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Real Estate Portfolio Management / Portfolio Forecasting

Background Data

From the Background Data task, you can

• Define Portfolio Scenarios that provide different plans or scenarios to evaluate as part of your forecasting process.
• Copy from Group Inventory to copy groups created in CAD to your Baseline Portfolio Scenario.
• Add and update Sites, Buildings, and Floors so that you can include these in your forecast.
• Define Organizations so that you can associate groups with them.
• Add Cost Categories so that these categories are available when you enter recurring costs.

Define Portfolio Scenarios

Portfolio Forecasting is a planning tool. It is thus essential to be able to develop different plans or scenarios to better evaluate alternatives.

By default, the Portfolio Forecast has one scenario, the Baseline scenario. You can develop data in this default scenario or you can add new scenarios.

You can create new portfolio scenarios in the following ways:

• You can create a new scenario, and then add groups to it using the Allocate Groups tab of the Portfolio Forecast Wizard.
• You can copy an existing scenario with its associated groups into a new scenario that you then modify.

You can copy groups created in CAD to the Baseline Portfolio Scenario. See Copying from Group Inventory to the Baseline Scenario.

To add a scenario:

1. Select Portfolio Forecasting/Background Date/Define Portfolio Scenarios task, and click Add Scenario.
2. Type the name of the new scenario (required) in the Portfolio Scenario field , optionally provide a description, and click Save.

   Use the Portfolio Forecast Wizard/Allocate Groups tab to add groups to the new scenario.

To copy a scenario:

This action will copy a scenario and all its group records into a new scenario.

1. Select the Portfolio Forecasting/Background Date/Define Portfolio Scenarios task, and select the check box for the scenario to be copied.
2. Click Copy Scenario, and type a unique name for the new scenario in the To Portfolio Scenario field.
3. Click Save.

To delete a scenario:

This action will delete the selected scenario and its associated group records.

• Select a scenario, and click Delete Scenario.

Copying from Group Inventory to the Baseline Portfolio Scenario 

Use the Copy from Group Inventory action to copy any groups that you create in CAD using the Group Inventory method to the Baseline scenario of your Portfolio Forecast. See Starting in CAD.

To copy groups from your group inventory:

1. From the Process navigator, select Portfolio Forecasting/Background Data/Define Portfolio Scenarios.
2. Click Copy from Group Inventory.

   The Copy from Group Inventory dialog appears.

3. Select the Date Start and Date End for the groups you are adding to your forecast. To forecast space allocations, groups must be assigned a start and end date.
4. Click Save.

   The program deletes any groups in the Baseline scenario that reference the same building and floor, and copies the new groups to the Baseline scenario. Note that by deleting any groups in the same floor and building the program allows you to overwrite the groups in your forecast with updated groups from the Group Inventory.

Adding and Updating Sites, Buildings and Floors

Note: Although you can add new floors from the Define Locations task, the Portfolio Forecasting/Portfolio Forecast Wizard task also provides an Add and Edit Floor option from the Allocate Groups tab. The advantage of adding and editing floors using the Portfolio Forecast Wizard is that you can specify the Floor Manual Area. See Area Fields for Portfolio Forecasting.

To add sites, buildings, and floors:

1. Select the Portfolio Forecasting/Background Date/Define Locations task.
2. If you are adding a floor, from the drill-down selection list, select the building for which you are adding a new floor.
3. Click Add New and, from the submenu, select Site, Building, or Floor to enter data for a new site, building, or floor.
4. Enter data and click Save. For detailed information on the data entered, see Developing the Space Hierarchy. This topic describes the task from the Space Planning & Management application, but the data entered is the same.

To update data on an existing site, building,or floor, select it from the drill-down selection list. The form to edit the information for the selected item appears.

Defining Your Organization

The ARCHIBUS organizational hierarchy contains Business Units, Divisions, and Departments. An organization is often divided into business units, which are composed of divisions. Divisions, in turn, are composed of departments. However, not all organizations use this three-level hierarchy, and instead might have just departments and divisions.

The Divisions table holds information about the divisions in your company and is necessary for assigning groups to departments and divisions, as all departments must exist within divisions.A group's division and department assignment are the basis for Portfolio Forecasting and Cost Forecasting Department and Building Analysis reports.

Note: Develop data from the top of the hierarchy: start with Business Units first, then Divisions, and finally Departments. That way, when you add a lower-level item, such as divisions and departments, the higher level item it is associated with will be available in the selection list.

To define your organizational data for Portfolio Forecasting:

1. Select Portfolio Forecasting/Background Date/Define Organizations task.

   The drill-down selection list shows your divisions and departments organized by Business Unit. If you do not track by business unit , select No Business Unit to see divisions and departments without a business unit assignment.

2. If you are adding a department, select the division for the department from the drill-down selection list.
3. Click Add New, and select to a add a new Business Unit, Division or Department.
4. Enter data and click Save. For detailed information on the data entered, see Developing the Organizational Hierarchy. This topic describes the task from the Space Planning & Management application, but the data entered is the same.

Adding Cost Categories

When you add recurring costs for buildings, cost category is a mandatory field. The Background Data/Define Cost Categories task enables you to add new Cost Categories and edit existing ones.

See About Cost Categories

To add a new cost category:

1. In the Process Navigator, select Portfolio Forecasting/Background Data//Define Cost Categories task.
2. In the Cost Categories selection list, click Add New.
3. In the Cost Categories section on the right, complete the following required field:

   Cost Category -- Enter a unique value to identify the cost category, such as: BUILDING - MAINTENANCE, RENT - BASE RENT, TAX - PROPERTY TAX, TAX - SCHOOL TAX, UTILITY - ELECTRIC.

4. Enter the following recommended fields:

   Cost Type -- Select a value from the drop-down list. The Cost Type identifies cost categories with specific types. You can search for costs by type. See Cost Type for more information.

   Cost Class -- Click the ellipsis, and select a Cost Class from the list.

5. In the Chargeback Definitions section, select the Assigned To - Rolls Up To - Prorates To value for the cost.
6. Click Save.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 to enter all your cost categories.