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30 October 20267 min readBy Axario Business Editorial TeamFacilities ManagementMaintenanceCompliance

Facilities Management: Doing the Work Is Half the Job. Proving It Is the Other Half.

When the lift, the fire system and the generator all work, nobody notices. When something goes wrong, everyone asks for the paperwork.

Facilities technician recording a maintenance check on a tablet in a building plant room

Batabile Sibaca, president of the South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA), calls facilities management "the quiet force that keeps our world moving". Anyone who works in FM knows the other side of that. When the work is done well, nobody sees it. They only notice the lift that's out of order, the air-con that died in a heatwave, or the fire extinguisher whose service tag ran out last year.

It's a big industry doing quiet work. Mordor Intelligence puts South Africa's facility management market at about USD 12 billion in 2025, and estimates that outsourced contracts made up roughly 62% of it in 2024. Many buildings are looked after by an FM company on behalf of a client, often across many clients at once.

The proof problem in facilities management

Most FM teams aren't short of policies. What they're short of is proof that's easy to find.

At a site handover, during a client review, after an incident, or when an insurer starts asking questions, the same request comes up: show us. When was the fire system last serviced? Who signed off the lift inspection? Is the electrical certificate current? Which contractor was on site, and was their own paperwork valid?

Mark Anderson, portfolio director at Montgomery Group Africa (the organisers of A-OSH Expo), put it this way earlier this year: "Safety has moved from a compliance requirement to a performance driver." He also warned that "these issues rarely appear as major failures at first". Small slips build up quietly: a service that slips by a month, a certificate filed in someone's inbox, a fault that keeps coming back on the same unit.

It isn't only a South African problem. In the UK, SFG20's State of Facilities Management 2026 report found that 38% of facility maintenance professionals either don't update their asset registers or don't know how often they're updated. Half still keep at least part of the register in spreadsheets, and only 15% said their register was 100% accurate. If the asset list is wrong, everything built on top of it is wrong too: the schedules, the costs, the compliance.

What clients, auditors and insurers usually ask to see

  • an up-to-date asset register for each site
  • the planned maintenance schedule, and proof that it was followed
  • current statutory certificates and inspection records: fire equipment, electrical, lifts and escalators, pressure equipment, lifting equipment
  • which contractors worked on site, with their appointments and valid certificates
  • fault and repair history, including repeat failures
  • signed-off completion records for the work done

Many sites, many clients, many contractors

In-house facilities managers usually juggle several buildings. FM service providers do the same across several clients, each with their own sites, contracts and expectations.

Add subcontractors and it gets harder. In South Africa, the OHS Act keeps the client and the principal contractor answerable for health and safety on site, even when the work is done by a contractor under a section 37(2) agreement. Knowing who did the work, when, and with which valid certificates isn't admin for its own sake. It's part of how you show you took reasonable steps.

Statutory items run on their own clocks too. Lifts and escalators have to be inspected and tested under the Lift, Escalator and Passenger Conveyor Regulations. Fire equipment, electrical installations, pressure equipment and lifting equipment each have their own requirements. Multiply that by every site, and a spreadsheet stops being enough.

How Axario Business supports facilities management

Axario Business is built for both sides of FM: the asset owner and the service provider.

  • All sites and clients in one place. Link sites to clients, and organise each site into buildings and rooms. Filter by client to see one portfolio at a time.
  • Planned and reactive work together. Set up recurring maintenance by date or by meter reading, so jobs come due on their own. Staff can log faults on site, scan an asset's QR label, or add a photo. Call-outs and work orders keep their history on the asset.
  • Compliance across every site. Track compliance requirements and certificates per site, with expiry dates and reminders. Start from template packs that include FM Service Provider, Fire, Electrical, Lifts & Escalators, Pressure Equipment and Lifting Machines. Packs are a starting point, and it's up to you to check them against your own obligations.
  • Contractors, kept accountable. Assign jobs to external contractors. Invite them with their own contractor login, where "My work" shows only the jobs, assets and certificates assigned to them, or send a job link they can open without logging in. Contractor certificates go through a pending-review step, so whoever added a certificate can't approve it themselves.
  • Your team in the field. The on-site hub gives technicians nearby jobs, scan-and-log, and time recorded against the job. The drag-and-drop calendar and team view, with skill-matching, help you send the right technician.
  • Proof, ready to share. Branded completion reports carry signatures. Audit and evidence packs can be made per site or per asset, and a compliance pack can be shared with each client by link.
  • Patterns you can act on. See downtime and repeat failures per asset, costs per asset and site, quotes from request to invoice, and business health and track-record reports.

The quiet work, on the record

Good FM will always be mostly invisible. The aim isn't to make it louder. The aim is to make sure that when someone asks "can you show us?", the answer takes minutes instead of days.

Axario Business: one place for every site, asset, contractor and certificate. Start a free 30-day trial, no card needed.

Frequently asked questions

What records should a facilities manager keep? An asset register per site, planned maintenance schedules and completion records, statutory certificates and inspection records, contractor appointments and certificates, and fault and repair history.

Can I manage several clients' sites in Axario Business? Yes. Sites are linked to clients and you can filter by client. Each client's compliance pack can be shared with them by link.

How do contractors work with Axario Business? You can invite a contractor with their own contractor login, where they see only the jobs, assets and certificates assigned to them, or send them a job link they can open without logging in. Their certificates go through a review step.

Does Axario Business track statutory certificates? Yes. It tracks certificates and compliance requirements per site, with expiry dates and reminders, and has template packs for fire, electrical, lifts and escalators, pressure equipment and lifting machines.

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