Fault management
Fault management software: who reports, who fixes and what gets lost on the way
Fault management software is the program through which a business's staff say what has broken, and which sees to it that the fault reaches the trade that repairs it and that whoever reported it knows how it is going. The word is the everyday one: nobody in a bar says “I have an incident”, they say “the coffee machine has packed in”. Vendors sell it under other names, such as incidents, tickets or requests, but the problem is a single one with four parts: who reports, how it is sorted, who goes and how the news comes back. That is what this page is about, and what to ask before picking a product.
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What a fault management program is
It is the tool that replaces “I did tell someone”. It receives each fault, opens a ticket for it, decides which trade it belongs to, gets it to that person or company and keeps whoever raised it up to date. It does not set out to keep the maintenance accounts or the yearly inspection plan: its ground is what fails today.
It lives next to two neighbouring families. Incident managers, which also take in complaints, cleaning or IT and are compared in incident management software. And the apps staff download, reviewed in incident management app. Here we stay with what breaks on business premises: the blocked toilet in the changing room, the water heater that will not heat, the automatic door that detects nobody.
How faults are reported today, and what each channel loses
Before looking at products, look at how your faults travel now. The usual thing is a mix of the first four channels in this table, and each one drops something different:
| Channel | What is good about it | What gets lost |
|---|---|---|
| Phone call or a word in person | It is immediate and nobody has to be taught | Everything else: no time, no place, no record of who said it. If the listener is distracted, the fault vanishes |
| Paper or a notebook at reception | It is written down and dated | Only whoever walks up to the notebook reads it. Nobody sees whether it was repaired, and a photo will not fit |
| WhatsApp group | Everyone has it and it takes pictures | Order: the fault sinks between rotas and jokes, with no owner and no status. Three “ok”s do not mean anyone is going |
| Web form or app | Tidy, complete data that is easy to count | The reports that are never made, because you have to log in, identify yourself and fill in boxes in the middle of service |
| WhatsApp number with software behind it | It is used like the group and produces a ticket, an owner and a status | Whatever that software leaves out: usually, equipment inventory and costs |
One site often uses two or three at once. The first aim of any product is to leave just one.
The detail of why the group falls short is in WhatsApp group or incident manager.
Who reports
In a business with premises hardly any fault is spotted by someone from maintenance. It is seen by the lifeguard, the cashier, the waiter on the afternoon shift or the cleaner who comes in at six. They are people with their hands on another task, sometimes new arrivals and sometimes from a subcontracted company. That gives the first requirement: reporting has to fit inside the gesture of taking out a phone and sending a photo.
A good report carries three facts: what is wrong, exactly where and, if possible, a picture. What is missing most often is the place (“the tap is dripping”, but which one?). The software has to ask for that fact when it does not come, rather than pass a lame report to the technician. And it should accept only the people the business has authorised, so the channel does not fill up with messages from outsiders.
How it is sorted by trade
Sorting means answering one question: whose is this? On business premises the answers are few, and it is worth having them written down before starting:
- Plumbing. Blockages, leaks, cisterns, water heaters.
- Electrics. Sockets, light fittings, a breaker that trips.
- Refrigeration and air. Cold rooms, display cabinets, bottle coolers, the air conditioning.
- Locks and doors. Shutters, automatic doors, the dock door of an industrial unit.
- Lifting. The lift or the goods lift, nearly always under contract with a maintenance contractor.
- The business's own machinery. The coffee machine, the oven, the treadmill, the clinic chair: each with its service company.
- Small repairs. What someone in-house solves with a toolbox.
The software needs that routing table: for each type of fault, a person or a company, and a stand-in for when the first is away. It also has to know about shifts, because the morning technician should not receive at midnight what can wait. Urgent faults are another story with rules of their own, told in corrective maintenance software.
The outside supplier
This is the piece most products get wrong. In a restaurant, a shop or a residents' association, most repairs are done by someone who does not work there and who serves forty other clients. That refrigeration engineer is not going to install each client's app, nor remember forty passwords.
What he needs is little: to know what is wrong, where, to see it in a photo and to have someone to ring. What you need from him is little too: to say whether he is coming and when, and to confirm once he has finished. In the demo, ask how a company that is not a user of the software receives the job and what it must do to reply. If the answer starts with “we create a login for them”, expect some of your suppliers to carry on working by phone.
The photo and the status sent back
The photo saves questions. With a picture of the panel or the broken part, whoever repairs knows which tool to bring and sometimes which spare to order before setting off. Without it, the first visit is often just to look.
The status sent back is what keeps the system alive. Whoever reports wants to know three things: that it has arrived, that someone has taken it on and that it is fixed. If none of those comes, they do one of two things: ask the manager again, who ends up as a switchboard, or stop reporting, and then faults are discovered once they are already bothering a customer. Fault software that does not inform the person who reported is half a tool.
What to ask of fault management software
- That reporting requires nothing to install or learn for whoever is on the floor, in the shop or in the plant.
