Why Facility Managers Are Moving Away from Paper-Based Maintenance Logs

Vaibhav Shelke

May 11, 2025 — 2 min read

In today’s fast-paced facility management world, keeping track of maintenance activities shouldn’t slow you down. Yet, many facility teams — from commercial towers to residential complexes — still rely on paper-based checklists and handwritten work order logs. These outdated processes lead to delays, errors, and operational blind spots.

The good news? There’s a smarter way to manage your maintenance data — and it starts with automation.

The Hidden Costs of Manual Maintenance Logs

Relying on paper forms might seem harmless, but it creates several operational roadblocks:

Wasted Time: Technicians often have to return to the office to submit checklists, wasting hours that could be spent on actual maintenance tasks.
Data Entry Errors: Handwritten notes are prone to mistakes — from missed fields to illegible writing — making record-keeping unreliable.
Poor Visibility: Paper records are isolated and hard to share. Managers often struggle to get real-time visibility into ongoing work.
Delayed Reporting: End-of-day or end-of-week data entry makes reporting slow and incomplete.

In fact, a 2024 industry survey revealed that 44.1% of facility managers identify work order tracking as their most time-consuming task, making it a prime candidate for automation.

How Automation Transforms Maintenance Logging

By digitizing work order data, facility teams can eliminate paperwork while improving speed, accuracy, and oversight. Here’s how automation tools like SimplyParse help:

Fast Data Capture: Technicians can scan paper checklists or forms in seconds — no manual typing required.
Error-Free Records: SimplyParse reads printed or handwritten text and converts it into structured digital data with high accuracy.
Instant Access: Data becomes available to supervisors and managers in real-time, enabling quicker decision-making.
Seamless System Integration: Digitized data flows directly into your existing CMMS, ERP, or Excel dashboards — eliminating double entry.

Whether it’s extracting task names, technician IDs, service dates, or status updates, SimplyParse makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.

The Real Benefit: Unified, Real-Time Maintenance Insights

Beyond faster data capture, the biggest advantage of going digital is system-wide connectivity. With automation:

Your maintenance records sync with inventory and finance systems, giving you a single source of truth.
Reporting becomes instant and accurate, helping you manage budgets, assets, and operations more effectively.
Teams collaborate better, with everyone accessing the latest updates without waiting for paperwork to arrive.

From commercial high-rises in New York to mixed-use developments in Mumbai, facility teams can transform how they manage their operations with a solution like SimplyParse.

References

WorkTrek (April 2025). Work Order Automation: Things to Know. Available at: https://worktrek.com
Cryotos CMMS. Feature Page on Maintenance Checklists (OCR Import). Available at: https://cryotos.com
The NonStop Group (2023). Paper vs Digital Work Orders – Reliability Blog. Available at: https://reliability.thenonstopgroup.com
Anyline (2022). Tire Inspection Checklist: How a DOT Tire Scanner Can Help. Available at: https://anyline.com