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Space / Space Chargeback / Shared Workplace Chargeback (Non-Transactional)

Defining Cost per Area and Remaining Area Prorate

Before you can charge departments for the space that they use and their proportional share of common area and remaining area, you must complete additional fields in the space inventory tables.

Cost per Area Fields

In order to charge departments for the space that they occupy, you must specify the cost of one unit of area. Use the Cost per Area field to record the cost of 1 square meter or 1 square foot of area.

Typically, an accountant in your organization will determine the cost of one square foot of area and provide you with this figure. This cost figure can be derived from a combination of the cost of rent, construction, maintenance, building insurance, and other factors.

You can enter cost per area for any combination of the below entities. If cost per area has been defined for multiple levels, the calculation routine uses the mot precise value for each area. For example, suppose you want to carefully track the cost of rooms of the LAB category because these rooms are more expensive to furnish and operate, You can enter a cost for this room category and then enter the cost per area of the entire building. When the chargeback routine comes to a room of the LAB category, it will use the defined cost per area for the LAB category to calculate the room's cost; for rooms that are not LABs, the routine will use the defined cost per area for the building.

Your site's particular operating costs will determine the level to which you define costs. For example, if costs do not vary between rooms or floors, simply enter a cost for the entire building. If only a few floors or categories of rooms have varying costs, enter these costs for these areas and have the system use the building or floor cost for all other areas. If each room has a different cost and you want your chargeback to reflect this, enter a cost per area of each room.

The order in which the system looks for a Cost per Area value is:

Field Description
Room This is the most precise level at which you can associate cost per area. Typically, you will need to enter the cost per area only for rooms that differ from the cost of their room category. The department using this room will be assessed the true cost of operating it.
Room Category The categories of rooms in your facility may have different costs for maintenance, construction, ventilation, or security. By setting cost per area at the room category level, you can apply this cost to all rooms of this category.
Floor Often, different floors in the building have different costs per area. For example, a penthouse-style floor at the top of a building may have a higher cost than the other floors in the building. Similarly, a basement floor may have a lower cost per area. For each floor, you can enter a cost per area value.
Building Minimally, you should enter a cost for the building. If values are not defined for rooms, room categories, or floors, the system will use the building cost.

Note: If your space inventory includes groups, you will want to complete cost for the building or floor, since the cost for room categories and room types do not apply to groups.

To set the cost for a building or floor:

  1. Load the one of these tasks:
  1. Click on a building, and the system displays it in the right pane.
  2. Complete the Cost per Area field with the cost of one square foot or meter in this building.
  3. To specify cost for individual floors, drill down through the buildings list to display a floor in the right pane.
  4. Complete the Cost per Area field with the cost of one square foot or meter on this floor.
  5. Repeat for as many floors as necessary. Floors without a value will be charged the value specified for the building.
  6. Save your changes.

To set the cost for a room category:

  1. Load one of the following tasks:
  1. Click on a room category, and the system displays it in the right pane.
  2. Complete the Cost per Area field with the cost of one square foot or meter of rooms of this category.
  3. Repeat for as many room categories as necessary. Rooms without a value for their room category will be charged the value specified for the building or floor.
  4. Save your changes.

To set the cost for a room:

  1. Load the Define Cost per Area for Category and Room task from one of these locations:
  1. Click on a room category, and drill down through the rooms assigned to this category. The system displays the room in the right pane.
  2. Complete the Cost per Area field with the cost of one square foot or meter for this room.
  3. Repeat for as many rooms as necessary. Rooms without a value will be charged the value specified for the room category, floor, or building.
  4. Save your changes

Remaining Area Prorate Field

In addition to proportionately distributing common areas to departments, the chargeback routines distribute the cost of any remaining area on a floor to departments. In order to distribute a floor's remaining area to all departments on the floor, in the building, or across the entire site, you must specify this level using the Remaining Area Prorate field of the Floors table.

To set this value:

  1. Load the Define Cost per Area for Building and Floor task from the following locations:
    • Archibus SaaS
      • Space / Chargeback / Define Cost per Area for Building and Floor
  2. Drill down through the buildings to select a floor.
  3. In the Floors pane, complete the Remaining Area Prorate field with one of the following values
  1. Save your edits by clicking the Save button in the upper right corner.

See Remaining Area (concept) for more information.