A worksheet for finding equipment costs that could have been avoided.
Companion to 9 Places Your Construction Equipment Budget Leaks, which explains each leak and the records behind it.
How long this really takes. Thirty minutes is enough to size all nine with rough numbers and pick your top three. Rough is fine. The ranking is what matters, not the decimal.
Send this out three days ahead. Each person brings one record set. Walking in without the records turns a 30-minute meeting into a 90-minute one.
| Company | ____________________________________ |
| Date | ____________________________________ |
| In the room | ____________________________________ |
| Prepared by | ____________________________________ |
Who should be in the room: Equipment, fleet and shop managers, operations leaders, and finance.
What to bring: Rental records, repair and parts records, job cost reports, equipment move records, inspection records, and approval logs.
One rule before you start. Every number here is a screening estimate. Count only costs you can tie to the event. Do not count a crew's hours if the crew moved to productive work. Do not count the same impact twice. Confirm the cause and the amount before you treat anything as a saving.
Equipment Spend
1. Rental Waste
How many rental days did we pay for while owned equipment sat idle?
Where to look: Rental invoices and equipment use records
Formula: daily rental rate $______ × avoidable days ______ + non-refundable fees $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
2. Breakdown Costs
Which missed warning signs led to repairs, rentals, or a waiting crew?
Where to look: Inspection forms, work orders, repair invoices, rental records, and crew time
Formula: repair cost $______ + replacement rental $______ + (crew wait hours ______ × loaded hourly cost $______)
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
3. Parts Delays
Which machine waited on a part that was already sitting at another yard?
Where to look: Parts on hand by yard, purchase orders, and work orders
Formula: downtime days ______ × daily substitute cost $______ + duplicate part cost $______ + rush freight $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
Equipment Spend subtotal: $______
Margin and Lifecycle
4. Budget Guesswork
Where did equipment cost take more job margin than the estimate showed?
Where to look: Job budgets, cost codes, and job cost reports, including costs not yet coded
Formula: actual equipment cost to date $______ − budgeted cost to date $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
5. Replacement Timing
Which machine has rising repair bills while its resale value falls?
Where to look: Repair history, hour meter, resale estimates, and replacement quotes
Formula (annual, not monthly): 12-month cost of keeping it $______ − 12-month cost of replacing it $______
Keep-or-replace is a lifecycle comparison. Record the annual figure here and leave it out of the monthly total below.
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated annual cost: $______
6. Admin Burden
How many paid hours go to repeat data entry and chasing approvals?
Where to look: Approval logs, time records, and correction requests
Formula: hours per week ______ × loaded hourly cost $______ × 4.3 weeks
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
Margin and Lifecycle subtotal (monthly, excluding 5): $______
Control and Visibility
7. Dispatch Errors
Which equipment arrived unable to work, adding hauls or crew downtime?
Where to look: Haul tickets, move requests, equipment status, and crew time
Formula: extra haul cost $______ + (crew wait hours ______ × loaded hourly cost $______) + substitute rental $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
8. Compliance Blind Spots
Which inspection records are hard to find when an owner or auditor asks?
Where to look: Inspection records and the requests made against them
Formula: hours spent finding or redoing records ______ × loaded hourly cost $______ + reinspection cost $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
9. Fragmented Logins
How often does the team switch systems to answer one equipment question?
Where to look: The systems touched to answer one recurring equipment question
Formula: requests per month ______ × minutes each ______ ÷ 60 × loaded hourly cost $______
Our answer: ____________________________________
Estimated monthly cost: $______
Control and Visibility subtotal: $______
Add It Up
Loaded hourly cost is wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, benefits and allocated overhead, divided by productive hours. Use loaded cost, not base wage.
| Low | Likely | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment Spend (1–3) | $______ | $______ | $______ |
| Margin and Lifecycle (4, 6) | $______ | $______ | $______ |
| Control and Visibility (7–9) | $______ | $______ | $______ |
| Total monthly | $______ | $______ | $______ |
| × 12 = annual exposure | $______ | $______ | $______ |
Replacement timing (5), annual: $______
These are estimates. Confirm the cause and amount before counting anything as a saving.
Pick Your Top Three
Pick the three with the clearest evidence and a person who can act on each.
| # | Leak | Monthly $ | Owner | Review by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ______ | $______ | ______ | ____ / ____ |
| 2 | ______ | $______ | ______ | ____ / ____ |
| 3 | ______ | $______ | ______ | ____ / ____ |
You do not need to work all nine at once. Start where the cost keeps coming back.
Clue connects equipment, maintenance, parts, rentals, equipment moves and cost data on one record, so your team can see what is free, what needs work, and what each machine costs.
Palmetto Corp saved over $1 million in its first year on Clue. Read the case study.
Transform Your Equipment Management
