The "Hidden" Cost: Most factories track Maintenance Spend (Invoices), but they fail to track the True Cost of Unreliability (Downtime + Waste + Labor).
The "Real-Time" Requirement: Waiting for the monthly financial report is too late. You need to see costs accumulating on the machine level in real-time.
The Top 6: We review Fabrico, SAP, UpKeep, and others to help you get control of your maintenance budget.
Every Maintenance Manager knows the feeling of the "Budget Meeting."
The CFO ("Paula") asks: "Why did we spend €50,000 on the packaging line this month?"
And the Maintenance Manager ("Mike") has to dig through invoices and spreadsheets to find the answer.
This is "Rear-View Mirror" management. You are analyzing costs after the money is gone.
To run a profitable factory, you need Maintenance Cost Tracking Software that gives you the "Total Cost of Ownership" (TCO) for every asset as it happens.
You need to track:
Direct Costs: Spare parts and contractor invoices.
Labor Costs: Technician hours (Overtime vs. Regular).
Consequential Costs: The value of lost production (OEE) while the machine was down.
Here are the 6 Best Software Tools for tracking maintenance costs in 2025.
Best For: Manufacturers who want to see Maintenance Spend + Production Loss in one number.
Fabrico is unique because it integrates OEE (Production) with CMMS (Maintenance). This allows it to calculate the true cost of a breakdown.
Real-Time TCO: When a motor fails, Fabrico calculates: (Part Cost €500) + (2 Hours Labor €100) + (2 Hours Downtime €5,000) = €5,600. Most systems only show you the €600. Fabrico shows you the full impact.
Budget Thresholds: You can set budgets per production line. If "Line 1" consumes 80% of its monthly maintenance budget by the 15th, Fabrico sends an alert to the manager.
Spare Parts Valuation: Fabrico tracks inventory value dynamically (LIFO/FIFO/Average Cost). It pushes consumption data to your ERP (SAP/Microsoft) instantly, keeping the General Ledger accurate.
Contractor Tracking: You can log external contractor hours and rates directly into the Work Order, ensuring you capture the "hidden" labor costs often missed in payroll.
The Verdict: If you want to know exactly how much profit each machine is eating, Fabrico is the integrated choice.
Best For: Corporate Finance teams.
SAP PM is the gold standard for financial integration.
Pros: The data lives in the ERP. There is no sync delay. Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Asset Depreciation are all handled in one massive system.
Cons: It is a financial tool, not an operational tool. It is great for "Invoice Tracking," but it often lacks the granularity of "Downtime Cost" (OEE Loss) unless you build complex custom reports.
The Niche: Global Enterprises.
Best For: Tracking basic parts and labor.
UpKeep is excellent for straightforward budget tracking in less complex environments.
Pros: Very easy to see "Parts Cost" vs. "Labor Cost" on a dashboard. It handles purchase orders well for small-to-mid-sized teams.
Cons: It lacks the deep connection to production. It tells you what you spent to fix the machine, but it doesn't tell you what the machine cost you in lost output.
The Niche: Facilities and Light Manufacturing.
Best For: Asset lifecycle costing.
Fiix has strong reporting features for analyzing long-term asset costs.
Pros: The "Fiix Foresight" analytics can help predict future spending based on historical trends. It helps with the "Repair vs. Replace" decision.
Cons: As it moves up-market, the licensing cost is increasing. It requires accurate data entry from technicians to work effectively.
The Niche: Data-driven Reliability Engineers.
Best For: Reducing administrative time.
Limble focuses on the "Cost of Management"—reducing the time Mike spends shuffling paper.
Pros: It calculates "Labor Rates" automatically based on who is assigned to the job. It simplifies the Purchasing workflow.
Cons: Like UpKeep, it is a maintenance island. It tracks the repair, not the business impact (OEE).
The Niche: Agile maintenance teams.
Best For: Tracking Purchase Orders on mobile.
MaintainX makes purchasing easy for the technician on the floor.
Pros: Technicians can create Purchase Requests directly from the app with photos. This captures "Maverick Spend" (buying parts on credit cards) that often goes untracked.
Cons: The reporting is lighter than enterprise tools. It is better for "Cash Flow" tracking than deep "Asset Lifecycle" analysis.
The Niche: Workflow efficiency.
| Feature | Fabrico | SAP PM | UpKeep | Fiix | MaintainX |
| Direct Costs (Parts) | ✅ Native | ✅ Deep | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ✅ Good |
| Lost Production Cost | ✅ Native | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Add-on | ❌ No |
| Budget Alerts | ✅ Real-Time | ⚠️ Delayed | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Basic |
| User Experience | Modern | Difficult | Excellent | Good | Excellent |
| Deployment | Fast | Slow | Fast | Medium | Fast |
Tracking how much you spent on bolts is accounting.
Tracking how much downtime cost you is Management.
Choose SAP if you need perfect General Ledger alignment.
Choose UpKeep if you just want to track spare parts receipts.
Choose Fabrico if you want to manage Profit. If you need to see the correlation between Maintenance Spend and Production Revenue in real-time, Fabrico is the only platform that puts the whole picture together.
Control your budget.
[Book a Demo with Fabrico] to see our Cost Analytics dashboard in action.
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