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Space / Space Chargeback

Space Chargeback: Application Overview

Once you develop a space inventory that outlines your floor areas, the departments that use these areas, and the common areas used by all departments, you can bill departments for the space they use, as well as their proportional share of common area. Determining an organization’s cost for the space it uses is known as chargeback.

An important aspect of charging for space is allocating the common areas in a building—the areas not assigned to particular organizations—to all who use the areas. This ensures that the cost of operating the common areas is covered by the departments that use these areas. For example, if four departments occupy the space on a floor and use the floor's conference room, these departments should share the cost of this conference room. Similarly, if all departments have access to the cafeteria, the cost of the cafeteria should be shared by all departments.

Typically, organizations are charged for their use of common space according to their proportion of overall space. For example, if a particular department occupies 25 percent of the space in the building, the department is responsible for 25 percent of the cost of the cafeteria; if a department occupies 50 percent of the floor, they should pay for 50 percent of the cost of the conference room. The rationale behind dividing common areas according to the proportion of overall space is this: the more space a department occupies, the more employees it has that will use common area; therefore, the more it should pay for the cost of this common area.

The chargeback calculations determine area costs by following these general steps:

Common area is proportionately distributed among the departments on a floor, in a building, or across the facility site according to the area's Prorate field. This determines each department's percentage of facility common area.
Each of the department's assigned areas and its shares of common areas are multiplied by each area's associated Cost Per Area (square foot or square meter).
For each department, the cost of each assigned area and the cost of the common percentage areas are totaled to determine a department’s financial charge for the total area it uses

In addition to distributing common area in this manner, your facility manager may wish to distribute a floor's remaining area (if it exists) to the departments on the floor, in the building, or in the site. Distributing the cost of remaining area in this manner ensures that all space is billed for.

Before running the chargeback calculations, it is important to verify that rooms are correctly tagged with division and departments or as common areas, and have a room category. Additionally, you must complete the Cost per Area field.

Space SaaS Module

If you are working with the Space module, you have one chargeback method available, the Standard Space Chargeback (Non-Transactional Method)

Archibus non-SaaS: Space Chargeback Application

The exact tasks of the Space Chargeback application depend upon whether you have access to the transactional space management features. For information, see Transactional vs. Non-Transactional Methods.

With either method, you must first develop a space inventory with the Space Inventory application before you can charge back for space.

Workspace Transaction Method

If you are using the workspace transaction-enabled method, you have two processes for working with chargeback:

The Space Chargeback process provides all the tasks for defining area costs, finding inconsistencies with your data, and running the space chargeback routines, and examining basic chargeback reports.
The Department Manager process provides reports frequently required by a department manager reviewing their chargeback amounts.

Non-Transactional Methods

For those users who are not using the workspace transaction features, the Space Chargeback application offers: