Real Property / Forecasting / Portfolio Forecasting
Area Fields for Portfolio Forecasting
The Portfolio Forecasting application enables you to import floor areas based on your CAD inventory if one exists, or based on a manual area when there is no CAD inventory. CAD areas can be based on groups or room inventories. Once you import these areas into the Portfolio Forecasting application, they are treated as group allocation events that you can adjust to create different scenarios for space allocation.
If you have leased areas, when you use the Add Building action, the application creates lease information records. In this case, the available space is determined by the sum of the suites for the floor, rather than the floor area
Floor areas are the basis for:
- Calculating the area of a group allocation based on the % of Floor field.
- Computing the Available space on a floor when rendering the Stack Chart.
- Computing the Floor Available Area when rendering the Space Gap Analysis Chart.
Note: If the Usable Area is available and computed from the Space Inventory, the system will not use the Manual Area. If the floor’s Usable Area is 0, the system will always use the floor’s Manual Area.
The following information describes the floor, suite, and group areas you can work with.
Floor Manual Area or Floor Usable Area from a Room Inventory
If you have a room inventory or a room list developed in CAD, these areas are imported into the forecast when you import the building having the rooms into the scenario. The Departments and Employees in those departments are given allocation groups in the scenario based upon the floors on which they are located .
The Portfolio Forecasting application uses the Usable Area (fl.area_usable) for a CAD inventory. If the rooms are not drawn in CAD, then the Floor Manual Area is used. Once these areas are imported into the forecast, they are referred to as group allocation events that you can adjust to reflect your planning.
Note: Run the Update Area Totals before beginning. The Floor Usable Area (fl.area_usable) is updated when you run the Update Area Totals workflow rule. You can do this from the Space / Space Inventory / Room Inventory / Update Area Totals view. If you have not recently run this workflow rule, you should do so before working with portfolio forecasts based on CAD-derived room inventories. This ensures that the most up-to-date usable room and floor areas are used.
- The Floor Usable Area is computed from data that originates in CAD as part of developing the Space Inventory. It identifies the area of a floor that is directly available for occupancy. It excludes vertical penetration spaces such as stairs and elevators, and also service spaces such as lobbies, toilets, and building electrical, mechanical, and telecom closets.
- The Floor Manual Area provides a field for manually entering the usable area of a floor if the Space Inventory does not include a CAD area.
Group Areas
If you have a group inventory, you can copy it into the scenario using the Copy from Group Inventory action. The group inventory you copy can be based on either the CAD-derived group Area (gp.area) or the manually entered Manual Area (gp.area_manual.)
When you import these group areas into the forecast, the application creates allocation groups. The values for the allocations are based on the Group Areas you have polylined and that are then summed for floors. The group Area (CAD-derived area), if it exists, is copied to the group Area field for the allocation, and the group's Manual area, if it exists, is copied to the Manual Area for the allocation. Allocation groups derived from CAD group areas developed in the Space Inventory application are the only allocation groups that have a CAD area. These areas are imported using the Copy from Group Inventory action from the Define Portfolio Scenarios view. See Copying your group inventory to a scenario.
For more detail about entering groups in CAD and integrating them with Portfolio Forecasting see Starting in CAD.
Suite Area used to calculate available floor area
Available floor area can be based on suites for leased spaces. When suites exist for a floor, the Available Space in the Space Gap Analysis Chart and the Stack Chart are based on suite area summed for the floor. If a floor has a suite associated with it, it is assumed to be leased space available for the duration of the lease.
When you use the Add Building action, and the building's floors have associated leases, the application creates Lease Information records that are shown in the Allocation Events tab. These records show the lease Date Start and Date End. You can adjust the Date End to test how extending or terminating a lease affects space availability.
- If a floor has associated suite areas, then the sum of all Suite Areas for the floor is used instead of the Floor Usable or Manual Area. The suite's Area - Usable (derived from CAD) is used if it exists. If the Area - Usable Area is 0, then the Suite Area - Manual Entry is used. The application uses this total to determine if the floor is over-allocated.
- You can view the total Area - Usable or the total Suite Area - Manual Entry for leased space from the Leased Suites tab of the Floor Details form. To access the Floor Details form, from the Allocation Events tab, click the Details button for the floor in the Locations pane. See Reviewing floor areas used for the allocation.
- If the lease associated with a suite on a floor is expired, then the Floor area is computed as zero. In this way, the lease information is used to determine whether a leased floor has available floor area for the time period being considered in the forecast.
Manual Area used in the Portfolio Forecasting Wizard
When you run the Add Building action, the application automatically creates group allocation events based on the floor area for the location you are adding. When you add the building to the scenario, although a measured area, if it exists, is used to get the floor area value (the sum of the rm.area), the Manual Area (gp.area_manual) field is populated when the application creates the allocation groups.
When you run the Copy from Group Inventory action, the application also creates allocation events based on the group areas. The CAD-derived group area is used if it exists; if not, the manually entered area for the group is used. If the CAD-derived area is used, the group allocation is entered as a CAD Area, not as a Manual Area. This is the only time that the allocation will have a CAD value for its area.
When you add an allocation event manually, the area for the allocation is always entered as a manual area. You can enter the Manual Area directly, or you can have the system calculate the Manual Area based on a % of Floor or Employee Headcount. When the application calculates the % of Floor, it uses the CAD-derived floor area when it exists, or the manual area if it does not. The system calculates the allocations based on the group or room areas depending on what area has been developed for the floor. So, although the allocated area is entered as a Manual Area, it can be derived from the floor's CAD-based measured area.
To enter the manual area you can:
- Directly enter it in the Manual Area field of the Edit Allocation Event form accessed from the Allocation Events tab of the Portfolio Forecast Wizard.
- Specify the % of Floor field when Editing a Group or Splitting a Floor. When you do this, the program computes the group allocation event's Manual Area based on the Floor Area. The CAD area is used if it is available. Otherwise, the Floor Manual Area is used. See Adding Allocation Events.
- Specify the number of employees in the group and let the program calculate the Manual Area based on a set average area per employee stored in the ab-alloc-list-group.axvw file. See Employee Headcount.