Fault registration, repair requests, and accounting for used spare parts were not linked by a single document flow, making it difficult to answer a simple question: what stage is a specific vehicle at, and how much has its maintenance cost in total?
Fleet management • ERP implementation
In-house fleet repair management in an ERP system
In a company with its own truck fleet, vehicle repairs, maintenance, spare parts tracking, and mechanic productivity were managed separately, without a link to recorded faults, current repairs, or future maintenance schedules. Our team implemented a repair management subsystem based on an ERP system that combines the full cycle and complements the standard functionality with custom development, including three configuration types: the “Recommendations for the vehicle” module, which ensures that every mechanic’s recommendation is recorded and remains visible until the corresponding repair is completed.
📋 Faults identified during maintenance
are no longer lost
🔧3 repair models
in one system
💰 Repair costs
are correctly accumulated for each operating asset
Customer situation before the project
Truck repairs involved several departments at the same time: a mechanic identified the fault, another department ordered the part, repairs were sometimes carried out by an internal unit or an external contractor, and the costs were later transferred to financial accounting. Without a unified system, each of these stages was managed separately, without a clear link between them.
Without automatic maintenance schedule calculation based on mileage and the date of the previous service, repairs remained reactive: the company responded to equipment failures instead of preventing them through planned maintenance.
During maintenance or routine repairs, a mechanic often noticed a defect that was not yet critical but would require attention in the near future. Without a separate mechanism for recording such observations, they were written down “from memory” or lost by the time the issue became serious.
Because repair accounting was not integrated with the financial module, it was difficult to correctly allocate vehicle maintenance costs across reporting periods and include them in the value of fixed assets for further amortization.
A single repair request usually involved at least four areas of responsibility: fault and operating asset accounting, spare parts warehouse accounting, repair department capacity accounting, and financial cost accounting. Each of them had to become part of a unified document flow rather than a separate accounting process.
Objectives and critical requirements
The request involved building a repair management subsystem based on BAS ERP covering the full cycle — from fault registration to cost allocation — as well as developing a custom mechanism to ensure that information about recommended but not yet completed work is not lost.
1. End-to-end tracking from fault to completed repair
Each fault had to either be resolved on the spot without additional resources or converted into a full repair order with labor, spare parts, and assigned technicians — without a break between these two scenarios.
2. Separation of in-house and external repair work
The system had to separately account for work performed by the operating department itself and work assigned to other internal repair units or external contractors, with correct cost calculation in both cases.
3. Standards by vehicle type and repair type
A unified reference directory was required for labor and spare-part standards, taking into account the differences between scheduled maintenance, condition-based repairs, and unscheduled repairs performed as needed.
4. Automatic maintenance planning based on mileage and time
The maintenance schedule had to be calculated automatically based on current mileage, the date of the last service, and average daily mileage instead of being maintained manually in a calendar.
5. Saving and reusing recommendations
Defects identified during maintenance but not repaired immediately had to be recorded in a dedicated mechanism and automatically suggested when the next repair order for the same vehicle was created.
6. Correct cost accounting regardless of repair duration
Because truck repairs can last longer than one reporting period, costs had to accumulate against the operating asset on a cumulative basis and be transferred to financial accounting when they were actually written off.
What our team did and how
Standardization of three repair models in a single reference directory
Repair types in the system are defined not as an arbitrary text list, but by operating asset class — within the corresponding “Operating Asset Classes” reference card.
For each repair type, the system specifies the relevant repair category, such as major repair, routine repair, or maintenance, as well as standard duration, planning frequency, labor requirements, required materials and work, and other parameters needed to manage repairs consistently.
This made it possible to support three fundamentally different repair scenarios within a single module:
◻ operational repairs performed within the responsibility of the operating department;
◻ condition-based repairs, where the start of work depends on the actual technical condition of the unit;
◻ on-demand repairs — unscheduled repairs after a recorded failure.
Each vehicle class received its own set of standards instead of forcing all repair types into one universal template.
Maintenance planning: from mileage to a ready repair order
We implemented a calculated maintenance schedule: the system determines the date and mileage of the next service based on current mileage, the date of the previous maintenance, and actual average daily mileage, while still allowing manual adjustments.
When the scheduled maintenance date approaches, a repair order is generated automatically with the required work and materials already defined in advance. We also added notifications about upcoming maintenance and calendar-based schedule visualization so that responsible employees can see the expected workload of repair units ahead of time.
Custom “Vehicle Recommendations” module
We developed functionality that is not available in the standard ERP configuration: during maintenance or routine repairs, a mechanic often notices a defect that is not yet critical but still requires attention. Without a dedicated mechanism for recording such issues, this information could easily be lost until the next, more serious breakdown.
The solution consists of three connected elements:
◻ a recommendation entry form that opens when a vehicle is selected in the “Repair Order,” with a visual indicator showing existing records and the ability to transfer them directly into required work and materials;
◻ an information register for storing recommendation data, including the recommendation itself, quantity, comment, related repair order, reason for rejection, validity and completion dates, author, and status;
◻ and a report containing all current recommendations, broken down by vehicle and validity period.
Key solution for the custom module
The system reminds users about previously recorded recommendations whenever the same vehicle is selected in a new repair order. This prevents recommendations from being lost and turns them into a controlled workflow instead of relying on individual employees to remember them.
Integration with logistics, production, and financial accounting
The cycle is completed by data exchange between the repair subsystem and three related business areas.
This integration turns the repair subsystem from a local tool used by the repair department into part of the company’s unified information environment, where a single event or spare-part movement is available to the teams that actually need it, without manual transfer between systems.
With logistics
Information that a specific vehicle is under repair is taken into account when planning routes and fleet availability, so the repair does not come as an unexpected disruption to operational activities.
With production
The need for specific parts or semi-finished products for repair is automatically converted into production orders for the relevant departments, with control over execution status and readiness.
With financial accounting
Vehicle maintenance costs are correctly allocated to vehicles, departments, and reporting periods and included in the value of fixed assets for depreciation purposes.
Results
Defect → recommendation → plan
Defects identified during maintenance are no longer lost: the system automatically transfers unresolved recommendations to the next repair order.
3 repair models in one system
Scheduled, condition-based, and on-demand repairs are standardized under a single set of rules across different operating asset classes.
Continuous cost tracking
Repair costs are correctly accumulated against the operating asset on a cumulative basis, even when the work extends beyond a single reporting period.
Mechanics’ recommendations
Observations made during one repair no longer depend on a specific employee’s memory — they automatically appear when the next repair order for the same vehicle is created, with visible indicators directly in the document.
Maintenance
The maintenance schedule is no longer managed manually in a calendar. The system calculates the next service date based on mileage and time, coordinates it with logistics and production, and automatically creates a repair order with the required work and spare parts when the scheduled date arrives.
Defect registration and processing
Instead of treating every defect as a repair, the system now distinguishes between defects that can be resolved on the spot and those requiring a full repair order. It also allows defect statistics to be analyzed by vehicle and the resulting analytics to be sent to responsible employees by email.
Interaction between departments
Repairs involving other departments or external contractors no longer fall outside the operating department’s control. The cost of such work is calculated according to common rules and automatically transferred back to the repair order.
Cost accounting
Repair costs are correctly accumulated against the operating asset on a cumulative basis regardless of how many reporting periods the work spans, and are included in the value of fixed assets instead of being tracked separately based only on the write-off date.
