Your Facilities and Maintenance Reporting Is Failing You — Here’s Why
- Josh Arak
- May 8
- 4 min read
You’ve got the systems and most of the data. But you’re still not getting the answers you need.
Most multi-site operators have invested in tools—CMMS platforms, ERPs, invoice systems, even CRMs—each promising to streamline operations and provide visibility. These systems collect large volumes of data across vendors, trades, and locations.
But when it’s time to make strategic decisions—like reducing spend, comparing vendor performance, or identifying operational inefficiencies—facilities leaders still come up short.
As a facilities and operations leader, you need to ensure that every dollar in your facilities budget is delivering the most impact—whether that means better vendor performance, fewer repeat visits, or smarter capital allocation.
The problem isn’t the systems themselves—it’s that the reporting wasn’t designed to give you the full picture.
The Reporting Gap: Too Much Data, Not Enough Signal
Your current platforms likely give you high-level reports like:
Total maintenance spend
Average cost per trade
Vendor scorecards
Monthly work order volume
But when you try to answer questions like:
Why are costs rising in certain markets?
Which vendors are most efficient for specific tasks?
What types of issues are consuming the most labor?
…the reporting simply can’t keep up.
Here’s why:
1. Inconsistent, Incomplete Data
Work orders and invoices are often vague or unstructured. “3 hours labor” doesn’t tell you what was done, how many techs were involved, or whether it was a recurring problem. Multiply that across hundreds of vendors, and reporting loses its reliability.
2. Generic Categories Hide the Details
Buckets like “HVAC” or “Plumbing” group every issue—minor or major—into a single average. That hides cost drivers, masks systemic issues, and prevents you from allocating budget strategically.
3. No Breakdown of Invoice Components
Most reporting stops at the total. It doesn’t separate labor, materials, trip charges, technician count, or the nature of the service. Without those details, you’re stuck reviewing invoices manually—and even then, it’s rarely consistent or scalable.
What Facilities Leaders Actually Need
To make informed decisions, you need more than totals. You need:
Standardized, structured data across systems and vendors
Detailed tagging of work types and outcomes
Component-level invoice breakdowns (labor, materials, fees, complexity)
Context-aware modeling that accounts for seasonality, region, vendor behavior
Proactive alerts that flag outliers without requiring you to audit every line item
And you need that intelligence without replacing the tools your team already uses.
Sprygg Works With the Systems You Already Use
Sprygg doesn’t replace your CMMS, ERP, or invoice software—we make them smarter.
Here’s how we help operations and finance teams get more value from the data they already have:
Structure the Unstructured
We ingest and standardize data from your work orders, invoices, emails, PDFs—wherever it lives—ensuring consistency and usability across the board.
Add Operational Context
Sprygg automatically tags each work order and invoice by task type, urgency, affected asset, and scope of service.
We help you distinguish a $500 HVAC preventative maintenance visit from a $500 HVAC belt replacement—because those services have very different implications for cost, urgency, and performance.
Break Down Every Invoice
Our system parses out key components—labor hours, material costs, trip charges, technician count, and more—so you know exactly what you’re paying for and why.
Build Dynamic Cost Models
We use your historical data to build real-time cost models across vendors, trades, geographies, and seasonal trends—turning raw data into actionable benchmarks.
Strategic Insights Sprygg Helps You See
With Sprygg’s structured insights, facilities and finance leaders can:
Identify recurring issues driving repeat work and elevated costs
Compare vendor capital efficiency by task type and region
Spot anomalies in trip charges or labor usage
Understand true cost per issue, not just trade averages
Track seasonal or regional trends in vendor performance or pricing
Pro Tip: A Simple Manual Move to Reveal Cost Patterns
Even if you’re not using an AI-powered platform (yet), there’s a simple way to start uncovering real insights:
Pick one high-cost trade—like HVAC or plumbing—and review 10 recent invoices from multiple vendors.
Look for:
Trip charge stacking — Are you paying for a new trip every visit, even for follow-ups on the same issue?
Labor uniformity — Are similar jobs from different vendors consistently billed at different labor hours?
Lack of descriptions — Are vendors giving clear explanations of what was done—or just logging hours?
This small audit can reveal inefficiencies or overbilling trends, and it forces vendors to take their documentation seriously.
Bonus tip: Randomly audit one vendor each month. Compare invoices for the same task type across locations. Just the act of reviewing sends a message—and often uncovers opportunities for renegotiation or operational improvement.
Better Strategy Starts With Better Reporting
If your current reports show totals but not why the cost is happening, what it’s tied to, or how to fix it—you’re missing the insights that matter most.
Sprygg was built to help multi-site operators get more from the tools they already use. We turn scattered, incomplete service records into reliable, contextualized intelligence that drives better decisions.
It’s good info to have—but in today’s world, most operators want AI to flag those issues for them, and then recommend what to do next. That’s where Sprygg comes in.
Ready to see what your facilities data is really telling you?
Talk to our team and turn your reporting into a strategic asset.
This article was written by the team at Sprygg, an AI-powered platform that transforms commercial maintenance data into structured, strategic insights—without requiring clients to replace their existing systems.