Published 21 September 2026
What Excel does well
A spreadsheet is free, already installed and everyone knows it. For a few dozen assets and a lubrication plan kept by one person, it is plenty. You change it in a minute, with no training and no IT project.
Where the spreadsheet runs out
History gets lost. A job is a date, a technician, hours, parts and a cause. In a spreadsheet that ends up in tabs, comments or separate files, and finding a pump's last failure becomes an investigation.
Preventive work depends on memory. A file warns nobody. When the person who keeps the schedule is away, due dates pass with nothing triggered, and hour meters go unread.
The field can't reach it. Technicians write on paper, then someone types it in, often late and with mistakes. Photos stay on phones.
Several people, several versions. As soon as two people edit the file you end up with “schedule_v3_final_2.xlsx” and no record of who changed what.
KPIs are done by hand. MTBF, MTTR, preventive compliance, cost per asset: every figure takes an export, formulas and time. So they are rarely calculated.
Excel and a CMMS, side by side
| History per asset | Scattered across tabs and files | Every job attached to its asset |
| Preventive maintenance | Due dates tracked by hand | Work orders raised by date or by meter |
| Field work | Paper, then retyping | Mobile app, offline included |
| Spare parts | Stock updated when someone remembers | Parts used recorded on the work order |
| Traceability | No record of who changed what | Every change recorded with its author |
| KPIs | Calculated by hand, rarely | MTBF, MTTR, availability and costs kept current |
| Cost to start | None | A subscription and some setup time |
Signs it is time to switch
- You manage more than a hundred assets, or several sites.
- More than two people edit the schedule.
- Someone asks for an asset's history and it takes you hours to piece together.
- Preventive jobs get missed, and you find out through a breakdown.
- You can't say which assets cost you the most.
If two of these sound familiar, the spreadsheet already costs you more than it saves.
Moving from Excel to a CMMS without starting over
Start from your file. The asset list already exists: import it from a file instead of typing it again.
Begin with work orders. Send every request through the tool for a month. The history builds itself.
Add preventive plans next. Bring over the routines you already follow, with their frequencies or meters.
Equip the field last. Once the rest runs, technicians record work on mobile, at the machine, even with no network.
With Maintelix the asset list imports from a file and all data exports at any time. You don't lose Excel; you stop depending on it.