As the financial year draws to a close, there’s no better time to establish your business’s total facilities budgeting needs for the year ahead.
Whilst deciphering your budget may be complex and tedious, getting your budget right is more important now than ever before, especially as the cost of living, services and labour are on the rise due to change in the global economic climate. In February 2022 alone, two thirds of adults in Britain reported that the cost of living has increased significantly since Christmas and, 79% cited that higher gas and electricity bills alongside a 12%+ increase in fuel prices across the country, are the main causes of increased expenditure cost.
So, if you’re an Office Manager, Facilities Manager or Property Manager feeling like there’s an increased amount of pressure when it comes to getting your budget forecasting spot on, you’re not alone. Whilst there’s no denying that planning your budget accurately is a task that requires research, data collection and what can seem like an infinite amount of planning, it doesn’t have to keep you up at night.
To help ease some of the stress of this mammoth task and to ensure your time is focused on the day to day management of your property, BASSE Solutions has put together this snapshot total facilities budgeting guide for your reference to ensure you’re considering all aspects of your organisation’s budget without having to put in hours of work planning it all from scratch.
Failing to prepare
As the famous saying goes, failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
By investing an incorrect amount into your annual building/facilities maintenance budget, you may find yourself having to defer planned and reactive maintenance, resulting in lacklustre facilities. In turn, this can lead to much larger capital expenditure over time, increased failure rates of equipment, a poor reputation, and increased risk of injury because of poor conditions.
Failure to attend to maintenance needs can result in an overall increased cost of repair than the original maintenance cost would have been. A typical example would be, a £200 heater repair turning into a £2,000 replacement due to a negligence to address the initial repair.
Considering all costs and possibilities
First of all, you need to understand the full extent of your assets and their service requirements. From this, you can begin to establish fixed costs, one-off/seasonal costs, unexpected costs and longer term replacement costs.
Whilst you should be familiar with budgets and finances from previous years, we don’t recommend relying on this information completely and avoid building future budgets based solely on last year’s costs. Budget building should take time and is an ongoing task that we’re always on hand to help with.
By regularly checking asset conditions, service specifications, industry standards, regulations and validating existing maintenance (against manufacturers guidance) throughout the year, you can begin to better understand your short term and long-term costs. This means when you sit down to write your budget for the following year, it’ll be a lot easier due to your ongoing collated documentation from previous. In addition, you won’t find yourself in a situation where the new budget deadline is approaching and you end up relying on and copying last year’s budget due to lack of preparation. By being organised and consistent throughout the year, you may even get to the point where you’re mapping out your budget years in advance and only having to factor in minor variations each year as demands change.
Other things both Commercial and Residential Office and Facility Managers need to consider when planning your budget include:
Labour
Hiring and paying labourers and staying up to date with typical industry salaries. This kind of information can fluctuate depending on location. Or, perhaps you have a partnership in place with a company to support your maintenance and repair needs? If so, their rates of labour should always be considered. Remember the cost of living is rising.
Materials
Ask yourself if budget will need to be allocated for special equipment or materials to service contracts. In the previous year, did your property exceed industry standards in terms of the specialised equipment used?
Keeping an eye on trends
Keep ahead of the game and stay up to date with building/workplace/facility management trends, including technology improvements and efficiency upgrades (e.g. upgrading to LED lights) and integrate these potential changes within your budget. Not everything has to come down to major capital projects. A little bit each year can be as effective and certainly help towards long term cost savings.
Also, a lot of consideration is being needed to create safer and healthier environments for our staff to work in. Have you considered the overall impact on operational costs and factored these into your budget?
Refining
Consider ways to decrease maintenance and overhead costs. Break it down by segments and look at the costs of running each part of your facility. Are you over budget somewhere and under budget elsewhere? Can this be transferred out? Is there a more cost and energy efficient solution to your property’s current situation? Is your current ongoing cost more expensive than the newer, more efficient solution? One of the benefits of outsourcing to a single supplier, such as BASSE Solutions, is having the support and guidance from industry specialists across all services. We can review and help you create the most efficient budget, considering all aspects of the facility.
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How we can help plan your budget
We understand how crucial of a task total facilities budgeting is for a Manager. We also know that it’s impossible to budget unless you understand your assets.
BASSE Solutions can analyse your buildings assets and help you, as a Facility Manager, determine what you need to consider in the long term and short term regarding your property.
This analysis would include surveys, reports and an examination of the type of building and the nature of maintenance work being carried out, and also a review of the routine maintenance and what is needed to keep the building functional.
“BASSE Solutions can work alongside you to help you better understand what the industry maintenance practices are, what your statutory maintenance is and what other aspects you should be on top of to ensure you maintain function of your building.”
– BASSE Solutions Management Team
Avoid the situation of finding yourself under budget or having to defer maintenance at the detriment of your property. With over 70 years’ experience in the property maintenance industry, BASSE Solutions has the knowledge and expertise to assist you with the planning of your annual total facilities services and budgeting, contact us today to get started.
