---
title: "How to Write PM Checklists for Hundreds of Machines With No Manuals — FixAhead Blog"
description: "How do you write maintenance checklists for hundreds of machines when half have no manual? Group them by category, write one short checklist for each, and refine it at every PM visit."
---

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# How to write PM checklists with no manuals

Group the machines by category, write one short checklist for each, and refine it at every PM visit.

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- FixAhead team

On this page

- [Group the equipment by category](#group-the-equipment-by-category)
- [Write one short checklist per category](#write-one-short-checklist-per-category)
- [Get the manuals you can](#get-the-manuals-you-can)
- [Ask the senior technicians which parts wear](#ask-the-senior-technicians-which-parts-wear)
- [Keep each checklist short, and refine it at every visit](#keep-each-checklist-short-and-refine-it-at-every-visit)
- [Put the checklists on the schedules](#put-the-checklists-on-the-schedules)
- [Start with one category](#start-with-one-category)

Writing a PM for every machine in a building is a large job, and it gets larger when half the machines have no manual. It does not have to mean hundreds of separate checklists. Write one checklist per category of equipment, and use it for every machine in that category.

Above, a separate checklist for each of many machines. Below, one checklist for each category, with its machines grouped under it.

*One checklist per category covers every machine in that category.*

## Group the equipment by category

Sort the machines by what they do: pumps, air handlers, compressors, motors, and so on. Start from your asset list or a walk through the building, and put each machine in one category. A machine that fits no category gets a category of its own until you know more about it. If the list is a spreadsheet, you can fill FixAhead’s import template from it, and [see each row’s errors before anything is imported](/features/asset-management/).

### 1. Add each category in the Library

Open Library, then Asset Categories, and press Add Categories. Type the category’s name in Asset Category, and press Add Category.

![Add Asset Category, with Fire Safety entered, over the hotel’s categories and their asset counts.](/_astro/fixahead-category-add-post.w9xo5CWe_1dQi5y.webp)

*Add Asset Category, with the category's name entered.*

## Write one short checklist per category

Each category gets one [generic checklist](/templates/preventive-maintenance-checklist/) that describes the work for any machine in that group. Every step names three things:

- The part, as it is named on the machine.
- The check: what the technician looks at, listens for, or measures.
- What to record: the reading, or the condition found.

Keep the checklist to the steps a technician can finish in one visit. Every machine in the category gets this checklist. Its location, make, and serial number go on the machine’s own record, not into a new checklist.

### 1. Add each procedure in the Library

Open Library, then Maintenance Procedures, and press Add Procedure. Name and describe the procedure, write each task on its own row, and check Mandatory Task? or Photo Required? where a task needs it.

![Edit Procedure for Building maintenance checklist: two exit tasks ticked Mandatory Task, Photo Required beside each.](/_astro/fixahead-procedure-mandatory-post.CFCdpsmj_Z1lbUiE.webp)

*Edit Procedure with two tasks, each with Mandatory Task? checked and Photo Required? clear.*

### 2. Or import several procedures from a file

Press Import Procedures beside Add Procedure, then choose your file. It holds one row per task, and rows that share a procedureCode become one procedure.

![Bulk Import Maintenance Procedures with Download Template, over Edit Procedure for Building maintenance checklist and its tasks.](/_astro/fixahead-procedure-import-post.4Qy1ykqv_Z4Sx1x.webp)

*Bulk Import Maintenance Procedures, before a file is chosen.*

![An Android phone with Water Booster Pump PMP-01 monthly service, Completed, on its Tasks tab, 2 of 2, both checks ticked.](/_astro/fixahead-mobile-tasks-post.CHQN1Ebz_24Qe9a.webp)

*The app shows the checklist task by task, for the technician to complete.*

## Get the manuals you can

Send the make, model, and serial number to the manufacturer and ask for the maintenance manual. Where a manual comes back, take its service intervals for the machines it covers, and add any step the category checklist is missing. Attach each manual to its machine’s record. FixAhead [attaches manuals to the asset](/features/asset-management/).

### 1. Attach the manual to its asset

Open the asset, and press Add Document in its Documents panel. Choose the Document Type, name the document, attach its PDF, and set an expiration date, then press Add Document.

![The Add Document dialog: Document Type Warranty, Document Name, Attachment, Expiration Date, and Publicly Accessible.](/_astro/fixahead-document-add-post.Dv6DaXlz_Z1ONFfo.webp)

*Add Document, with the warranty attached as a PDF.*

## Ask the senior technicians which parts wear

Ask the technicians who have worked the equipment longest which parts wear first, which failures they see most, and what they check by hand. Add their answers to the matching category checklist.

## Keep each checklist short, and refine it at every visit

A long procedure gets skimmed or skipped. Keep each one to the steps that matter for its category. At each PM visit, the technician notes any step that was unclear, missing, or never needed. Update the category checklist from those notes after the visit. Technicians [mark a PM complete with notes from the field](/features/mobile-app/), once its required tasks are done.

Two steps in a loop. At each PM visit, the technician notes any step that was unclear, missing, or never needed. After the visit, the category checklist is updated from those notes, and the next PM visit starts the loop again.

*The category checklist is refined at every PM visit.*

## Put the checklists on the schedules

Use the category names from the start as the tags. [Tag the machines in a category, and one schedule covers all of them](/features/preventive-maintenance/). A new asset with the tag picks up the schedule.

### 1. Add the tag in the Library

Open Library, then Asset Tags, and press Add Tags. Type the tag’s name, such as Pumps, and press Add Tag.

![Add Tag, with Essential Equipment entered, over the tags and how many assets carry each.](/_astro/fixahead-tag-add-post.C1e6IiD3_Z3tTLQ.webp)

*Add Tag, with the tag's name entered.*

### 2. Give each machine its tag

Put the tag’s name in the tags column of the machine’s row in the asset import file, with commas between several tags. The tag must already exist, or the import drops it.

Or open the asset, press Edit, and pick the tag in the tags field.

![Edit Asset for Lobby AC Unit AC-03 in the Lobby, HVAC Units, with the tag hvac chosen, and the tags list: kitchen, lift, hvac ticked, lighting, plumbing, laundry, and Add Tag.](/_astro/fixahead-edit-asset-tags-post.DIbh2wGq_ZIifUu.webp)

*Edit Asset, with hvac chosen as a tag.*

### 3. Put the tag on a schedule

Open Library, then Preventive Maintenance, and press Add Preventive Maintenance. Name the schedule, choose Asset Tag under Assign for, pick the tag, and press Add Schedule to set how often it runs.

![A PM’s first step: Lobby AC Unit AC-03 quarterly service, assigned for Asset, to Technician Matt Reynolds, with Asset Tag and Technician Skills as the other choices.](/_astro/fixahead-pm-assign-post.31YySCdi_Z1womez.webp)

*Maintenance, step 1 of 3, with Assign for set to Asset. Asset Tag is the other choice.*

A tag, Pumps, on a PM schedule with its checklist. The schedule covers each pump with the tag, and a new pump given the tag, drawn dashed, joins the schedule.

*One schedule covers every machine with the tag, and a new machine with the tag joins it.*

Each asset category has [up to 9 custom field types](/features/asset-management/).

## Start with one category

Write its checklist from the [preventive maintenance checklist template](/templates/preventive-maintenance-checklist/), and tag its machines to one schedule.