Fleet & Equipment Maintenance Tracker Help

Setup guide, answers to common questions, and a free assistant for the Fleet & Equipment Maintenance Tracker Google Sheets template.

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Hi! Ask me anything about the Fleet & Equipment Maintenance Tracker sheet: setup, service and meter reminders, drivers and managers, renewals, dates or linking Doyouok.

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  1. Assets tab: type over the two examples ("Van 1 (rename me)" and "Excavator 1 (rename me)") with your own vehicles and equipment; their services, renewals and Service Log rows are renamed too. Set the Type and the latest Meter Reading. The Meter Unit is filled in for you from Settings > "Default Meter Unit" (hours for machines such as an excavator); change it if this asset differs. Optionally fill Assigned To and Assigned Email (the driver or operator). Add a row per asset.
  2. Service Schedule tab: for each asset use menu "Fleet Tracker" > "Add standard services for an asset". The list follows the asset's Type: vehicles (oil, tyres, brakes...), trailers (bearings, lights, coupling...) or equipment by engine hours (grease, engine oil, hydraulic filter...). Each service has "Every (Months)" and/or "Every (Meter)", whichever comes first. Check the intervals against the manufacturer's manual. Delete the example rows you don't need.
  3. Service Log tab: add the last time each service was done (date and meter reading). The schedule then works out the next due date and meter, and the status: Overdue, Due Soon, OK, No History (nothing logged yet) or Inactive (asset out of service or sold).
  4. Renewals tab: registration, insurance, inspections, permits and so on, with their expiry dates. Leave Asset blank for company-wide items such as a fleet insurance policy.
  5. Settings tab: put the fleet manager's email in "Manager Email(s)" (blank = your own Google account).
  6. Press ENABLE TRACKER at the top of the Service Schedule. Google asks for permission once (see the FAQ below), then a test email is sent to the managers right away. From then on the sheet checks every day around 5:00 and emails before each service and renewal is due.

Done a service, renewed something, new meter reading

  1. Press OPEN DUE LIST at the top of the Service Schedule (or menu > Open due list). A side panel lists services that are overdue, due soon or have no history, and renewals expiring within 60 days.
  2. Done a service: press "Mark done". "Done on" is today; type another date or click the calendar icon to pick one. Enter the meter reading (required for services due by the meter) and the cost (optional), then Confirm. A Service Log row is added and the next due date and meter are worked out again. A reading higher than the asset's also updates Assets > Meter Reading.
  3. Renewed something: pick the Renewal Term and press Renew, then Confirm. The expiry date moves forward by that term.
  4. New meter reading: type it in Meter Reading on the Assets tab; the Reading Date is filled in for you. Mark done with a higher reading also updates it.

Drivers and operators

  1. Put the driver's or operator's email in the asset's Assigned Email column on the Assets tab.
  2. With Settings > "Email Assigned Person" = Yes (the default), they get the reminders for their own assets only: services due, renewals and the monthly meter reading request. Managers still get everything.
  3. Their emails have no link to the spreadsheet, so they don't need access to it. They are asked to reply with the date and meter reading, and replies go to the Manager Email(s). The manager then logs it with Mark done or on the Service Log.
  4. Set "Email Assigned Person" to No to send everything to the managers only.

Link Doyouok (free): know if reminders ever stop

  1. Sign up for free at doyouok.com.
  2. On the Doyouok dashboard create a check: Task Name "Fleet Tracker", Timeout (hours) 26, then press Create.
  3. Press "Copy Link" on that check and paste it into Settings > "Doyouok Ping URL" in the sheet.
  4. In Doyouok > Notifications, connect Telegram, Slack or Discord.
  5. Press SEND TEST EMAIL on the Settings tab. The check turns "Up" on your Doyouok dashboard.
  6. You then get one message a day on Telegram / Slack / Discord listing what is due across the fleet, and an alert (email included) if the sheet stops checking in or reports a failed reminder.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. The script is your own private copy inside your spreadsheet, so Google shows this for every personal script. Click "Advanced", then "Go to (project name)", then "Allow". You only do this once.

Edit this spreadsheet (service log, meter readings, expiry dates and the reminder log), send reminder emails from your account, run once a day, show the Due list side panel, and connect to an external service (only used if you add a Doyouok Ping URL).

Yes, if your administrator allows Apps Script. Some companies block scripts or third-party script permissions; if ENABLE TRACKER fails with a policy message, ask your admin or use a personal Gmail account to own the sheet. Workspace accounts can send up to 1,500 emails a day.

Yes. Set the asset's Meter Unit to hours. Enter the hour meter in Meter Reading and the Service Log, and the intervals in "Every (Meter)" in hours, e.g. 250. Picking an equipment Type (Excavator, Forklift, Loader, Tractor, Generator, Mower) fills in hours for you. Vehicles and machines can be mixed in one sheet.

