Logging Historical & Backlog Maintenance

When you adopt FreeMaint you can record maintenance that was already carried out earlier — so your asset history, analytics and audit trail are complete from day one. This is called historical logging (or backdating a work order). Historical records carry a Historical badge on the work order, and the History tab states who logged the record and when the work was actually completed.

When to use it

Migrating from paper or another tool

Enter the services you performed in previous months so each asset's history starts complete.

Trend analytics

Backdated records land in the correct month, so charts, MTTR and PM-compliance reflect your real history.

ISO / audit evidence

Produce a continuous, dated maintenance record for inspectors and certifications.

How to log a past intervention

Open the Work Orders list and click “Log past work” (top right). For a specific machine, you can also open the asset's Preventive Maintenance tab and click “Log past work”.
Enter the real completion date (it cannot be in the future). Optionally add when the work started and the original “Created / opened date” — leave that blank to reuse the start or completion date.
Select the Location and the Asset — for a deep site tree, click “Browse hierarchy” beside either field to drill down Site → Building → Floor → Area instead of searching by name. If it was a scheduled preventive maintenance, pick the linked PM plan too.
Keep “Update this PM plan: shift the next due date based on this completion” checked so the schedule re-anchors from that date.
Add who performed the work, and — if someone outside maintenance asked for it — fill “Requested By”. Selecting a Team first floats that team's people to the top of the technician list. Add any notes, then save. The work order is created directly as Closed with the real historical date. If you leave “Assigned technicians” empty, the work order is assigned to the person who performed it, so it shows up when you filter by technician.

Tip

Under “Durations” you can also enter the “Intervention duration” — saved as a time entry for the person who performed the work, so the work order shows its actual duration — and the “Equipment downtime”, saved as a downtime period of the selected equipment that ends at the completion date. No need to open the “Machine downtime” tab afterwards. The downtime field appears once an asset is selected.

Tip

Set the Maintenance type (Corrective, Preventive, Inspection…) so the record counts in the right column of your reliability reports; a record linked to a PM plan is always Preventive. On the mobile app, tap “+” on the work order list and choose “Log past work”, or tap “Work that is already finished — Log past work” at the top of the new work order screen. The form offers the same fields as on the web, durations included: attachments first, then description, maintenance type and who performed the work — several people can be selected.

Who can do this

Logging past work needs the “Backdate work orders” permission, granted to Admins and Managers by default. Technicians do not see the button, which protects the integrity of your maintenance history. An admin can grant the permission to other roles under Organization → Roles.

How it affects your data

Each historical work order is stored as Closed with its real completion date, so it appears in the asset's maintenance history and counts toward analytics, trends and PM-compliance for the month it actually happened. When you link it to a PM and keep the rebase option, the plan's next due date is recalculated from the completion date — and the schedule is never moved backwards.

Tip

Log one work order per service performed. To record many at once, use the work order import: a row with a "Completed Date" is created as a historical work order, Closed on that date. A row with the status Completed but no date is refused, so no work order ends up completed without its real date.

Warning

Do not create a new work order and mark it Complete just to record old work — that distorts your completion dates and compliance figures. Always use “Log past work”, which stores the true historical date. To defer an upcoming preventive maintenance instead, use the “Skip next occurrence” option.