Glossary
Facilities Manager Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential facilities manager terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key facilities manager vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in facilities manager training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- ADA compliance
- Accessibility rules.
- BAS
- Building automation system.
- Capital plan
- Long-term spending on big items.
- CMMS
- Maintenance management software.
- Deferred maintenance
- Postponed repairs.
- Energy audit
- Review of energy use.
- Facility condition index
- Measure of building condition.
- Fire code
- Fire safety rules.
- HVAC
- Heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
- Life cycle cost
- Total cost over time.
- Preventive maintenance
- Scheduled upkeep.
- Service contract
- Ongoing vendor agreement.
- Space utilization
- How well space is used.
- Tenant improvement
- Changes to a space.
- Work order
- Request for repair.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Facilities Manager practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Facilities Manager training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.