Services and renewals with a date: Settings > "Reminders Before Due" = Multiple (30, 14 and 7 days before, and on the due date, the default) or Single (7 days before, and on the due date). Services due by the meter: one reminder when the asset is within Settings > "Due Soon Distance" (miles / km) or "Due Soon Hours" (engine hours) of the next due meter. With "Keep Reminding When Overdue" = Yes, an overdue service is reminded again every 30 days until it is logged, and an expired renewal every day until it is renewed. The daily run is around 5:00 in the spreadsheet's time zone (File > Settings).

Everyone in Settings > "Manager Email(s)" gets every reminder, with a link to the sheet. An asset's Assigned Email gets only that asset's reminders, without the link (see "Drivers and operators" above). Each person gets at most one email a day listing everything due for them. Renewals with a blank Asset go to the managers only.

Current Meter on the Assets tab is the higher of the Meter Reading and the highest meter on the Service Log for that asset. Meter reminders are only as good as the latest reading, so with Settings > "Meter Reading Reminder" = Monthly, the manager and the assigned person are asked for a new reading when an asset's last reading is over 30 days old (then again every 30 days until one is entered).

Set its Status on the Assets tab to "Out of Service" or "Sold / Retired". It then gets no reminders (services, renewals or meter requests), its services show Inactive and it is left out of the counts. Its history and costs stay. Set it back to Active to start again.

Nothing matching it is on the Service Log yet. Add a Service Log row with the date (and meter reading) it was last done, picking the same Asset and Service as the schedule row from the dropdowns. Or press OPEN DUE LIST and "Mark done".

A Service Log row only counts when its Asset and Service match the Service Schedule row exactly; pick them from the dropdowns. Rows with other names (repairs) are kept as history and in the spend totals. Also check the Date and Meter: the latest date and highest meter are used.

The service is due by the meter, so the reading when it was done is needed to work out the next due meter. Type the odometer or hour meter; if it is higher than the asset's reading, Assets > Meter Reading is updated too.

No. Type the new name over the old one in the Asset column of the Assets tab: its rows on the Service Schedule, Renewals and Service Log are renamed too. This works when you edit one name at a time; after pasting over several names, fix the other tabs by picking the asset from the dropdown.

They are common starting points, not manufacturer specifications. The manual is the authority, and heavy loads, towing, dust or short trips shorten them. Change "Every (Months)" and "Every (Meter)" on the Service Schedule; leave one blank if the service only goes by time or by the meter. With km, check the distance intervals: the numbers are the same as for miles.

Dates follow the spreadsheet's locale, not your computer: e.g. 10/7/2026 in the United States, 07/10/2026 in the United Kingdom or Australia. Go to File > Settings, set Locale to your country, press Save settings and reload the sheet. The table, the Due list side panel and the reminder emails all use the same format. Dates you type are read with that locale too.

Check the spam / junk folder first; the email is sent from the sheet owner's Google account, so add that address to your contacts. Make sure Settings > "Manager Email(s)" has the right address (blank = your Google account email), then press SEND TEST EMAIL again. The test goes to the managers only, never to drivers.

One email per person per day at most. Free Gmail accounts can send to up to 100 recipients a day and Google Workspace accounts 1,500, enough for a fleet of a few hundred assets.

Use menu "Fleet Tracker" > "Check sheet for problems", then "Enable tracker" again; this recreates the daily timer and re-asks for permission if Google removed it. Problems (an asset not on the Assets tab, a bad email address, a date that can't be read) are also emailed to the managers. Link Doyouok (see above) to be told automatically next time.

Yes. Share the spreadsheet with your team as editors. Reminders are sent from the account that pressed ENABLE TRACKER, so keep that account active. Drivers don't need access: they get their reminders by email.

Reload the spreadsheet; the menu appears a few seconds after it opens. Buttons and menus don't work in the Google Sheets mobile app; use a computer browser.

Yes. Click the small button in a column header to sort or filter, and add rows at the bottom. Don't delete the hidden ID columns or rename the column headers.

No. Everything stays in your Google account. With a Doyouok Ping URL, only service or renewal names, asset names, due dates and what is left are sent. Costs, notes, people, email addresses, plates and serial numbers never leave your spreadsheet.

Menu "Fleet Tracker" > "Disable tracker". Nothing is sent until you enable it again. To stop reminders for one service or renewal, set its Reminder column to Disabled; for a whole asset, set its Status to Out of Service.

Menu > Setup > "Rebuild template". Warning: this erases all your data and turns reminders off, so copy your rows somewhere first. Press ENABLE TRACKER again afterwards.