanned WO during which the lube oil is changed at 5,587 h instead of the scheduled 5,897 h), simply complete that Work Order with the actual meter reading and tick the matching preventive maintenance under "Satisfies preventive maintenance". The next trigger is rebased automatically (e.g. 5,587 + 1,000 = 6,587 h) and the scheduled trigger no longer fires.
An overdue meter-based schedule stays red until you complete its work order — logging a meter reading no longer clears it on its own. The schedule only re-arms for the next interval when the work is actually done, using the reading entered at completion (or the latest recorded reading if none is entered). This matches usage-based maintenance in UpKeep, Fiix and Maximo.
Important:
Meter-based and Hybrid scheduling require the Starter plan or higher. On the free Core plan, only calendar/time-based PM is available — and calendar-based PM plans are unlimited on Core, no upgrade needed just to create more of them.
Use HYBRID for the best of both: triggers on whichever comes first (time or meter).
Seeing readings but no maintenance? You haven't created a meter-based PM yet. The meter only stores the numbers; the PM does the triggering.
To have a work order created to READ a meter at a fixed interval — rather than maintenance triggered by its readings — use a calendar plan with a "Meter reading" step: see "Meters & Readings".
You no longer need to update the Last Service Meter Value by hand — completing the WO with a meter reading does it for you.
One work order when service intervals overlap
On heavy equipment and fleets, service intervals are nested: the 2000-hour service already includes everything done at 500 and 1000 hours. Nested plans let a higher milestone absorb the lower ones, so you get a single cumulative work order instead of several overlapping ones.
Set a base interval on the plan (for example every 500 hours), then give each task an 'every Nth service' value: 1 = every service, 2 = every second service (1000 h), 4 = every fourth (2000 h). When a milestone comes due, the work order automatically includes every task whose interval divides that milestone — so the 2000-hour work order also carries the 500 h and 1000 h tasks.
If you keep a separate plan for each interval (a 500h plan, a 1000h plan, a 2000h plan…) on the same equipment and meter, switch on "Nested service plan" on each of them. When several fall due at the same reading, the highest interval generates one combined work order — merging the tasks of the lower plans — and those lower plans are suppressed for that occurrence, so you never get duplicate work orders.
Nested / cumulative plans are part of the Business plan. Plans without nested intervals work on every tier.
Standardized checklists
Add a task template to a PM plan once: every work order the plan generates then carries its steps — nobody has to pick a template on each work order.
Tick the plans in the Preventive Maintenance list, click "Bulk edit" and choose a template in the "Task Template" field — up to 100 plans at a time. Then pick "Add after the existing tasks" or "Replace the existing tasks". To empty the checklists instead, choose "Remove all tasks" at the top of the same field: every task of the selected plans is deleted. In every case, open work orders already generated by these plans get the change too, unless a technician has started one of their tasks.
The steps are copied, not linked: editing the template later does not change plans that already use it. Several departments? Create one plan per team — its work orders inherit the team.
How PM creates work orders automatically
When enabled, FreeMaint creates work orders automatically when PM plans come due.
"Auto-create work orders" is ticked by default on every new plan: the plan then creates each work order by itself a few days before its due date ("Advance notification (days before due)"), at the plan's notification hour. Untick it only if you want to release each work order yourself with "Execute Now". A plan created earlier with the box unticked never generates by itself: once its due date has passed, its page says so and offers "Turn on automatic work orders" — the overdue work order is then created at the plan's notification hour.
Deactivating a PM plan stops work-order generation entirely — both the daily scheduler and the manual "Execute / Commence" action — until you reactivate it. To stop a plan only for a defined period (e.g. a school holiday or seasonal shutdown), use "Pause until" and choose a date: the plan resumes automatically on that date, and occurrences missed during the pause are skipped, not created in bulk. When deactivating or pausing you can optionally cancel the plan's open work orders that nobody has started yet. To reactivate a plan, use "Activate" at the top of its page or in its row menu on the list.