- That every report has a number, a time and someone responsible from the first minute.
- That the outside supplier receives it and replies without signing up.
- That whoever reported knows of every change without asking.
- That there are deadlines, and that something happens when they are missed.
- That the data comes out of the product in a format you can open, such as a spreadsheet.
If you add spare parts, hours and asset records to that list, you are talking about another category: that of the CMMS and work orders. And each sector has its own quirks, gathered on the pages for offices, residents' associations, industrial units or shops.
Where Bedel fits, and what it does not do
Bedel is the last row of the channels table: a WhatsApp number with software behind it. It is not a CMMS. The business registers its people on a list, and anyone on that list writes to the number when they see a fault: a text, a photo or a voice note. Bedel turns the message into a ticket with a number and a time and sends it to the technician or outside company you have listed for that trade. The supplier receives it on their usual WhatsApp, with nothing to install. Whoever reported hears about each step. If the fault is one of those you have marked as urgent, the on-call phone rings whatever the hour. And when a deadline passes with no reply, the ticket goes up to the next level.
Three times are kept for each ticket: when it was reported, when it was accepted and when it was closed. Everything exports to Excel. Separately, once a month, the person who runs maintenance receives on WhatsApp the reminder of dated inspections. Data is stored in the European Union.
What is left out. Bedel has no equipment inventory. It raises no work orders with materials, hours or costs. It does not file inspection certificates. It does not connect to other software. It does not show several sites on one screen: each site is one account, with its own number. And it does not let end customers open tickets: only the team reports. How it is set up in each kind of business is in incident management on WhatsApp.
Frequently asked questions
What is fault management software?
A program that collects the faults staff report, sorts them by trade, sends them to whoever repairs them and keeps the person who reported informed. It also stores when each one was reported and when it was resolved.
What is the difference between a fault management program and a CMMS?
The fault program deals with the report and its follow-up. A CMMS adds the equipment inventory, work orders with materials and hours, the preventive plan and costs. Premises with no technicians of their own usually need the first before the second.
Can faults be managed with a WhatsApp group?
While they are few and someone is paying close attention, it works. A group assigns nobody, keeps no status and buries reports among other messages. That is why many businesses keep WhatsApp as the way in and put software behind it to sort what arrives.
How does an outside supplier receive faults?
It depends on the product. Some ask the supplier to register and use an app; others send the report by email or message. Ask in the demo: if receiving it is an effort, the supplier will go on asking you to ring.
What information should a fault ticket hold?
What is happening, where, who reports it, the time, a photo if possible, who it is assigned to and the status. With the time of the report, of acceptance and of closing you can already measure how long it takes to respond and to resolve.
Is Bedel a fault management program?
Yes, on WhatsApp: the team reports to the business's number, the message becomes a ticket and reaches the technician or the supplier, with on-call for urgent faults and escalation if the deadline passes. It is not a CMMS: it holds no inventory, costs or work orders.
Comparisons
- CMMS: what it is and which one fits your premisesWhat a CMMS is, what a team really needs from maintenance, how corrective and preventive differ, and when WhatsApp is enough and when you need dedicated software.
- Maintenance software: types and how to chooseThe three kinds of maintenance software, six questions to choose yours, what planned and reactive maintenance each need, and the software for each sector.
- Automatic incident handling on WhatsAppWhich part of an incident can be answered and moved on its own over WhatsApp, what a person still does, and how it differs from an auto-reply or a chatbot.
- WhatsApp for hotels: guest customer serviceThe four types of WhatsApp software for a hotel, what each one solves, and why guest service usually fails after the conversation: when what the guest asked for has to be fixed.
- Maintenance software for hotels in Spain, 2026Six criteria built for a hotel, ten products described with what their websites say, and where Bedel fits, which is not one of them.
- Maintenance software for restaurants, 2026Six criteria built for a kitchen, nine products described with what their websites say, and where Bedel fits, which is not one of them.
- Maintenance software for buildings in Spain, 2026Six criteria built for a building, ten products described with what their websites say, from CMMS to block management, and where Bedel fits.
- Incident management software in Spain, 2026Six criteria so you don't buy a help desk when what gets lost is faults, eight products described with their own websites, and where Bedel fits.
- Incident management app in Spain, 2026Eight incident apps described with their own websites, six criteria to choose, and the question almost nobody asks: who has to install it.
- Gym maintenance software in Spain, 2026Six criteria built for a gym, seven products described with what their websites say, from CMMS to membership software, and where Bedel fits.
- Clinic maintenance software in Spain, 2026For clinics and clinic groups, not hospitals: six criteria, seven products described with what their websites say and where Bedel fits.
- Store maintenance software in Spain, 2026For a shop or a store network: six criteria, five products described with what their websites say and where Bedel fits.
- School maintenance software in Spain, 2026For state and private schools: six criteria, seven products described with what their websites say and where Bedel fits.
- Warehouse maintenance software in Spain, 2026For factories, warehouses and logistics sites: what to check, six CMMS summarised from their websites and the gap left by reporting from the workstation.
