Free preventive maintenance checklist

A pre-start checklist is completed by the operator before each use or shift to confirm the equipment is safe and fit for operation that day. A preventive maintenance (PM) checklist is completed by a technician at scheduled service intervals, such as every 250 hours, monthly or annually to service, replace and inspect components as part of a planned maintenance programme. Both are important: pre-starts catch daily safety issues; PM checklists keep equipment reliable and extend its life.

PM frequency depends on the equipment type, manufacturer recommendations and operating conditions. Use the manufacturer's stated hour-based or calendar-based interval. If there is no manufacturer recommendation, model WHS regulation 213 directs the person with management or control of the plant to use a competent person's recommendation; for inspection only, it provides an annual fallback when neither route is reasonably practicable. Adjusting an interval for heavy use or harsh conditions should follow manufacturer or competent-person advice.

Under model WHS regulation 213, the person with management or control of plant at a workplace must ensure maintenance, inspection and any necessary testing is carried out by a competent person. The work follows the manufacturer's recommendations where available, or a competent person's recommendations if none exist; an annual fallback applies to inspection only when neither is reasonably practicable. Regulation 213 does not itself impose a general PM-checklist record requirement. Specific records are required for some plant, including registered plant under regulation 237 and plant with a presence-sensing safeguarding system under regulation 226. Check the WHS law adopted in your jurisdiction and any plant-specific requirement.

This preventive maintenance checklist is designed as a general-purpose template that covers the most common inspection and service items across plant and equipment. It works well for construction equipment, fleet vehicles, generators, compressors and general industrial machinery. For highly specialised equipment such as cranes, pressure vessels or HVAC systems, use a task-specific checklist that includes the regulatory and measurement requirements for that equipment type.

A machine preventive maintenance checklist should include the asset ID, make, model, serial number, service interval, meter or hour reading, technician, date, filters, fluids, lubrication points, belts, hoses, guards, electrical checks, safety devices, fasteners, wear points, parts used, actions required and sign-off. Use the manufacturer service manual for asset-specific measurements, torque values, oil grades and warranty-required steps.

Yes. This is a ready-to-use preventive maintenance checklist template in a standard PM format: equipment and service details at the top, grouped inspection and service items with pass, fail or monitor columns, an actions-required table for defects, and a sign-off block. Use it as-is or adapt the line items to your asset type. Download it free as a PDF, or in MapTrack turn the format into recurring digital PM tasks with due-date alerts per asset.

Yes. You can download this preventive maintenance checklist template as a free PDF with no MapTrack account required. It is also available as a browser-friendly printable form you can save as PDF. If you want the same PM checklist to create recurring work orders, due-date alerts, parts records and asset service history, MapTrack can turn the form into a live digital workflow.

No. A preventive maintenance schedule decides when work is due across assets, such as every 250 hours, monthly, quarterly or annually. A preventive maintenance checklist records what the technician checked during one service. Most teams need both: the schedule triggers the job, and the checklist or PM sheet becomes the signed record of the work completed.

Record the item number from the checklist, a specific description of the defect (for example "hydraulic hose pinhole leak on boom-2 lift cylinder feed"), the corrective action taken (replaced hose, topped up oil, ordered part), the part number used and the person responsible for closing the action. If the asset cannot return to service until the action is closed, mark the service result as Hold and notify the supervisor immediately. Vague entries like "fixed leak" make the record useless for trend analysis and warranty claims.

There is no universal retention period for every completed PM checklist in the model WHS Act or Regulations. For plant required to be registered, model WHS regulation 237 requires records of tests, inspections, maintenance, commissioning, decommissioning, dismantling and alterations to be kept while the plant is used or until control is relinquished. Regulation 226 has a separate five-year rule for records concerning plant with a presence-sensing safeguarding system, with longer retention for registered or altered plant. Other periods may come from the WHS law adopted in your jurisdiction, plant-registration conditions, manufacturer warranty terms, insurance policies or contracts, so confirm those before setting a retention rule.

Model WHS regulation 213 requires maintenance, inspection and any necessary testing of plant to be carried out by a competent person. Competence depends on the task and may come from training, qualifications or experience; separate licences or professional registration can apply to particular electrical work, high risk work or major crane inspections. The model regulation does not create a blanket HRWL requirement for every supervisor who countersigns a PM checklist. Record who performed the work, the basis of their competence and any licence required for the specific task, then follow the site's release-to-service procedure.

No. The checklist is a structured record of the tasks performed and the findings, but it does not replace the manufacturer service manual. The manual provides asset-specific intervals, procedures, measurements, fluids and parts information. Use it as the technical reference and the checklist as the work record. If warranty coverage matters, check the actual warranty terms and record the specification and parts used; this general template cannot determine whether a particular part or service decision affects a claim.

A work order opens the maintenance event, captures the labour and parts costs and tracks the asset through to return-to-service. A PM checklist is the technical record of what was inspected and what was found during that work order. The work order answers "did the service happen and what did it cost?". The checklist answers "what was the condition of the asset?". In practice, the checklist can be attached to the work order as evidence, and both can be retained with the asset's maintenance history. MapTrack can link forms and work records to an asset so the service evidence is easier to retrieve.

Document the missing or unreliable meter and raise an action to repair or replace it. Use a calendar-based interval only when the manufacturer provides one or a competent person recommends one for that plant and operating context; do not convert an hourly interval using a generic monthly or quarterly formula. Record the source and reason for the temporary interval. If you cannot establish that maintenance and inspection are current, have a competent person assess the plant before it returns to service.

Yes. You can link to this preventive maintenance checklist as the source page or use the checklist preview available from the MapTrack citation centre. The most useful citation path is to link the checklist when discussing PM tasks, then link the equipment downtime cost statistics page when quoting the cost of reactive maintenance. Keeping those two source links separate makes the article clearer for readers and more useful for reviewers.