What the log records
Both versions cover the same ground:
- Date and hour meter. The hours matter more than the date. Hour readings are what tell you whether services are landing on interval.
- Type. PM for a scheduled service, repair, or inspection.
- Work performed and parts used. Enough detail that someone reading it in two years knows what was done.
- Labor hours and cost. The Excel version splits cost into labor, parts and other, and totals each row for you.
- Done by. The technician or the outside shop.
The Excel version adds a summary that fills itself in: total maintenance cost, total labor hours, hours accumulated between the first and last entry, and maintenance cost per hour. There are 60 rows and a totals row at the bottom.
The PDF is landscape, two pages, and built to be printed and kept with the machine's file or in the cab.
Why the hour meter column matters most
A maintenance log that records dates but not hours can't answer the questions you'll eventually ask it.
Heavy equipment wears by the hour. An excavator on double shifts reaches its 500 hour service in half the calendar time of one on a single shift. Write down only the date and you have no way of telling whether that service landed on interval, 200 hours early, or 300 hours late. We covered what that gap costs in why PM timing matters more than you think.
Record the hour meter on every entry and the log answers three questions at once: what was done, when it was done, and how many hours the machine had on it at the time.
What a complete log is worth
- Resale. A documented service history is one of the few things that reliably supports the price of a used machine. A buyer who can see the oil changes, the component replacements and the hours they were done at is buying a known quantity.
- Warranty. Most warranty claims turn on proof that the machine was serviced as specified. A log with dates, hours and parts is the proof.
- Cost per hour. Add up the maintenance cost on a machine, divide it by the hours it ran, and you have its maintenance cost per hour. That's the number that tells you which machines are getting expensive and when one is worth replacing. Our equipment cost per hour calculator puts it together with ownership and operating costs.
- Handover. Mechanics move on. A machine with a written history doesn't lose everything the last person knew about it.
How to use it
- One sheet per machine. Fill in the unit number, make and model, serial number, year and site at the top so the sheet can't be confused with another machine's.
- Log it when it's done, not at month end. Entries written from memory are the ones that end up wrong or missing.
- Record the hour meter on every line, including repairs and inspections, not just scheduled services.
- Keep the detail useful. "Serviced" tells you nothing later. "500 hour service: engine oil and filters, fuel filters, greased all points" does.
- File the completed sheets with the machine, and keep them when the machine is sold or transferred.
In the Excel version, delete the example row before you start. The cells you fill in are shaded; everything else calculates itself.
Where a log sheet stops working
A log per machine works well for a handful of units. It gets harder as the fleet grows, for reasons that have nothing to do with how good the template is:
- Nobody can see across machines. Answering "which units cost us the most this year" means opening every sheet.
- The log lives apart from the work. Somebody has to copy the service into it after the fact, and that step is the one that gets skipped when the shop is busy.
- Nothing tells you what's coming due. A log records what's been done, not what's next.
- Costs on the sheet don't match what accounting paid, because the parts came off a purchase order nobody typed into the log.
That's the point where fleets move to software. In Tenmil, the log writes itself: every work order lands on the machine with its labor, parts and outside service costs, PMs come due from each machine's actual hours, and cost per hour is live rather than something you total up at year end. The full picture is on our heavy equipment maintenance software page.
Until then, this template is a good place to start.
More free templates
We keep free heavy equipment inspection checklists for excavators, dozers, loaders, graders and more, in PDF and Excel, plus a shop rate calculator and an equipment cost per hour calculator.
FAQ
The date, the hour meter reading, what type of work it was, what was done, which parts were used, the labor hours and cost, and who did it. The hour meter reading is the one most logs leave out and the one that matters most on heavy equipment.
Yes. Both the PDF and the Excel version are free to download and use, with no sign-up.
Yes. Replace the hour meter column with the odometer for on-road units. Everything else works the same.
Keep them for as long as you own the machine, and hand them over when you sell it. Warranty claims and resale both depend on them, and your own replacement decisions get better the longer the history runs.
Yes. It totals maintenance cost and labor hours, works out the hours between your first and last entry, and divides one by the other. That is maintenance cost per hour only. Ownership and operating costs are separate, and the cost per hour calculator covers all three.