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Real Estate Portfolio Management / Strategic Financial Analysis / Financial Analysis (SC) - Smart Client

Strategic Financial Analysis: Smart Client Tasks

You can use the Smart Client's Background Data tasks to create the inventory listing of buildings, properties, capital projects and capital equipment items for which you want to analyze costs using the Strategic Financial Analysis application. The CAD specialist can draw buildings on a site plan, and the add-in manager can personalize the Financial Analysis Console.

Background Data for Financial Analysis

From the Smart Client, you can add the following information if you have not added it as part of another ARCHIBUS application.

• Define Accounts. If you want to charge property, building, or lease costs to accounts, you can define the accounts using this task. For example, users select from these accounts when adding recurring costs for these portfolio items. Strategic Financial Analysis uses Recurring Costs to estimate and budget future costs when you run the Aggregate and Forecast Costs action.
• Define COA Cost Groupings. Define Chart of Account Sources and Groupings to map the financial Chart of Accounts to ARCHIBUS Cost Categories for integrating finance data.
• Define Cost Classes and Cost Categories Define cost categories and their related classes that the application uses when summarizing costs in the Financial Analysis Console. For example, you would develop cost categories for each of your work request Problem Types, so that the costs associated with this work is included in the scheduled cost records created when you run the Aggregate Operating Expenses action.
• Define Geographical Locations. Add the geographic locations for your buildings, properties, and equipment. The Financial Analysis Console enables you to perform analyses based on geography.
• Define Properties. Add data for the properties that are part of your financial analyses.

• Define Buildings. Add data for the buildings you want to track as part of your financial analysis.
• Define Projects. Define the capital projects that you want to include in your cost analysis. This task presents a grid view, so you can use the Select Fields command to show in the grid the fields you want to work with.

• Define Equipment. Using a grid view, you can create the capital equipment items for which you want to analyze costs. When you run the Forecast Capital Costs action, the application includes costs for the asset you select.

CAD Specialist

The CAD specialist can use the following task:

• Draw Buildings on a Site Plan. If you draw your buildings in CAD, the Financial Analysis Console presents a site plan of all the buildings located on a site or campus.

Customizing the Financial Analysis Console: Add-in Manager Tasks

The application comes with predefined analysis metrics, financial analyses, capital expense matrix, and Strategic Financial Analysis (SFA) application parameters. If needed, an add-in manager can personalize these elements of the Financial Analysis Console using the following tasks:

• Define Analysis Metrics. The Strategic Financial Analysis application comes with analysis metrics. You can review the description and business use o the metric using the Define Analysis Metrics task. Deployments that wish to add their own analysis metrics, or adjust the definitions of existing metrics, must purchase the ARCHIBUS Performance Metrics Framework separately, and can then use the Define Analysis Metrics task to make the adjustments.
• Define Analysis Location Groups. An analysis is made up of an Analysis Super Groups that defines the high level intent of the analysis, and Analysis Groups that contain the locations the analysis includes. The Smart Client's Define Analysis Location Groups tasks presents the Analysis Location Groups (finanal_loc_group) table in which you can personalize the analysis super groups and analysis groups that you want to work with. You then associate these super groups with financial analyses using Define Financial Analyses task.
• Define Capital Expense Matrix and Fields. Add-in managers can work from these two tasks to personalize the capital expense matrix and its fields.
• Define Financial Analyses and the Analysis Fields Add-In managers can set up the different analyses that analysts can select from when working in the Financial Analysis Console. These analyses are available in the Analysis drop-down list at the top of the console on the upper right.
• Define SFA Application Parameters. Personalize the application parameters that:
  • control the cost categories used when creating scheduled cost records when you run the Forecast Capital Costs, and Forecast Income and Expenses action
  • control the cost categories used to summarize costs when calculating values for analysis metrics
  • control a value used in calculations for financial analysis
  • control the metrics used to sum other metrics, or the cost categories used when Update Analysis Metrics action is run.