Ask most facility managers what their greatest challenges are on the job and we can bet that almost all of them will mention budgeting. That leads to the obvious question: Why is budgeting so tricky for facility managers? Although facility management budgeting can often seem like an insurmountable task, it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few of our best facilities management budget planning tips:
1. Visibility is Key
Do you really understand what your major costs are? Creating a budget that works is almost impossible without understanding the various categories of costs that tend to have the most impact on your facility. Typically, these costs can be grouped as:
Fixed costs
These refer to costs that occur regularly every year and you already have a sum attached to them. They are usually the easiest cost items to plan for. For example, cleaning services or particular spare parts that a vendor supplies you.
Unexpected costs
Unforeseen costs are unavoidable and they are one of the factors that usually constitute the most hassle for facility managers. One way to try and “predict” unforeseen costs is to refer to historic data from maintenance records in your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
2. Combine Strategic and Tactical Planning
Try to align your facility’s budgeting goals with organization-wide business objectives. Creating an FM budget without considering the direction that your company as a whole is headed will lead to frustration and a budget that does not get the buy-in of the C-suite.
What to do instead?
Observe the trends and note what your company intends to prioritize each year. For instance, will there be some major renovation or safety-related projects this year? If so, major expenses that you propose as part of your budget will have a better chance of approval if they are closely related to renovation or safety. This may not be the best time to request funds for a major landscaping project!
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you will neglect your routine operational budget planning, which takes us to the next point.
3. Maintenance Remains On-Schedule
As always, we can’t overemphasize the importance of budget planning to keep your facility in optimum shape.
A common mistake that we see facility managers make is to relegate routine maintenance, servicing, and repairs to the backburner in order to save money. Unfortunately, this never goes well. It’s a terrible mistake because not only are you compromising on safety, you may end up with an uncontrollable backlog of deferred maintenance.
Instead, year after year, ensure that preventive maintenance and repairs remain at the front and center of your facilities management budget planning.
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Facilities management budget planning is never easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to create a budget that works. At Axxerion, we have carefully built different kinds of maintenance software that will help you ease out your budgeting struggles; from CMMS to IWMS, each one comes with powerful financial reporting features that can help you stay on top of all your FM budgeting needs.
Why not contact us right now and schedule a demo? The Axxerion team is waiting to guide you through the process and answer any questions you might have.
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