If you do not want to perform a particular occurrence this cycle but want the plan to recur normally next time, use "Skip this occurrence" — do not delete or complete the work order. Open the work order and click "Skip next occurrence", or use the plan's (…) menu on the Preventive Maintenance list. The next occurrence is rescheduled automatically and the open work order is cancelled. Skipping does NOT record a maintenance as done, so your completion rate and history stay accurate (an optional reason is saved for audit). Deleting the work order would just regenerate the same occurrence; completing it would falsely record work that was never performed.
Monitor PM completion rate in Reports. Low rates indicate scheduling or resource problems.
Visual schedule overview
See all PM tasks on the calendar with color-coded status indicators.
The Calendar page also shows the inspections of your HSE register: on the day they are scheduled, or the day they were completed. They have their own filter, « HSE inspections », and clicking one opens it. They cannot be dragged to another day: reschedule them from the inspection itself. They appear for users who can read HSE, when the HSE module is enabled. In the mobile app they appear in the Calendar tab; tapping one opens it in your browser.
Review PM calendar weekly to prepare parts and assign technicians.
On the Preventive Maintenance page, the Analytics tab opens with the “Planned workload” chart: the estimated hours of preventive work per week, projected from your plans over 8, 13 or 26 weeks. Plans with no estimated duration are named under the chart instead of being silently left out. Click a week to list, under the chart, the plans behind its bar — date, plan, asset, assignee and duration — and use the arrows to step to the previous or next week. To even out a heavy week, open one of those plans and move its next due date. Available on the Business plan and above.
Meet regulatory requirements
PM provides the documented proof needed for regulatory compliance.
For regulated equipment, require photos and notes on completed PM work orders.
On each plan, “Execution window (days)” sets how long a generated work order stays on time: its due date is the scheduled date plus the window, minus one day. Only after that is it marked Overdue and counted late in the indicators — set 8 for one week of tolerance. To change it on many plans at once, select them in the Preventive Maintenance list and use Bulk edit: it applies to the work orders generated from then on.
Best practices for effective PM
Balance costs against reliability — too little PM leads to breakdowns, too much wastes resources.
Open a time-based or hybrid plan, then its “Analytics” tab: the “Interval review” card covers the last 12 months (or the period since the interval last changed). It counts how often the plan was done on time or late, the failures on the same asset while the PM was on time versus overdue, the defects found during its checks and the downtime recorded, then gives a verdict — schedule adherence, review this plan, stable, or not enough data. It never changes the interval for you: a failure can have nothing to do with what this PM checks, so look at its failure code before editing the plan's frequency.
A healthy program has 80% preventive, 20% corrective. If corrective exceeds 40%, expand PM coverage.
Recurring schedules with no specific equipment
Not every recurring task is about equipment. Fire drills, audits, license renewals, board meetings — these are organizational tasks that still need a schedule, reminders, and accountability, but no asset or location to attach to. FreeMaint lets you schedule them as Preventive Maintenance plans in Organizational mode.
A plan is organizational precisely because it has no asset and no location — so binding one to equipment is what turns it into a per-asset plan. You can do that for many plans at once: tick them in the Preventive Maintenance list, open Bulk edit, and use the Assets field. "Detach all assets" takes them back to organizational. Three things to know before a large change: work orders already open are not rewritten, future work orders inherit the ASSET's location rather than the plan's, and plans without their own team start inheriting the asset's team — which also changes who sees them and who gets notified. Selecting two or more assets is a bigger change than it looks: each cycle then raises one parent work order plus one child per asset.
If you don't assign anyone, admins and managers receive the reminder by default.
Use Organizational mode for one-off recurring tasks with a simple checklist (or none at all). Use HSE Inspections when you need a structured form with multiple sections, scoring, photos, and a formal pass/fail outcome — e.g. monthly extinguisher inspection following a regulatory grid.
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