Capital planning is an extension of two other key elements of maintenance management—creating and monitoring budgets.

Like any budgeting process, accurate information significantly improves the ability to plan. And CMMS software gathers maintenance information with every work order, inventory item, or subcontracted repair—making it a treasure trove of data when you need it.

With CMMS data, you’re basing your plan on hard numbers instead assumptions. That’s how CMMS software makes capital planning easier and more accurate, helping your organization stay efficient and competitive. For the fundamentals, see equipment maintenance.

What’s Capital Planning?

Capital planning typically includes physical assets like equipment and machinery, but can also include product expansions, research & development, property, and other major capital expenditures.

While creating a capital plan usually involves multiple departments, maintenance will likely be a big part of the process because you work closely with an organization’s key assets. And that’s where CMMS software becomes essential.

How Does CMMS Software Help?

The first step to developing a solid capital plan is knowing what you have. You can use CMMS software to create an asset list and gather data on each of those assets. This data includes key information like purchase date, life-to-date (LTD) maintenance expenses, and other key financial details.

Often CMMS data can spot potential trouble, which helps with long-term planning. For example, if your CMMS reports indicate an increasing number of emergency repairs to a key asset, it’s time to take a closer look and what’s really going on. That includes determining if it’s better to replace it, rather than repairing it.

This information also helps you prioritize your organization’s capital expenditures, so you know what you should focus on first—and what can wait until later.

How Can I Use My CMMS Data?

CMMS data helps you verify and justify capital expenditures as well as prepare for them. The process creates better visibility into your maintenance operations, as well as the documentation to back up your plan. That’s important when you need to explain your decisions.

Capital planning with CMMS software is another example of data-driven management, which means your decisions are backed by reliable data. Technological advances like CMMS software help make more and more detailed, relevant maintenance data available. You can use that to your advantage.

What challenges do you face with capital planning? Contact us. We want to know.