A spreadsheet that nobody updates
Many programmes begin as a spreadsheet attached to a surveyor’s report. Once the first year’s works are let it is rarely opened again, so the next budget is built on figures that no longer match what was done.
Facilities management
A long-term maintenance programme for a building
A long-term maintenance programme sets out what a building will need over the next ten years or more, element by element, and what each year is likely to cost. In Fidrel it is called the Planned maintenance programme: you start from a UK template for the type of building, enter your own quantities and costs, and see the spend year by year, ready to budget and to price as an estimate.
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Why long-term programmes go out of date
Deferred works disappear
When the roof works slip by two years, their cost has to move with them. In a static table the old figure is simply overwritten, and nobody can later see what was put off, or from which year.
The plan and the year’s budget never meet
The long-term plan and the annual budget are often drawn up by different people at different times, so the planned works and the money for them only meet when the invoices arrive.
Elements, actions and years
A programme covers one building over a number of whole years, from five to sixty. The UK template suggests ten, because landlords and managing agents usually plan ten years ahead, while housing providers often plan thirty. Every action belongs to a building element, from the roof, external walls and windows to lifts, fire safety and external areas, and is a replacement, a repair, a service or an inspection. It has a first year and an interval in years, or happens once if the interval is left empty, and a priority of high, normal or low. A table lists the actions by building element against the years, and a chart shows the cost per year.
A year becomes an estimate
Choose a year and select Make an estimate of that year. Fidrel creates a draft estimate named after the programme and the year, with one line for each action planned or done in it, described by element and action and priced from its quantity and unit cost, or its fixed amount, where you have entered one. In facilities management the estimate can then be approved as the operating budget for the year, and the year’s supplier invoices are followed against it line by line, month by month and by supplier. Once a year has its estimate, the programme opens it directly.
Building a programme in Fidrel
Step 1
Start from the UK template
Enter the property, the year built, the type of building, the start year and the horizon. Fidrel fills in the elements, actions and typical lifespans for that type of building.
Step 2
Enter quantities and costs
For each action give a quantity and a unit cost, or a fixed amount each time, and change first years or intervals wherever your own survey says otherwise.
Step 3
Mark the work as the years pass
Mark each action done with its date and actual cost, defer it to a later year or skip it, so the totals keep matching what really happened to the building.
Step 4
Price the coming year
Make an estimate of the coming year, add the detail the works need, and in facilities management approve it as that year’s operating budget.
What the UK template starts with
The four types of building are residential, commercial, public sector, and industrial and warehousing, each with its own actions and typical lifespans. The residential list, for instance, replaces roof coverings after fifty years, redecorates externally every seven and replaces communal boilers or heat pumps after twenty. Where the year built is known, a replacement falls due once its lifespan has run from that year, or in the programme’s first year if that point has already passed. The template gives no prices, because prices differ by place and year: you enter them.
Done, deferred or skipped
Each action can be marked in each year. Done records the date and the actual cost, which then counts instead of the planned figure. Deferred moves that year’s work to a later year of the programme, where it shows the year it was deferred from and can be deferred again. Skipped takes the work out of the year at no cost. The figures at the top, for the whole programme, the next five years and this year, follow every mark.
Statutory inspections beside the works
When a programme is created, the recurring inspections that the UK template marks as statutory can be included at their intervals, among them the annual gas safety check and the thorough examination of lifts every six months. The next one due is shown at the top of the programme with its year. The statutory list is a starting point from the template, not a statement of what the law requires of your building.
From your Workspace into the building’s project
A programme can be drawn up in your own Workspace before there is a project for the building. Move to a project then copies or moves it, with its actions and everything marked, into the facilities management of a project where you may write, beside the handover records and the asset register. Anyone who may edit a programme can export all of it to Excel, or the years on screen to a PDF with Fidrel’s document head.
What the programme does not do
The programme is not a PPM system: it raises no work orders by itself, dispatches nobody and has no technician app. An action that falls due becomes a fault report only when you choose Create a fault report from the action, and the report names the action and the year. Fidrel does not carry out a condition survey; the years come from the template’s typical lifespans or from your own surveyor, and you enter every cost. Actions in the programme send no reminders; the figures at the top show what falls due this year.
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Facilities management
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usNo. It plans works and their cost over the years. Faults are reported and assigned separately under Fault reports, and nothing in the programme creates jobs by itself; Create a fault report from the action turns a due action into a fault report when you decide it needs one.
From five to sixty years. The UK template suggests ten, the usual horizon for landlords and managing agents; housing providers often choose thirty.
From you. The template gives elements, actions and typical lifespans but no prices. Enter a quantity and a unit cost, or a fixed amount each time, for every action you want costed.
Yes. When the programme is created, the inspections the UK template marks as statutory can be added at their intervals. Check the list with whoever is responsible for the building.
Mark the action deferred and choose a later year. The cost leaves the original year and lands in the new one, and the programme shows the year it was deferred from.
In a project, anyone who can read the whole of facilities management can read it, and members who may write there can change it. A programme in your own Workspace is yours alone.