The short definition
CAFM stands for Computer-Aided Facility Management. It's the category of software that facility teams use to manage buildings as a connected system: the space inside them, the people who occupy it, the equipment that keeps it running, and the work needed to maintain or change any of the above — all from one shared database.
If your organization manages more than a handful of buildings, spreadsheets and email chains stop scaling. CAFM replaces that sprawl with a single source of truth that planners, technicians, and finance can all work from.
The four pillars of CAFM
Space & Occupancy
Floor plans linked to people, departments, and chargebacks. Plan moves and measure utilization.
Explore the Space Management module
Work Orders & Maintenance
Capture requests, dispatch technicians, and track preventive maintenance against assets.
Explore the Work Management module
Equipment & Assets
A single register of equipment with location, warranty, and service history.
Explore the Equipment Management module
Projects & MAC
Move/Add/Change requests and capital project approvals, routed to the right approvers.
Explore the Move, Add & Change module
CAFM vs CMMS vs IWMS
These acronyms overlap, and vendors blur the lines. A useful mental model:
- CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) — narrow focus on work orders, preventive maintenance, and asset history.
- CAFM — adds space, occupancy, and moves to that maintenance core. This is where most facility-management work actually happens.
- IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System) — broadest of the three; bundles CAFM with real-estate portfolio and capital-project management.
Who actually uses CAFM day to day?
CAFM is a multi-role tool. A space planner uses it differently from a technician on the shop floor, but they're looking at the same underlying data:
- • Facility & space planners — floor plans, occupancy, chargebacks.
- • Maintenance teams — work orders, PM schedules, asset history.
- • EH&S officers — inspections, compliance, incident tracking.
- • Finance — space-based chargebacks and capital project budgets.
- • Executives — utilization, cost per square foot, project status.
See CAFM in action
Short videos from our library that put the concepts above into practice.
Introduction to Facility Management - Updated
Webinar: Manage Facilities in Minutes, Not Months
Introduction to Space Accounting
PRD CMMIS Case Study
Explore every CAFM module
Each module below is a working example of one CAFM capability.
Frequently asked
What does CAFM stand for?
Computer-Aided Facility Management — software that helps facility teams manage space, assets, maintenance, moves, and compliance from a single database.
Do I need CAD drawings to use CAFM?
For the space side of CAFM, yes — floor plans are how the system links people and assets to physical locations. See the CAD & Drawing Tools section for how that side fits together.
How is CAFM different from a CMMS?
A CMMS handles maintenance and work orders. CAFM does that and covers space, occupancy, and moves — so the same database that dispatches a technician also tells finance who occupies the room being serviced.
Ready to see how IDN does CAFM?
Book a working session with our team, or keep exploring the video library.