How to Track Equipment Warranty Expiry

The warranty ended last month and nobody noticed

Equipment is bought with a warranty of one, two or three years. The paperwork goes into a drawer or a shared folder, and the date goes into no calendar at all. When the screen fails eight months later there is a reasonable chance it is covered, and a reasonable chance no one can find the invoice.

The opposite mistake is just as common. A team pays for a repair on equipment that was still under warranty because the people who fixed it did not know, and the people who bought it were not asked.

The lost money is small per item and large across a fleet of laptops, tools, vehicles and machines, and the loss is invisible because no report shows what was covered when it failed.

Why this happens

• The warranty end date is not stored on the asset record.
• Proof of purchase and the warranty terms are kept somewhere else.
• Nothing warns anyone before the warranty ends, so the last chance to claim or to extend it passes.
• The person who repairs the asset cannot see whether it is still covered.

Biznsbook addresses this through warranty dates, asset documents, expiry alerts on the same record that holds the tag, the custodian and the location of the asset, so the people who use, service and account for the equipment work from one source.

Equipment fails and warranties end whether or not anyone is watching. Keeping the dates, the jobs and the papers on the asset turns those events into scheduled work and timely decisions instead of surprises.

Step-by-step: Track Equipment Warranty Expiry

Built for facilities managers, operations leads and fixed asset managers who look after company equipment in Biznsbook. It needs the Fixed Assets Tracking module and, for the Documents section, Document Management.

1. Record the warranty on every asset. Each asset has a warranty expiry date, a provider and a reference. Enter them when you add the asset or import your register. Assets received from a purchase order pick up the warranty from the warranty months on the product.
2. Set the warranty alert window. In Settings, Tags and loans, choose how many days before the end a warranty counts as expiring. The default is thirty days. A longer window gives you time to negotiate an extension or replace the equipment.
3. Use the dashboard and the register. The dashboard shows how many warranties end inside the window and lists the next ones. The same filter is in the asset register and the sidebar under Needs attention, so you can export the list.
4. Keep the warranty papers with the asset. With Document Management licensed, the asset page has a Documents section. Upload the invoice, the warranty certificate and the manual, choose a category such as Asset Warranty and enter the expiry date so the normal document reminders apply too.
5. Let the daily check tell you. Once a day the system looks for warranties that have entered the window. It creates an in-app notification for the company and raises an Automation event, once for each warranty. If the end date changes, the reminder is armed again.
6. See it in the Attention Center. Users who can open the Attention Center see how many warranties are ending and a link to the filtered list, next to other items that need action.
7. Act before the date. Decide for each asset whether to claim, extend, replace or let it go. If the equipment fails while it is covered, log the repair against the asset, name the vendor and keep the cost so the claim and the cost are on the same record.
8. Send it where people will see it. Use Business Automation on the warranty expiring event to route a message or a task to the person who owns the asset or the supplier relationship.

Review results after the first full monthly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.

Screen names in this guide match the product: Maintenance, Schedule, Work records, Cost of ownership, Tags and loans and the Documents section of the asset page. Every screen has a Help button.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mistake 1: The warranty end date is not stored on the asset record. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in a missed service, a breakdown that was avoidable, or a repair paid for while the warranty still applied.
• Mistake 2: Proof of purchase and the warranty terms are kept somewhere else. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in a missed service, a breakdown that was avoidable, or a repair paid for while the warranty still applied.
• Mistake 3: Nothing warns anyone before the warranty ends, so the last chance to claim or to extend it passes. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in a missed service, a breakdown that was avoidable, or a repair paid for while the warranty still applied.
• Mistake 4: The person who repairs the asset cannot see whether it is still covered. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in a missed service, a breakdown that was avoidable, or a repair paid for while the warranty still applied.

Note each recurring gap in the weekly review; each should map to a step in this guide.

Best practices that hold up as you scale

• Record the warranty on every asset — Each asset has a warranty expiry date, a provider and a reference.
• Set the warranty alert window — In Settings, Tags and loans, choose how many days before the end a warranty counts as expiring.
• Use the dashboard and the register — The dashboard shows how many warranties end inside the window and lists the next ones.
• Keep the warranty papers with the asset — With Document Management licensed, the asset page has a Documents section.
• Let the daily check tell you — Once a day the system looks for warranties that have entered the window.

Teams that review the schedule on a fixed day each week, log every repair and keep the papers with the asset find that surprises become rare and that replacement decisions rest on recorded cost.

How Biznsbook supports this workflow

warranty dates is part of Biznsbook Fixed Assets Tracking. Every asset has one record with its plans, jobs, warranty, documents and cost, and the same record shows who holds it and where it is.

asset documents is part of Biznsbook Fixed Assets Tracking. Every asset has one record with its plans, jobs, warranty, documents and cost, and the same record shows who holds it and where it is.

expiry alerts is part of Biznsbook Fixed Assets Tracking. Every asset has one record with its plans, jobs, warranty, documents and cost, and the same record shows who holds it and where it is.

Scheduling and completing maintenance needs the Maintain Tracked Assets permission. Anyone who can view assets can see the schedule, the work records and the cost of ownership.

Suggested implementation timeline

1. Week 1: List the equipment that needs regular attention and its intervals, and check that each asset has its warranty date.
2. Week 2: Add plans, using warranty dates on the most critical assets first, and set the reminder times.
3. Week 3: Schedule and complete the first jobs, recording cost, downtime and findings.
4. Week 4: Attach the warranty papers and manuals and review what the dashboard shows as due or ending.
5. Ongoing: Weekly review using what is stored about the warranty and the cost of ownership page.

Related guides

Start with schedule preventive maintenance for equipment and track equipment warranty expiry.

Also see manage fixed assets, receive assets from purchase orders and run monthly depreciation. All guides: asset tracking. Product page: Asset Tracking.

Getting the dates in

For equipment you already own, add the warranty end date to the Excel import, or edit assets one by one over a few weeks, starting with the most expensive. For new purchases, receive them through a purchase order line so the vendor, the cost and the warranty are filled in from the order and the product.

Use the reference field for the number the provider will ask for. It saves a search of old emails on the day you need to call.

A monthly warranty review

Once a month, open the register filtered to warranties ending soon. For each asset ask whether it has caused repairs, whether an extension is worth its price, and whether the next purchase should be from a supplier with a better warranty.

Attach the answer to the asset as a note, so the next person who looks at it does not start from nothing.

Metrics to track monthly

• Maintenance plans overdue
• Maintenance plans due inside the reminder window
• Assets in repair (Break / Fix) and for how long
• Warranties ending inside the alert window
• Recorded maintenance cost and downtime per asset

Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.

Manual handling vs Biznsbook asset maintenance

Compare doing this by hand with Biznsbook warranty dates and related capabilities.

What is stored about the warranty

The end date, the provider and the reference on the asset, the documents attached to it, and any repair jobs with their cost and vendor. The reminder remembers which end date it already reported, so a corrected date is reported again and an unchanged one is not.

Write this into your weekly operations checklist and revisit it when you add equipment or change suppliers.

Frequently asked questions

How this differs by industry