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 than ever. This is especially true as the cost of living, services and labour continue to rise due to changes in the global economic climate. In February 2022 alone, two thirds of adults  in Britain reported that the cost of living had increased significantly since Christmas. In addition, 79% cited higher gas and electricity bills, alongside a 12%+ increase in fuel prices across the country, as the main causes of increased expenditure costs.

So, if you’re an Office Manager, Facilities Manager or Property Manager feeling increased pressure when it comes to getting your budget forecasting right, you’re not alone. Whilst there’s no denying that accurate budget planning requires research and data collection, it doesn’t have to keep you up at night.

To help ease some of the stress of this mammoth task and 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. Use it as a reference to ensure you’re considering all aspects of your organisation’s budget, without having to spend hours 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. This results in lacklustre facilities. In turn, this can lead to much larger capital expenditure over time, increased equipment failure rates, a poor reputation, and an increased risk of injury due to poor conditions.

Failure to attend to maintenance needs can result in higher repair costs than the original maintenance cost would have been. A typical example would be a £200 heater turning into a £2,000 replacement due to neglecting 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. 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 and 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 that 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 years.

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 a 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 is important. 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, labour rates should always be considered. Remember, the cost of living is rising.

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