What is COBie and why does it matter at handover?
COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) is a standardised spreadsheet format for capturing asset and handover data across 16 defined sheets — covering spaces, equipment, components, warranties and spare parts. It gives facilities management teams a structured record of what was built and how to maintain it.
COBie is an open data standard published by buildingSMART that defines a structured format for transferring asset information from the construction team to the building owner or facilities manager at project handover.
The format is organised across 16 sheets, each covering a category of information:
- Facility, Floor, Space — the hierarchy of the building
- Component and Type — individual installed assets and their type classifications
- System — how components are grouped into building systems (HVAC, electrical, fire protection)
- Document — references to O&M manuals, warranties and test certificates
- Spare — spare parts recommended by the manufacturer
- Job and Resource — maintenance tasks and the resources required
- Issue — known defects or issues at handover
COBie matters because facilities management teams need structured data to run CAFM (computer-aided facilities management) systems. Without it, they receive a pile of PDFs and must re-enter asset data manually — a slow, error-prone and expensive process.
In practice, COBie data is either populated during construction (the preferred BIM approach, where the authoring tool exports COBie from the model) or compiled retrospectively from as-built drawings and O&M manuals.
Bildstak reads COBie data and links each component to its IFC element by GlobalID, making the asset record queryable alongside the as-built model. It can also score COBie completeness, identifying which required fields are missing before the handover deadline.
Updated 2026-06-19