Allison Levin of Cost Control Associates, Inc. will be joining Stephen Cullen of J.C. Penny for a joint presentation on managing utility expense for facilities. The presentation entitled, “Utility Expenses: How to Budget Utility Costs When Uncertainty is Guaranteed,” will take place in Denver, Colorado at the IFMA World Workplace: Your Facility Conference & Expo on October 7-9, 2015.
Allison Levin is the Analysis Team Leader with Cost Control Associates, Inc., providing direct supervision and management to the analysis team and office personnel. In addition she oversees review of energy, telecom and cellular bill analyses and is the project manager for key clients.
“Utility Expenses: How to Budget Utility Costs When Uncertainty is Guaranteed”
Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO
Thursday, October 8 at 4:15 PM
The presentation will address some major pain points, including:
- Recognizing, evaluating, and correcting mistakes to develop accurate starting point for budget creation.
- Identifying, interpreting, and assessing anomalies that may lead to inaccurate budget estimates.
- Determining, creating, and constructing forecast models for usage and price variations.
- Identifying and explaining actual results that vary from budget and predict future performance.
Full Abstract:
On the surface, creating a budget for utility expenses may not seem difficult. Applying a set percentage increase to current expenses may seem good enough. However, this method may make explaining budget variances near impossible. Instead, identifying data anomalies, smoothing cost and usage data, researching anticipated rate changes and considering supply components when creating a budget, will alleviate the uncertainty when those budget variances occur. This presentation will help you identify and avoid some common mistakes companies make when creating a utility budget and will demonstrate how to create a more accurate forecast for your organization. It will also help you establish a baseline that can be used to provide answers to that age-old question – why are we over budget?
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Lisa Miller is marketing and communications manager for Cost Control Associates. She joined Cost Control Associates in 2015, bringing more than 25 years of experience in marketing and corporate communications to her position. Lisa earned her BA from Skidmore College. Learn more.