How to track maintenance costs
Maintenance cost in UniAsset is not estimated. It is the sum of what you actually recorded.
Requirements
- Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos — depreciation and cost analytics
- Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager can view reports
Where cost comes from
Every figure traces back to a service record. Service records are created two ways:
- Recorded directly, with a cost
- Written automatically when a work order is closed, carrying its labour and material costs
There is no third source. If a cost was never recorded, it does not appear — and UniAsset will say the data is thin rather than estimate a number.
One asset's cost
Open the asset. You see:
- Purchase cost — what it cost to acquire
- Total cost of ownership — purchase cost plus all recorded maintenance spend
- Service records — the individual entries behind that total
Cost across the organization
Go to Dashboard → Reports. Four tabs matter here, all needing Orbit or above:
| Report | Answers |
|---|---|
| Asset Costs | What has each asset cost us in total? |
| Category Costs | Which classes of asset consume the budget? |
| Dept Costs | Which units are carrying the cost? |
| Maintenance | What work has been done, and what is outstanding? |
All reports export to CSV, Excel, or PDF.
Cost risk
Cost risk analysis identifies assets whose maintenance spend has become disproportionate to their purchase price.
This is the number that answers "should we keep repairing this?" A £900 laptop that has absorbed £700 of repairs is a different decision from a £90,000 machine that has absorbed the same amount.
You can filter the asset list by cost risk to find them. See Replace or repair?.
Making the numbers trustworthy
Record costs at the time. Costs reconstructed at year end are guesses.
Log materials as materials. Parts typed into a note are not costed and never reach any report.
Close your work orders. A completed-but-not-closed order has no service record and contributes nothing.
Enter zero, not blank, for warranty work. Zero proves the service happened and was covered.
Fill in purchase cost and date on assets. Without them there is no basis for total cost of ownership, depreciation, or cost risk.
Common mistakes
Treating total cost of ownership as complete when maintenance history is thin. UniAsset shows you where the record is thin — asset intelligence flags assets missing purchase data or maintenance history. Fix the gaps before quoting the number.
Comparing departments with different recording habits. If one department logs every part and another does not, the comparison measures record-keeping, not spend.
Splitting one job across several work orders to keep individual costs below the approval threshold. The asset total is what drives replacement decisions, so this only hides the problem.
Troubleshooting
The cost report tabs are locked. Depreciation and cost analytics need Orbit or above. Check Settings → Plan & Usage.
An asset's maintenance cost is zero despite lots of work. Either the costs were left blank, or the work orders were never closed.
Total cost of ownership looks wrong. It is purchase cost plus recorded maintenance spend. A missing purchase cost makes it look artificially low.
I can't see Reports at all. Viewing reports needs Manager or above.
The currency is wrong. Currency is set per organization at Settings → Organization, defaulted from your country.
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