Building condition audit software for capex forecasts
A building condition audit tells an asset manager what the building will cost to keep over the next five to ten years. Every element — roof, facade, lifts, mechanical plant, fire services, finishes — gets a condition grade, a remaining life and a cost in the year it falls due. The deliverable is a capex forecast table, and the risk is that the forecast and the narrative describe different buildings.
Built for asset managers running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Capex condition audit
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Capex condition audit
Mechanical services — capital forecast extract
- Asset
- Fictional Office Park, Building B
- Forecast period
- FY27–FY36
- Inspected
- 11 August 2026
| Element | Condition / remaining life | Forecast |
|---|---|---|
| Chillers CH-1 and CH-2 | C — fair; 3–5 years | Forecast: FY29 $480k |
| Cooling tower CT-1 | B — good; 8–10 years | Forecast: FY35 $160k |
| AHU-3 (Level 2) | D — poor; fan bearings noisy | Forecast: FY27 $65k |
| BMS controllers | C — fair; parts obsolescent | Forecast: FY28 $90k |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the capex condition audit where your template puts it.
Per element
- Building and level
- Element category and type
- Condition grade (A–E)
- Remaining useful life
- Recommended action
- Forecast year
- Cost estimate
- Photos
Building summary
- Year of construction and major refurbishments
- Gross floor area
- Areas not accessed
Forecast roll-up
- Total by year (calculated)
- Total by element category (calculated)
- Immediate works total (calculated)
How the capex condition audit gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the building condition audit form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your buildings, levels and tenancies
Enter buildings, levels and tenancies once, as a register. Every one of your elements, defects and cost lines then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The capex condition audit renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a capex condition audit must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The narrative calls the roof "fair"; the element register grades it C with a twelve-month cost line against it.
Checks a commercial property framework usually carries
- Every graded defect carries a cost band and a priority
- The make-good schedule and the narrative describe the same condition
- Access and DDA non-compliances cite the clause they fail
- Every photo referenced in the text exists and is captioned
Questions
- Can the forecast table be totalled automatically?
- Yes. Calculated fields aggregate over the element repeat — sum by forecast year, by category or by priority — so the summary table comes from the same rows as the element schedule.
- Can we use our own grading scale and cost bands?
- Yes. The form is authored by your firm, so the grade options, cost bands and life ranges are yours, and each option can carry its own sentence of report wording.
- Will the narrative contradict the element grades?
- The AI review compares the finished report with the captured data, so a narrative that calls an element fair while its row is graded D is raised as a finding before the report goes out.
- Can a portfolio of buildings be audited consistently?
- Every building uses the same form and grading options, and the submissions grid lets you query elements across buildings, for example every chiller graded C or worse.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other commercial property work we cover
- Lift registration inspectionsLift inspection report
- NABERS energy auditsEnergy rating evidence pack
- Replacement cost assessmentsInsurance valuation report
- Roof condition surveysRoof survey report
- Signage condition auditsSignage register
- Sinking fund forecast inspectionsMaintenance forecast report
- Water efficiency auditsWater audit report
- Accessibility DDA auditsAccess audit report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your capex condition audit in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.