What is a preventive maintenance schedule?

A list of planned maintenance tasks for equipment, with how often each is done, who does it, how long it takes and when it is next due. It makes sure routine work is done on time instead of waiting for a failure.

How do you set PM intervals?

Start with the maker's manual. Then adjust using your own history: shorten the interval for a part that fails between PMs, and lengthen one for a task that finds nothing for a long time. Review them every quarter and write the reason for each change.

What is the difference between a PM schedule and a PM checklist?

The schedule says what is done and when: tasks, intervals, owners and due dates. A checklist says what to check while doing one PM. Use the schedule to plan the work and the checklist to do it.

What does due soon mean in this schedule?

A task is due soon when its next due date falls within the number of days you set, 14 to start. Overdue means the date has already passed. You can change the number on the schedule sheet.

How do you balance PM work across the year?

Add up the hours in each month on the calendar, then move tasks out of the busiest months by changing their last done dates. Keep weekly and monthly tasks on the same day of the week, and leave room for breakdowns.

Free template

Updated November 11, 2026

Preventive maintenance schedule template

A preventive maintenance (PM) schedule is the list of planned maintenance tasks for your equipment, with how often each is done, how long it takes, who does it and when it is next due. It turns the intervals in the manuals into dates on a calendar. This template has a schedule page, a page on choosing intervals, and an Excel file that works out each next due date and status and lays the year out by month so you can see the hours in each.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the preventive maintenance schedule — Asset and taskInterval in weeks or monthsHours and ownerLast done and next dueOverdue, due soon, OK12 month calendarHours by month chartSummary

Filled-in Preventive maintenance schedule template: fourteen PM tasks, two overdue, hours by month — The same sheet filled in with the worked example (page 3 of the PDF, illustrative numbers). Open full size (opens the picture in a new tab)

When to use it

When to use a preventive maintenance schedule template

When PM tasks are in manuals and people's memories, and nobody can say which ones are overdue.
When you set up PM for a new line, or for a machine that has had none.
To see whether the planned work fits the hours your team has, month by month.
To review intervals each quarter against what the log shows.
For the checks an operator does in a shift, use a checklist. This is for the planned tasks that have an interval and an owner.

How to fill it in

1
List the assets and the tasks
Start with the machines that stop the line. For each one, write each PM task as its own row, such as 'lubricate fill head slides' or 'replace fill head seals'.
2
Set the interval with its unit
Every 1 week, every 3 months. The Excel file takes weeks or months. Start from the maker's manual and move the interval later using what the maintenance log shows.
3
Add the hours and the owner
Hours each time the task is done, and who does it: operator, mechanic or electrician. The hours feed the calendar.
4
Enter the date each task was last done
The sheet works out the next due date as the last done date plus the interval. Weeks are added as 7 days each and months to the same day of the later month.
5
Read the status
Overdue means the next due date has passed. Due soon means it falls within the number of days you set, 14 to start. Everything else is OK.
6
Look at the year calendar
Jobs and hours in each month, as a count and a bar chart. If one month is far busier than the rest, move tasks by changing their last done dates.
7
Update after every task
When a task is done, write the date in Last done. The next due date, status and calendar move on their own.

Setting the interval

What should set a PM interval

Start with the first row, then let your own history move the interval. Write the reason in the task so the next person knows why it is what it is.

Driver	Looks like	How to write it
The maker says so	The manual gives an interval for the task.	Start with it. Write the manual and page in the task.
Time	Weekly lubrication, monthly belt check, yearly filter.	Every 1 week, every 1 month, every 12 months.
Use	Hours run, cycles, miles. A forklift or a press.	Convert to time from the hours it runs, and review it every quarter.
Failures	The same part failed twice between PMs.	Shorten the interval, or change the task. Write why in the task.
Findings	The task finds nothing for a year.	Lengthen the interval one step and watch the next two.

The maker says so
Looks like
The manual gives an interval for the task.
How to write it
Start with it. Write the manual and page in the task.
Time
Looks like
Weekly lubrication, monthly belt check, yearly filter.
How to write it
Every 1 week, every 1 month, every 12 months.
Use
Looks like
Hours run, cycles, miles. A forklift or a press.
How to write it
Convert to time from the hours it runs, and review it every quarter.
Failures
Looks like
The same part failed twice between PMs.
How to write it
Shorten the interval, or change the task. Write why in the task.
Findings
Looks like
The task finds nothing for a year.
How to write it
Lengthen the interval one step and watch the next two.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example (illustrative): 14 PM tasks on a packaging line and its utilities, with the status read on 10 November 2026 and 'due soon' meaning within 14 days. The calendar starts in November 2026. The assets, intervals and hours are made up.

14 tasks: 2 Overdue, 7 Due soon and 5 OK.
The two overdue tasks are the labeller sensor clean, due 3 November and 7 days overdue, and the conveyor gate interlock test, due 28 October and 13 days overdue.
Next due is the last done date plus the interval: the fill head seals were changed on 12 August and are done every 3 months, so they are next due on 12 November, in 2 days.
The 12 month calendar holds 160 jobs and 134.5 hours of PM work. Overdue jobs are counted from the read date, so they land in November.
May is the busiest month at 15 hours and November is next at 14.5. Both hold the six month valve timing check and the quarterly seal change. December and June are the lightest at 8 hours.

The two overdue tasks come first. The calendar then shows May and November as the months with the least room for extra work.

Common mistakes

Intervals copied from a manual and never reviewed
A manual interval is a starting point. Look at the log each quarter: a task that finds nothing can be stretched, and a part that keeps failing needs a shorter interval or a different task.
No hours on the tasks
Without hours you cannot see whether a month has more work than your team has time for. Estimate them, then correct them after the first few times.
Tasks with no owner
A PM that belongs to 'maintenance' belongs to nobody. Put a person or a craft against each row.
Last done dates that are never updated
The next due date is only as good as the last done date. Update it when the task is finished, not at the end of the month.
Everything due in the same week
Quarterly and half-yearly jobs that all started on the same day pile up. Move some by changing their last done dates and watch the monthly hours level out.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

LeanSuite works alongside your CMMS rather than replacing it: when a scheduled PM comes due or an operator tags an abnormality it creates the work order and routes it to maintenance, and checklists can be assigned to an asset with a repeat rule.

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