2026 Barometer Task FM survey, 2026

The daily life of the people who keep offices running.

How facility teams steer their work, receive requests and report in 2026: the results of our survey of facility services and facility managers.

Read the results
5% only use dedicated FM software

Key figures

Four numbers that say it all.

  • 71%

    steer their work from their inbox and shared folders

  • 82%

    of requests arrive by email

  • 77%

    need more than an hour to produce an annual cost report

  • 42%

    name "chasing information" as their top frustration

Chapter 01 / 05

Steering lives in an inbox.

Which tools does your steering rely on? Several answers allowed.
  • 71% Inbox / shared folder
  • 68% Excel or Google Sheets
  • 26% Repurposed general tool (Notion, Trello…)
  • 5% Dedicated FM software

1 dot = 1%

Desk with documents and a screen
Steering

71% steer from their inbox and shared folders

Email and spreadsheets are the backbone of steering for nearly seven managers in ten. A quarter repurpose a general-purpose tool, and only 5% have dedicated FM software: tooling has not kept up with the scope of the job.

Chapter 02 / 05

Requests come in through every channel at once.

Through which channels do requests arrive? Several answers allowed.
  • 82%
    By email
  • 74%
    Bumping into each other in the office
  • 63%
    Slack or Teams
  • 42%
    Phone
  • 37%
    Form or dedicated tool

1 dot = 1%

Team talking in the office
Requests

82% of requests arrive by email

Email dominates, but never alone: three managers in four also get requests on the fly in the corridors, and nearly two in three through chat. Every extra channel is a request to retype and track by hand.

Chapter 03 / 05

Reporting takes hours.

How long does it take to produce an annual cost report?
77% more than an hour
  • One to two hours of compiling 53%
  • At least half a day 24%
  • Less than 5 minutes 18%
  • Don't know 5%
Dashboards and charts on a screen
Reporting

77% need more than an hour to produce an annual cost report

More than three managers in four spend at least an hour compiling a cost report, and a quarter spend half a day or more. Only 18% get it in minutes: those whose data already lives in one place.

Chapter 04 / 05

Only 5% have experienced none of these situations.

Have you experienced any of these situations? Several answers allowed.
  • 47% An employee chasing their request every other day
  • 37% A provider invoice paid late for lack of a purchase order
  • 32% Broken equipment whose provider nobody knows
  • 29% An unexpected auditor visit with no central history
  • 26% A budget spent without visibility on line items
  • 18% Key information found deep in an email thread

1 dot = 1%

Facility manager at their computer
Situations

95% have experienced at least one of these situations

Almost every manager has lived at least one of these. Top of the list: the employee who follows up because they don't know where their request stands, then the blocked invoice and the equipment whose provider nobody knows.

Chapter 05 / 05

Top frustration: chasing information.

What is your top frustration?
  • I chase information 42%
  • I can't show what I do 21%
  • I react instead of anticipating 18%
  • I spend my time chasing providers 13%
  • My budget goes on unplanned spending 5%

1 dot = 1%

Empty open-plan office at the end of the day
Frustrations

42% "I spend my time chasing information"

For 42% of respondents, the top frustration is neither budget nor providers: it is scattered information. Next come the difficulty of showing the work done and the feeling of reacting instead of anticipating.

Method

How to read these figures

Survey run by Task FM in 2026 among facility services and facility managers.

Questions about steering tools, request channels and situations experienced allowed several answers, so their totals exceed 100%. Questions about reporting time and top frustration allowed only one.

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Damien Dehoul

Founder, Task FM

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