- Preventive maintenance software: how to chooseWhat a preventive plan holds, the three kinds of recurring task on a site, how a CMMS handles them and how a reminder tool does, and when each is needed.
- Corrective maintenance software: what to ask of itThe journey of an unplanned fault in five moments, what goes wrong at each without software, how urgency, deadline and escalation are set up, and which times are worth measuring.
- Work order management: full order or simple ticketWhat a work order is and where it comes from, what a full system holds, how it differs from a fault ticket and the signs that a business with premises needs one or the other.
- Maintenance app: who actually opens itThe four phones a fault passes through, what an app asks of each, why it is dropped where staff turn over, seven demo questions and the no-app alternative.
- Maintenance request software: intake channelsThe six channels a maintenance request comes in through, the four details it needs, who sorts it and how the person who made it gets an answer.
- CMMS with WhatsApp: add-on alert or the way inThe two things sold as a CMMS with WhatsApp (an added notification or the entry point), five questions to tell them apart and who each one suits.
- CMMS for small business: what you need and don'tWhat a small business with premises asks of maintenance, what it can leave out of a full CMMS, a yes-or-no test to see if you need one and five steps to start.
- CMMS software: what it is and who needs all of itWhat CMMS software is, why it is the same thing as a GMAO, what each part is called by country, what it holds and which businesses need all of it or only the report.
- Facility management software: what it coversThe areas of a facility management suite, which ones weigh on a small or mid-size company's facilities team day to day, and the only one Bedel covers.
- Mandatory inspections software for premisesThe inspections Spanish law dates for premises, who carries them out, what is left to the owner and how far a program and a WhatsApp reminder can go.
- Maintenance software for offices: what to checkWhat breaks in an office, whose job each repair is between tenant, landlord and supplier, what to demand of a product and the part Bedel does.
- Residents' association fault reporting softwareFaults in the common areas, who reports them, which trade fixes them, what the managing agent needs to know about each one and the part Bedel covers.
- Maintenance software for coworking spaces: a guideA coworking space's faults seen from the operator's side: who reports them, whose they are, what to ask in a demo, when a CMMS is worth it and Bedel's part.
- Maintenance software for franchises: site by siteMaintenance in a franchise network, with its two owners: what falls to the franchisee, what head office watches, what to ask in a demo and the part Bedel does.
- Maintenance software for sports centres and poolsSports centres, clubs and pools: what fails in the water, the changing rooms and the courts, which checks the rules ask for, when a CMMS suits and what Bedel does.
- Maintenance software for academies: what to askWhat breaks in a language school, a tuition centre or a training centre, who sees it between lessons, when a CMMS is too much and the part Bedel covers.
- Maintenance software for veterinary practicesThe faults of a veterinary practice or hospital: kennels and climate, theatre, autoclave and X-ray, each with its official service; questions for the demo and Bedel's role.
- AI for hotels: what to buy, bookings to repairsA buyer's guide: the four areas of a hotel where AI works today, who decides in each, the questions for the demo and the stretch Bedel covers.
- WhatsApp at work in Spain: group or incident managerWhatsApp groups at work in Spain: what the AEPD has ruled, what the right to disconnect adds and how a group compares with an incident manager for faults on business premises.
- CMMS or Excel for maintaining business premisesWhen a spreadsheet is enough and when a CMMS is needed, how to build the preventive plan in Excel and which records the law says to keep.
- Best CMMS for businesses with premises: criteriaSix criteria built for premises, seven CMMS described with what their websites say, and where Bedel fits, which is not one of them.
Rules by sector
- Restaurants and barsThe obligations of a restaurant or a bar in Spain: what is specific to the kitchen and the checks on the premises, each with the condition that triggers it, how often it applies and its article.
- GymsA gym: no national law; qualifications, insurance and notices under each region's sports professions act, plus low voltage, Legionella, pool, RIPCI and defibrillator as premises.
- HotelsA hotel: guest register and reporting within 24 hours, regional classification, low voltage and lift as a public-assembly venue, RIPCI, Legionella, pool, kitchen and defibrillator.
- Residents' associationsThe obligations of a Spanish residents' association: upkeep, reserve fund, owners' meeting and administrator under the Horizontal Property Act, building logbook, building inspection and the checks on each communal installation.
- Shops and franchisesA shop: responsible declaration up to 750 m², opening hours, prices, franchises with no register since 2018, complaint forms, accessibility adjustments and the inspections of premises open to the public.
- OfficesThe obligations of an office in Spain: temperature and upkeep of the premises, screen work, health and safety, coordination with contractors, internal reporting channel, right to disconnect and building checks.
- SchoolsA school: minimum facilities, protocols against violence and a wellbeing coordinator, canteen and menus from April 2026, self-protection and the building inspections.
- Industrial unitsAn industrial unit: fire inspection every five years under the 2025 regulation, chemical storage (APQ), air receivers, work equipment, low voltage, cooling towers and self-protection.