2021 Budget Planning Guide for Facility Administrators
The coronavirus health crisis threw everyone for a loop in 2020 but now that the calendar has flipped to 2021, hope for a return to some version of normal during the year is blossoming. Along with this hope comes the reality that facility operators like school districts must review budgets and look for places to economize. So once again, the challenge to “do more with less” is likely to be one of the themes of 2021 planning meetings.
Save money by reviewing your “tech-stack” and eliminating licensing fees
For facilities, maintenance and IT departments, budgets for facility use and management are front and center. One way to easily cut costs is by eliminating unnecessary software licensing fees. Examining your “tech stack” should be a regular practice to help determine which software applications or services are of value and which could be phased out.
Switching to Facilitron can help eliminate a whole set of platform licensing fees:
- Facility scheduling and reservation management software
- Work orders software
- Scheduled or preventive maintenance software
- Asset management software
- Building automation software
- Attendance registration or contact tracing technology
Facilitron’s unique nothing out-of-pocket model allows your community rental program to fund the software and services required to manage schedules, facility requests, work orders, scheduled or preventive work orders, assets and more. Take those licensing fees you previously paid and allocate them to another budget or remove them completely. That’s real savings.
Additional benefits through time savings and increased revenues
In addition to eliminating licensing fees, a partnership with Facilitron can reduce many of the costs of managing facilities by shifting support burdens of the community rental program to Facilitron and its account and customer support teams. These teams become an extension of your staff by answering questions from the community, verifying insurance and renter organization status (non-profit), and handling all invoicing, payment collections and refunds—saving valuable administrative time.
Ultimately, a well-run, fully developed facility use program can turn facility use from a cost burden into a revenue generator. A Facilitron partnership gets you there by providing the system and processes needed to collect and analyze facility use data, set goals and then work together to achieve them—turning your operations department into a data-driven, fiscally responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.
How much does it cost to run your facilities?
One of the most difficult issues an operations department must face is determining the cost of operating facilities and setting fee schedules that reflect actual costs. Facilitron’s cost analysis—which comes with every partnership—uses real data from your program to reveal actual facility costs helping you (and your board) identify gaps between costs and revenues recovered from your community program.
A cost analysis uses actual data from your facility use to give you actionable information including:
- Cost per Hour to Operate Each Facility Type
- Cost-Gap Analysis for Each Facility
- Utilization and Cost by Community User Group
- Utilization and Cost by Internal User
Cost savings can often be realized from internal use too. Understanding the number of hours used in each facility for your own programs (boys and girls athletics, after-school programs, etc) can lead to a veritable plethora of ways to economize simply by adjusting internal use protocols.
With over 4000 schools and close to 6-billion square feet of facility space on the platform, Facilitron has worked with districts across the country to reduce costs and increase revenue for operations departments with no direct costs. Contact us to learn more about the Facilitron platform.
Learn More in these related articles:
School Facility Management Software
Maintenance Management Software
Facilitron’s Real-Data Cost Analysis
To learn more about becoming a Facilitron partner, contact us at partnerships@facilitron.com or sign up for one of our platform demos today.