Cost Analysis
Understand cost-per-hour for any facility with Facilitron's real-data cost analysis.
One of the most critical and fundamental data points public facility owners need to harness is the cost to operate.
Overall cost, and at a more granular level, cost per hour to operate each type of facility, is at the very heart of making operational decisions and the baseline for any discussion about policies for recovering costs when outside organizations utilize public buildings and grounds.
Facilitron provides a comprehensive cost analysis for every partner at no cost.
Cost Analysis Key Points
- Pairing utilization data with financial expense and square footage data provides facility owners an accurate cost per hour to operate various buildings and grounds.
- Cost or expense data includes operational expenses, program costs and capital costs.
- Cost analyses provide a real-data baseline from which to base operational decisions and policies for recovering costs from outside groups.
Using Cost Analysis and Utilization Data to Make Decisions on Policy
Public space owners such as schools and colleges use cost analyses and critical data collected by the Facilitron platform as a baseline for setting fee schedules and as a basis for discussions and decisions about facility use processes and policies.
A cost analysis answers questions like:
- What are the actual costs of operating our facilities?
- Are rate schedules for community organizations using facilities allowing us to recover the actual costs of operating these facilities or are we unintentionally subsidizing community groups?
- Do the costs of using facilities internally need to be made more efficient?
- Does the district or facility owner receive a benefit equal to the costs incurred from any joint use agreements or MOUs?
- Do we expect wear-and-tear issues such as turf field or gym floor life to meet expectations given the pace of utilization?
- Are we documenting that we provide equal access to our facilities for both boys and girls teams (Title IX)?
- Are we charging community organizations consistently across all facilities?
A Facilitron Cost Analysis allows facility owners to determine the delta between actual costs and the amounts recovered, leading to a better operational understanding.
Why We Call it a 'Real-Data Cost Analysis'
The Facilitron platform and partnership allows facility owners to automate the tracking of facility utilization data. Only by using actual utilization data can facility owners arrive at accurate costs per hour to operate. Commissioning expensive third-party justification studies on operational costs without actual utilization data relies on estimates, and can lead to incorrect assumptions about costs. Facilitron’s cost analysis is calculated with “real-data” and provided periodically through the life of every partnership at no cost.
A Cost-Gap Analysis for Each Facility
Once your first real-data cost analysis has been conducted, Facilitron automatically adds the results to your account giving you a cost-gap comparison for each facility type allowing insight into fees recovered versus direct costs incurred. Filtered and sorted in a variety of ways, this insight allows administrators to dive into the successes and remaining challenges of their cost recovery program.
Utilization and Cost by Community User Group
Pairing the utilization data of community organizations (renters) with cost-per-hour to operate allows you to view cost recovery by community user group. This data, which is customizable for any date range, allows facility owners to visualize the cost-gaps of individual organizations. This can tell you in dollars to what degree individual groups are being subsidized and can help determine if user groups of the same type are being treated equally.
Utilization and Cost by Internal User
For public space owners like school districts where a majority of facility use is internal, this valuable aggregation of data can help provide insight on facility use across district schools. This can help with planning facility maintenance and replacement projects and with providing insight on whether certain schools are over-utilizing facilities—leading to higher costs.
Cost Analysis: Categorization of Costs
Calculating the cost to operate facilities requires utilization data from the Facilitron platform and costs from these three expense categories:
Operating Cost
- Utilities
- Maintenance & Operations Salaries & Benefits
- Custodial Salaries & Benefits
- Campus Security Costs
- Supplies & Equipment
- Specialized Building Management Cost (theater, pool, kitchen, etc.)
Program Cost
- Facility Use Management System Costs (Facilitron service fees, if absorbed as a commission)
- Admin & Secretarial Salaries & Benefits
Capital Cost
- Annual Replacement & Construction Cost for a Facility
- Building Construction Cost
- Depreciation Schedule for a Facility
Using the cost analysis to review and update policies
A review of the cost analysis results can help public space owners review and address policies that are ineffective or that result in inadequate recovery of costs associated with facility use. These policies include:
01
Joint Use Agreements & MOUs
Review long standing joint use agreements and memorandums of understanding using the cost analysis to evaluate whether adjustments need to be made, especially as a result of changes required for COVID-19 safety protocols.
02
In-Kind Services and Contracts
While in-kind services can be necessary in achieving certain organizational goals, it is critical that these contracts cover liability and ensure a balance between direct costs and services.
03
Fee and Rate Group Updates
Update facility use fees based on actual cost and review which rates are assigned to which rate groups.
04
Payment and Insurance Policies
Check to see if insurance requirements will change for facility use and firm up district policies on payments using key performance indicators from Facilitron’s Executive Reports.
05
Create Strong Change and Cancellation Policies
Update or establish policies to ensure that the district does not get saddled with the cost of cancellations or last minute changes.
06
Facility Approval Rate and Process Improvements
Facilitron data can be used to inform process and procedure changes to maximize revenue and improve the experience and engagement of the community.
We Empower Facility Owners to be Data-Driven
At Facilitron, we believe developing a successful and sustainable facility use program requires developing effective policies and processes so that decisions on facility use are governed by these policies and not merely on exceptions to policy. Evaluating and monitoring whether these policies are effective depends on a system, actual data, and an understanding of how to use the insights provided by the data to ensure fiscal responsibility and to reach the financial goals of the district.
Learn why thousands of schools and facility owners have chosen Facilitron for their facility management and event scheduling platform.