Industries

CMMS and asset finance for retail and supermarkets

In short

Cohiva Control is a maintenance and asset management system suited to retail chains and supermarket operators who run refrigeration, HVAC and store plant across many sites. It combines an asset register, work orders, preventive maintenance, inspections and a hard contractor-compliance gate with native fixed-asset depreciation that posts journals to your accounting ledger. Everything sits in a database that is isolated per operator, which suits a chain with the same plant repeated across a fleet of stores.

CMMS and asset finance for retail and supermarkets

A retail chain is the same maintenance problem repeated across a lot of doors. Each store runs broadly the same plant, and when a key piece fails, refrigeration most of all, the cost shows up fast in lost stock and lost trade. Cohiva Control is built for operators who run that kind of multi-site plant, and it joins the maintenance side to the finance side so the asset you service is the asset you depreciate.

The plant you depend on

A store, and a supermarket especially, runs more equipment than the shop floor suggests. Refrigeration and cool rooms protect stock and are the single biggest uptime concern, since a failure can mean a write-off and a food-safety problem. HVAC keeps the space comfortable, lighting and automatic doors keep it open and inviting, and back-of-house brings bakery ovens, deli equipment, compactors and dock plant. Trolleys, checkouts and self-service units round out the list. Across a fleet, that is a lot of repeating assets to keep on top of.

In Cohiva Control every one of those is a registered asset with a stable identity. Because the same plant repeats across stores, the register and its schedules can be applied consistently site to site. Each asset has its own immutable code you can put on a QR label, so a technician can scan a unit and see the full history and open work, and that code is never reused when an asset is transferred or disposed.

Preventive maintenance that protects trade

The point of preventive maintenance in retail is to fix the thing before it costs you a day’s refrigeration or a closed store. Cohiva Control lets you schedule maintenance on a time interval or a meter interval, so condensers are cleaned and units serviced on a sensible rhythm rather than only after a breakdown. Schedules generate work orders automatically and idempotently, so a re-run will not flood the team with duplicates, and PM compliance is tracked against the schedule across the whole fleet, so head office can see which stores are on track.

When something does fail, the work order moves through a server-enforced state machine, from open to assigned, in progress, pending parts, completed and verified, with every transition written to an append-only history row. Across many stores and many contractors, that defensible record matters.

Inspections that turn into action

Daily and periodic checks, temperatures, plant condition, safety, are routine in retail. Cohiva Control inspection templates capture pass or fail checks, numeric readings such as fridge temperatures, photos and signatures, and a failed item can raise a work order automatically. A unit running warm becomes a tracked repair rather than a note on a clipboard. Once an inspection is submitted it is versioned and immutable, so the record reflects what was actually observed.

A hard line on contractor compliance

A chain relies on a web of contractors, refrigeration, electrical, HVAC, doors, across many sites, which is exactly where compliance drifts. Cohiva Control holds the line. A contractor whose public liability insurance, trade licence or site induction is expired, missing or unverified cannot be assigned to a work order. This is a hard block, not a reminder, with no override available even to an administrator. You configure the document set once and the system enforces it on every assignment, which keeps standards consistent across the fleet and helps you comply with your own contractor management policy.

Maintenance and depreciation in one place

Retail carries heavy capital in fit-out, refrigeration and plant, and most maintenance tools leave the books to a separate fixed-asset register. Cohiva Control carries each asset through to native depreciation across six methods, straight-line, diminishing value, double declining balance, units of production, sum of years digits and AASB 16 for leases, with money held to the cent rather than as a floating point number. Each monthly run writes to an append-only depreciation ledger and can post the journal to Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite or Cohiva Crunch. Because the same record drives both maintenance and finance, you are not reconciling two systems at year end. This is general information about how the product calculates depreciation, not accounting advice; confirm treatment with your finance team.

Built for Australian operators across sites

Cohiva Control is Australian-built and supports AASB 16 lease accounting, which matters when store premises and plant sit on a lease. It is database per tenant, so each operator runs in an isolated database, and you can manage a fleet of stores in the one platform. The commercial kitchen equipment checklist suits stores with food preparation, and see how preventive maintenance and the contractor compliance gate work.

Part of the Cohiva platform

Cohiva Control is part of the wider Cohiva platform. Finance teams connect to Cohiva Crunch for the general ledger and consolidation across a multi-site group. You can see the whole platform at www.cohiva.app.

Frequently asked questions

What plant does Cohiva Control track in a store?
Any asset you choose to register, from refrigeration and cool rooms to HVAC, lighting, automatic doors, trolleys, checkouts and back-of-house equipment. Each asset carries its own history, condition and maintenance schedule.
How does it help with refrigeration uptime?
You can schedule preventive maintenance on time or meter intervals so refrigeration is serviced before it fails, and inspections can flag a unit running warm so it becomes a tracked repair. Refrigerant work itself is licensed; Cohiva Control schedules, records and routes the job.
Can it manage the same plant across many stores?
Yes. You can run a fleet of sites in the one system, with the same asset types and schedules repeated across them, and each operator's data sits in its own isolated database.
How does the contractor compliance gate help a chain?
A contractor with expired, missing or unverified public liability insurance, a trade licence or a site induction cannot be assigned to a work order. It is a hard block at the system level with no override, which keeps standards consistent across a fleet of stores and many contractors.
Does it depreciate our fit-out and plant?
Yes. Cohiva Control runs six depreciation methods including AASB 16 leases and posts the monthly journal to Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite or Cohiva Crunch, so the asset you maintain is the asset you depreciate.