CMMS ROI calculator

Enter your own figures

Costs

• Setup fee. Enter 0 or more. The setup or implementation fee, including any implementation consultant, any add-on module's setup fee, and sales tax on them.
• Setup staff hours. Enter 0 or more. The hours your staff spend on training, data entry, and choosing a vendor.
• Software cost. Enter 0 or more. Subscription or license fees, annual maintenance, upgrades, and add-on module fees for the year, with sales tax.
• Upkeep hours. Enter 0 or more. The hours your staff spend each week keeping the system in use.
• Weeks worked. Enter 0 or more. The weeks in the year that the upkeep and paperwork hours are counted over.
• Loaded labor rate. Enter 0 or more. Wages plus benefits and payroll costs. It applies to every staff hour on this page.

Benefits

• Downtime hours avoided. Enter 0 or more. The unplanned downtime you expect to prevent.
• Downtime cost. Enter 0 or more. The idle labor and equipment cost of a stop, plus the margin lost on output you would have sold. Leave overtime out of this figure; it has its own line.
• Overtime reduced. Enter 0 or more. The overtime you expect to stop paying.
• Parts and materials reduced. Enter 0 or more. The drop in what you spend on parts and materials.
• Inventory reduced. Enter 0 or more. The cash freed by holding less stock. Enter it once, not as a yearly saving. The page counts its yearly interest.
• Interest rate on inventory cash. Enter 0 or more. The interest you would earn on that cash.
• Paperwork hours saved. Enter 0 or more. The hours no longer spent on paperwork and manual tracking. Count them as cash only where that time is put to paid work or staff hours come down. Otherwise enter zero.

How the figure is worked out

You enter what a maintenance software purchase costs and what you expect it to save, and you get the first year’s net savings, the return, and the months the one-time costs take to pay back. Every figure is your own.

• One-time costs = setup fee + setup staff hours × loaded labor rate
• Yearly costs = software cost + upkeep hours per week × weeks worked × loaded labor rate
• Yearly benefits = downtime hours avoided × downtime cost + overtime reduced + parts and materials reduced + inventory reduced × interest rate + paperwork hours saved per week × weeks worked × loaded labor rate
• Year-one costs = one-time costs + yearly costs
• Year-one net savings = yearly benefits − year-one costs
• ROI = (yearly benefits − year-one costs) ÷ year-one costs
• Simple payback in months = one-time costs ÷ ((yearly benefits − yearly costs) ÷ 12)

Simple payback assumes the benefits and recurring costs arrive evenly through the year. It ignores everything after the payback month, so read it as a first screen, not a forecast.

A worked example, step by step

Starting values:

• Setup fee: $2,000
• Setup staff hours: 24
• Software cost: $3,000 a year
• Upkeep hours: 1 a week
• Weeks worked: 48 a year
• Loaded labor rate: $40 an hour
• Downtime hours avoided: 12 a year
• Downtime cost: $400 an hour
• Overtime reduced: $2,000 a year
• Parts and materials reduced: $3,000 a year
• Inventory reduced: $10,000
• Interest rate on inventory cash: 5% a year
• Paperwork hours saved: 2 a week

The example counts the paperwork hours as cash, so it assumes that time is put to paid work.

One-time costs: $2,000 + 24 × $40 = $2,960 Yearly costs: $3,000 + 1 × 48 × $40 = $4,920 Year-one costs: $2,960 + $4,920 = $7,880

Yearly benefits:

• Downtime: 12 × $400 = $4,800
• Overtime: $2,000
• Parts and materials: $3,000
• Inventory: $10,000 × 5% = $500
• Paperwork: 2 × 48 × $40 = $3,840
• Total: $14,140

Results:

• Year-one net savings: $14,140 − $7,880 = $6,260
• ROI: $6,260 ÷ $7,880 = 79%
• Simple payback: $2,960 ÷ (($14,140 − $4,920) ÷ 12) = 3.9 months

Measure the baseline before you buy

Measure downtime, uptime, and worker productivity before you buy, and keep the same definitions afterward. Add PM completion, the overdue PM count, and maintenance cost per asset.

What to count

Cost line	What to count
System price	The price for your user count and asset count.
Upgrades and annual fees	Yearly charges for maintenance and upgrades by the vendor, and what an upgrade costs.
Implementation and setup	The vendor’s implementation service, and your team’s time.
Training	Training for the staff who enter and maintain the records.
Data entry	Hours to load assets and their history into the system.
Ongoing record keeping	Hours each week to enter work orders and parts. Count it from your team’s time over a month.
Integration	Any work to connect with accounting or energy systems.