Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance software: the five moments of a fault and what the product must do
Corrective maintenance software is the program that captures each fault the instant someone discovers it, passes it to whoever must repair it and notes how long each step took. Its work begins where nobody had planned for it: the lift stuck on a Saturday, the boiler that will not start on the first cold morning, the air-conditioning drip over an occupied table. Between something breaking and working again there are five moments, and at any of them the matter can be left lying. We go through them here, with what goes wrong when there is no software and what to demand of the one you sign up for.
Book your demoPick your time
What corrective maintenance is and why it needs its own software
Corrective maintenance, also called reactive maintenance, repairs what has already failed. Three traits set it apart from planned work. It has no date: it turns up when it likes. It is set in motion by people who are not in maintenance: the room attendant, the gym instructor, the shop assistant. And the hurry is decided by the business, not by a regulation. That is why corrective software is not judged by its calendar but by two things: how easy it is to get in, and what happens when nobody answers.
Two worlds live inside corrective work. There is what stops the business or carries a risk, such as water coming through the dining-room ceiling or a cold room losing temperature. And there is what annoys but holds: the door that scrapes, the flickering tube, the silent hand dryer. Treating them alike always fails, one way or the other: either everything wakes someone before dawn, or nothing does. The planned half of the trade has its page in preventive maintenance software.
The five moments of a fault
Every fault, big or small, passes through the same five stations. The table says what goes astray at each when the only system is people's memory, and what software has to solve:
| Moment | What fails without software | What the software must do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Seen | Whoever discovers it assumes someone else has said so, or has no idea who to turn to | Make telling someone less effort than keeping quiet |
| 2. Reported | It is mentioned aloud, on a note or in a group: no time, no exact spot, no picture | Take it through the channel staff already handle, with time, place and photo, and give it a number |
| 3. Assigned | The manager acts as switchboard: receives, decides and phones. If it is their day off, the fault waits | Send it unprompted to the right trade and shift, and at night disturb people only for what is urgent |
| 4. In progress | Nobody knows whether anyone has taken it on, and the person who reported asks again | Note who accepts it and for when, and tell the person who reported |
| 5. Closed | It is repaired and not written down. A year on, nobody recalls how often the same thing went | Fix the closing time and keep the history where it can be looked up |
The most treacherous gap lies between the third moment and the fourth: the fault that has an owner on paper and that nobody has looked at.
One detail demos tend to skip: the first moment does not happen inside the software. It happens in a corridor, with both hands full. If reporting means recalling a password or hunting for an asset in a drop-down, a share of the faults will never come to exist for the system, and no later report will bring them back.
Urgency, deadline and escalation
These are the three mechanisms that separate a list of faults from a system that responds:
- Urgency. What counts as urgent is decided calmly and in advance, by type of fault, not in the heat of the moment by whoever is suffering it. A clear rule stops everything arriving marked as extremely urgent.
- Deadline. Each category has its own: hours for a leak, days for a loose handle. In a service contract this is called an SLA.
- Escalation. What happens when the deadline runs out with no movement: first a reminder to whoever holds it, then a message to their superior. Who comes after whom is written down in an escalation matrix.
- On call. Out of hours someone has to be reachable for serious faults, and only for those. The idea is explained in on-call duty.
Five things worth watching work in the demo, rather than hearing about:
- Who sets the urgency: the person writing or a rule of the business.
- What rings at three in the morning, and on which phone.
- What happens, minute by minute, when a deadline passes.
- Whether the outside company receives the job just as an in-house technician does.
- Whether the person who reported learns of the repair without having to log in anywhere.
The record of times: what is worth measuring
Three times per fault answer almost everything: when it was reported, when someone accepted it and when it was resolved. From the first to the second you get first response time; from the first to the third, resolution time; and from the average of many, MTTR, the classic corrective indicator.
Those three columns answer the questions a manager really asks. Which supplier takes longest to show up. Which appliance has had four faults since January. How many reports overrun their deadline, and on which shift. If a fault that was closed opens again within days, that is worth seeing too: it is the sign of a repair that did not hold.
A CMMS goes further. It adds labour hours, spare parts used and the cost of each job, hung on the asset record. If what you want is to decide with numbers whether an appliance gets repaired or replaced, you need that, and it is explained in work order management and on the CMMS page.
Three ways to run corrective work
- With a CMMS. The request becomes a work order. It is strong when there are technicians on the payroll and a spare-parts store; it is weak at the way in if whoever reports needs a login and training. The kinds of product are in maintenance software.
- With a fault-reporting tool. It concentrates on the five moments and leaves out inventory and costs. It suits places where many different people report and outside companies repair. Two sister pages cover this family: fault management software and maintenance request software.
- With a sheet and a WhatsApp group. It works with few faults and one very attentive person. It breaks at the third moment, when that person is off. The comparison is in WhatsApp group or incident manager.
Where Bedel fits, and what it does not do
Bedel belongs to the second way: it is a fault-reporting tool and not a CMMS. It walks the five moments on WhatsApp. The team member who finds the fault tells the business's number in a few words, a picture or a voice note. That message becomes a ticket with its number and its time. The ticket appears on the WhatsApp of the in-house technician or of the outside company that covers that trade, and neither of them installs anything. The person who reported is told when it has been accepted and when it is resolved. Whatever the business has defined as urgent rings the on-call phone even at three in the morning. And if the deadline runs out, the ticket goes up to whoever is above the person responsible. Three times are kept for each one (reported, accepted and closed) and the whole set downloads as an Excel file.
Bedel ends where the report ends. It has no asset records or inventory. It does not turn the ticket into an order with spare parts, labour hours or costs. It does not link to other software. Each site works as a separate account, with its own number, and there is no screen that brings them together. The business's customers do not open tickets: reports come from whoever is on the team list. For the planned half it offers only a monthly reminder of dated inspections. How it looks in each kind of business is in incident management on WhatsApp, with pages of their own for hotels, restaurants or gyms.
Frequently asked questions
What is corrective maintenance software?
A program that logs faults as they appear, sends them to whoever repairs them, tracks their status and keeps the times. It can be the request-and-order module of a CMMS or a lighter fault-reporting tool, focused on no fault being left without an owner.
How does corrective maintenance differ from preventive maintenance?
Corrective work repairs what has already broken: it has no date and anyone who sees the failure starts it. Preventive work gets ahead of the failure with scheduled inspections and is driven by one person with a calendar. One product can run both, but each asks something different of it.
Which times should corrective maintenance software record?
At least three: the time of the report, the time someone accepts it and the closing time. From them you work out first response time, resolution time and MTTR, and you can see which supplier or which shift piles up delays.
Do you need a CMMS for corrective maintenance?
Only if, besides following the fault, you want to cost it: hours, spare parts and history per asset. If the problem is that reports go astray or nobody knows where they stand, a fault-reporting tool solves it with less to set up.
How are urgent faults handled out of hours?
With a rule written beforehand: which types of fault are urgent and which phone is on call each night. The software should ring that phone only for urgent faults and leave the rest for the morning shift.
Does Bedel work for corrective maintenance?
Yes, it is its main job: the report comes in on WhatsApp, becomes a ticket, reaches the technician or the supplier and comes back with its status to whoever reported, with on-call and escalation. It is not a CMMS: it holds no inventory, spare parts or costs.
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.
- 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.
- Fault management software: how to choose oneThe path of a fault from whoever reports it to whoever repairs it: the reporting channels and what each one loses, sorting by trade, the outside supplier, the photo and the status sent back.
- 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.