Compare · CAFM / CMMS vs ExpiryEdge

Do you need a CAFM system, or do you need your inspection deadlines under control?

A CAFM or CMMS runs maintenance work: the helpdesk, work orders, planned jobs, your asset and space records. ExpiryEdge does a narrower job. It makes sure the lift examination, the contractor's insurance and the lease break each have an owner, get booked on time and leave a certificate behind. Below is how to tell which one you need, and when it makes sense to run both.

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Last updated · ExpiryEdge editorial team

A practical guide for FM, estates and property teams

When a CAFM or CMMS is the right call

When a deadline tracker is enough

How teams run both side by side

What to move over from your spreadsheet

Quick answer

Pick a CAFM or CMMS if your own staff carry out reactive and planned maintenance across a large estate and you need work orders and asset data. Pick a deadline tracker like ExpiryEdge if contractors do most of the work and your real worry is a date slipping past: an inspection, a certificate, an insurance renewal. Plenty of FM teams use both. The CAFM handles work orders; ExpiryEdge holds the statutory dates, contractor paperwork and audit trail.

Decision guide

Which tool does the job you actually have?

Decision guide. A CAFM or CMMS fits when you need a helpdesk, work orders, planned maintenance with parts and labour, and asset registers. ExpiryEdge is enough when missed dates are the risk, contractors do the work, reminders go to people in the field and you want to go live this week. It also shows what each tool keeps when you run both.
Guidance for orientation, not a product ranking. Feature sets vary by vendor.
How to decide

Four questions that settle it

1. Who does the work - your team or contractors?

If your own technicians do most of the maintenance, you have to plan their hours and the parts they need. A CAFM or CMMS is good at exactly that. It turns a maintenance plan into work orders and follows each one until it is closed.

Now suppose specialist contractors handle the statutory work: lift examinations, fire alarm servicing, gas safety, electrical testing and water hygiene. Your job changes. Someone has to book each visit in time, confirm it happened and get the certificate on file. That is a deadline and evidence problem, and work orders don't solve it.

2. What actually goes wrong today?

Be honest about the failure you are trying to prevent. If jobs are lost between a helpdesk call and a technician, a work order system fixes that.

Maybe the failure looks different. An inspection went overdue, a contractor's insurance lapsed, or a lease break date crept up on you. Or the insurer asked for a certificate nobody could find. Those get fixed by giving each date an owner and a reminder schedule, escalating when it is missed, and keeping the document on the record.

3. How much setup can you absorb?

A CAFM models your buildings, assets and spaces in a lot of detail. On a large estate that depth pays off. It usually also means an implementation project and weeks of getting the data into shape before anyone is trained.

ExpiryEdge imports your current inspection spreadsheet, assigns owners and starts sending reminders on day one. There is no asset hierarchy to build first.

Rule of thumb: if you are still running inspections from a spreadsheet, you probably need the deadline layer before you need a full CAFM.

4. Who needs to see the reminder?

Caretakers and site managers are rarely logged into an FM platform. If the reminder only shows up inside a system nobody opens, the date still slips.

ExpiryEdge sends reminders by email, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack or Microsoft Teams to the named owner, and escalates to a manager if a date passes.

Running both

Lots of teams keep the CAFM for work orders and PPM, then use ExpiryEdge for what a CAFM was never designed to chase. That means statutory due dates with their evidence, paperwork from contractors who refuse to log into another portal, insurance and lease dates, and an audit trail per building.

  • CAFM: helpdesk, work orders, PPM tasks, asset and space data

  • ExpiryEdge: inspection due dates and contractor certificates, plus leases and insurance

  • Status changes can be pushed to other systems through the ExpiryEdge API and webhooks

Moving from a spreadsheet

Use what you already have. That is usually one row per inspection per building, with the last date, the interval, the contractor and the owner. Import it and check the owners are right. Set a reminder cadence for each inspection type, then send every contractor a link for their latest certificate so the evidence lands on the record.

  • Import buildings and inspection dates from Excel or CSV

  • Set the cadence per inspection type (e.g. 90/60/30/7 days)

  • Request the current certificate from each contractor by link

How it compares

Side by side: what each approach is built for

ExpiryEdgeSpreadsheetCAFM / CMMS
Inspection and certificate due dates per building

Manual

Named owner, backup and escalation per date

Varies

Reminders by SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams

Varies

Contractors upload certificates without an account

Rarely

Leases, insurance, contracts and licences in the same place

Manual

Partly

Live from an imported spreadsheet on day one
Helpdesk and work orders
Spare parts, labour planning, asset lifecycle
What a CAFM or CMMS can do differs a lot from vendor to vendor, so check the product you are looking at. ExpiryEdge does not create work orders or manage spare parts.
Frequently asked questions

No. ExpiryEdge won't raise work orders, run a helpdesk or look after spare parts. It tracks dates such as inspections, certificates, insurance, leases and contracts. Each date gets an owner, reminders and escalation, with the documents and an audit trail attached. Some FM teams run it next to a CAFM; others use it instead, because a CAFM would be more than they need.

Yes. Make one record per inspection per building and give it an interval, an owner and a contractor. ExpiryEdge reminds the owner 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before it is due and escalates if the date passes. When the visit is logged, the next due date rolls forward and the certificate stays on the record.

Usually because dates still slip. Reminders sit in a system the site team never opens. Contractor certificates arrive by email and never make it to the asset record. Leases and insurance live in someone else's folder. ExpiryEdge covers that deadline and evidence layer, and its API and webhooks can pass status changes back to your other systems.

Keep the columns you already use (building, inspection, last date, interval, contractor, owner) and import them into a tool that sends reminders and stores certificates. You skip rebuilding your estate in a new data model. ExpiryEdge has a free 14-day trial, and you don't need a credit card to start it.

Yes. Send a request link tied to the inspection record. The contractor uploads the certificate and confirms the visit date, no account needed. ExpiryEdge keeps following up until it arrives. If one item is wrong, you reject just that one and ask again.

No. That is decided by your competent persons, your risk assessments and your insurer. ExpiryEdge makes sure every date you agree on has an owner and evidence behind it. For a starting point, our building inspection page lists common UK intervals with their sources.

Related

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ExpiryEdge vs spreadsheets

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A statutory inspection is overdue - what now?

Start with your inspection spreadsheet

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