How to analyse total cost of ownership
Total cost of ownership is the honest answer to "what has this actually cost us?"
The formula
Total cost of ownership = purchase price + all recorded maintenance spend
Both halves are real recorded figures. Nothing is estimated or extrapolated.
Requirements
- Available on: Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
- Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager
Where to find it
On one asset: open the asset. The total cost of ownership is shown alongside the purchase cost and the service records behind it.
Across the organization: Dashboard → Reports, then:
| Tab | 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? |
All export to CSV, Excel, or PDF.
Cost risk
Cost risk analysis flags assets whose maintenance spend has become disproportionate to their purchase price.
That ratio matters more than the absolute number. £700 of repairs on a £900 laptop is a replacement conversation; the same £700 on a £90,000 machine is routine.
Filter the asset list by cost risk to find them, then work down the list. See Replace or repair?.
Making the figures trustworthy
Total cost of ownership is only as complete as the records behind it.
- Fill in purchase cost and date on every asset. Without them there is no baseline.
- Record every service, including warranty work at zero cost.
- Close your work orders. A completed-but-not-closed order has written no service record and contributes nothing.
- Log materials as materials, not as a mention in the notes. Only logged materials are costed.
Use asset intelligence to find assets missing purchase data or maintenance history before quoting a figure.
Total cost of ownership vs net book value
They answer different questions and often move in opposite directions.
| Total cost of ownership | Net book value | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | What has it cost us? | What is it still worth on the books? |
| Direction over time | Only goes up | Goes down as it depreciates |
| Driven by | Purchase price and maintenance spend | Purchase price, depreciation method, useful life |
An asset with rising total cost of ownership and falling net book value is the classic replacement candidate.
Common mistakes
Comparing departments with different recording habits. If one logs every part and another does not, you are measuring record-keeping, not spend.
Using total cost of ownership alone to justify replacement. UniAsset does not know what a replacement costs today, or what downtime would cost. Those are your inputs.
Treating a figure built on thin data as complete. Check for gaps first.
Troubleshooting
The cost tabs are locked. Cost analytics need Orbit or above.
An asset shows a total cost equal to its purchase price. No maintenance costs have been recorded — either nothing was spent, costs were left blank, or work orders were never closed.
Total cost of ownership looks impossibly low. Check the purchase cost is filled in. Missing purchase costs understate everything.
I can't see Reports. Viewing reports needs Manager or above.
Category costs do not add up to the total. Assets with no category are not in any category row. Filter for uncategorised assets and fix them.
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