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Operational Cost Tracker

Updated

Operational Cost Tracker is a tool designed to monitor and manage the expenses associated with the day-to-day operations of your organization. 

  • Available for Work Order and Asset Management Premium and Ultimate subscription levels

 

Here are some key features associated with an Operational Cost Tracker:

Expense Tracking:

  • Operational Cost Tracker helps you record and categorize all operational expenses, allowing your organization to maintain a detailed record of costs. This information can be used to analyze spending patterns and identify areas where costs can be reduced.

Cost Analysis:

  • By aggregating and organizing expense data, Operational Cost Tracker enables your organization to analyze costs across various types. This analysis helps in understanding the distribution of expenses and identifying cost drivers.

Budget Management:

  • Operational Cost Tracker helps in setting and managing budgets for different  activities. It provides real-time visibility into actual expenses, allowing your organization to make adjustments and take proactive measures to control costs.

Cost Optimization:

  • With the insights gained from Operational Cost Tracker, organizations can identify inefficiencies, eliminate wasteful spending, and optimize operational costs. It enables them to make data-driven decisions to improve resource allocation and streamline processes.

Reporting and Visualization:

  • Operational Cost Tracker provides Views and a Summary to present expense data in a clear and meaningful way. Graphs, charts, and customizable reports help stakeholders understand cost trends, patterns, and areas of concern.

 

 

Go to Modules, then click Operational Cost Tracker

Once you are on the Operation Cost Tracker page, you will see the following options on the left navigation bar:

  1. Cost Data:  This is the page you are on and displays each Cost Type that you add and its associated data that you upload (with the template provided on the page)
  2. Settings:  This is the area of adjustments to this feature
    A.  Cost Types:  These are the kinds of costs you can track (i.e. Electricity, Water, Gas, etc.)
    B.  Sources:  The name of the company or meter number for the cost you are tracking, such as Atmos Gas, Greenworks Water, Rhino Trash...
    C.  Users:  This page is where you can manage the users of this feature
  3. My Profile:  This is the page you can manage your own profile settings and preferences

You will also see your Cost Data displayed on this page as follows:

  1. All Cost Types are displayed here and you can add by clicking the plus sign (+)
  2. Set your Time Range to display your Cost Type (default is for the past 12 months)
  3. Set your Location
  4. Filter by Usage, Demand or Other Costs
  5. Choose to aggregate selected Locations
  6. Choose to include previous period when displaying your costs
  7. Create a View that you can share internally and/or as a public (non-editable) link
  8. Choose a Saved View
  9. Add New Data for a selected Cost Type (i.e. add an individual Electric bill)
  10. Click Export to first export the template needed from eSPACE in order to add your data to so then you can upload it. Once added, then you can export the current data on that tab.
  11. Click Import to upload the completed template that you previously downloaded and filled out with your specific information from step 10.

 

Exporting The Excel Template

1. To add a new Cost Type to track click the plus sign.

2. Once the new Cost Data tab is created, click the "Export" option near the bottom.

 

3. In the pop-up box, fill in the "Name of Monthly Operational Cost", "Unit of Measure", and "Unit of Measure Abbreviation".

  • You can also decide to add additional columns to the Excel template (part D. in the screenshot).

 

4. The Excel template will export with columns based on what fields were chosen & how they were labeled in the pop-up box. Read more below to learn how to fill out the excel template before uploading.

 

Filling Out the Excel Template

  • Columns to Fill Out
    • When you fill out the exported template, you need to fill out the Electricity, Cost, Month, Year, Location, and Source columns (and Demand and Other if you add those to your OCT Cost Data tab).
  • Column to NOT fill Out
    • Don't fill in "Cost Per Sq Ft" or "Yearly Avg Cost Per Sq Ft" because those will be calculated by eSPACE once you upload the spreadsheet.
  • How to Fill Out
    • Spell out the name of each month.
    • Fill in the Location column with the exact spelling of your location under Settings/Locations in Event Scheduler/Work Order & Asset Management.
    • You do not need to round all values up or down to whole numbers, but you can if you want to.
    • Do not add or delete any columns
      • If you need the demand or "Other Cost" columns, make sure that you selected those to be included when you initially created the tab on Cost Data. If you need to add them, then go to Settings > Cost Types and edit the tab so that those are included and then go back and export the template.
    • Do not rename any column headers.
    • The Source column should be the company name of the cost that you are trying to track (Atmos Gas, Greenworks Water, Rhino Trash Company...)

Below is an example of an Excel template that is correctly filled out.

2023-10-13_13-03-08.png

 

 

Importing the Template

When you click to Import, you will see the following prompt:

 

After you have entered your data into a file, selected it and imported, you will see the following message in pop up in the top right:

Now you can explore your newly imported data:

OCT

 

Date Range

The months of date that you will see will be based on the date range that is chosen in the top left field along with the months of data that we uploaded on the Excel.

 

Filtering by Location

If you have more than one location entered under Settings > Basic > Locations then once you upload an Excel that includes multiple locations you will be able to filter the months of data by location. 

 

Create & View Saved Views

After you upload an Excel with data you can also create different filtered views and save them. This is especially helpful when a Cost Data tab has multiple locations and you need to quickly look at specific filtered date ranges for different locations. After you save a view, then later when you return to that same Cost Data tab you can click "Saved Views" and choose one of your saved views to quickly reload those filters.

 

 

 

 

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