Real Property / Forecasting / Background Data

Background Data

From the Real Property / Forecasting / Background Data process, you can

• Add and update Sites, Buildings, and Floors so that you can include these in your forecast.
• Define Organizations so that you can associate allocation events with your organizational units (divisions, departments, or business units).
• Add Cost Categories so that these categories are available when you enter recurring costs for cost forecasting.

Define Sites, Buildings and Floors

1. Select the Forecasting / Background Date / Define Locations task.
2. If you are adding a floor, from the drill-down selection list, select the building for which you are adding a new floor.
3. Click Add New and, from the submenu, select Site, Building, or Floor to enter data for a new site, building, or floor.
4. Enter data and click Save. For detailed information on the data entered, see Developing the Space Hierarchy. This topic describes the task from the Space domain, but the data entered is the same.

To update data on an existing site, building, or floor, select it from the drill-down selection list. The form to edit the information for the selected item appears.

Define your Organization

The Archibus organizational hierarchy contains Business Units, Divisions, and Departments. An organization is often divided into business units, which are composed of divisions. Divisions, in turn, are composed of departments. However, not all organizations use this three-level hierarchy, and instead might have just departments and divisions.

The Divisions table holds information about the divisions in your company and is necessary for assigning groups to departments and divisions, as all departments must exist within divisions. A group's division and department assignment are the basis for Portfolio Forecasting and Cost Forecasting Department and Building Analysis reports.

Note: Develop data from the top of the hierarchy: start with Business Units first, then Divisions, and finally Departments. That way, when you add a lower-level item, such as divisions and departments, the higher level item it is associated with will be available in the selection list.

To define your organizational data for Portfolio Forecasting:

1. Select Forecasting / Background Data / Define Organizations task.

   The drill-down selection list shows your divisions and departments organized by Business Unit. If you do not track by business unit , select No Business Unit to see divisions and departments without a business unit assignment.

2. If you are adding a department, select the division for the department from the drill-down selection list.
3. Click Add New, and select to a add a new Business Unit, Division or Department.
4. Enter data and click Save. For detailed information on the data entered, see Developing the Organizational Hierarchy. This topic describes the task from the Space Inventory application, but the data entered is the same.

Define Cost Categories

When you add recurring costs for buildings, cost category is a mandatory field. The Background Data / Define Cost Categories task enables you to add new Cost Categories and edit existing ones.

See About Cost Categories

To add a new cost category:

1. Select Forecasting / Background Data // Define Cost Categories task.
2. In the Cost Categories selection list, click Add New.
3. In the Cost Categories section on the right, complete the following required field:

   Cost Category -- Enter a unique value to identify the cost category, such as: BUILDING - MAINTENANCE, RENT - BASE RENT, TAX - PROPERTY TAX, TAX - SCHOOL TAX, UTILITY - ELECTRIC.

4. Enter the following recommended fields:

   Cost Type -- Select a value from the drop-down list. The Cost Type identifies cost categories with specific types. You can search for costs by type. See Cost Type for more information.

   Cost Class -- Click the ellipsis, and select a Cost Class from the list.

5. In the Chargeback Definitions section, select the Assigned To - Rolls Up To - Prorates To value for the cost.
6. Click Save.