Within the Metrix Asset Management system, a Budget Bucket is the key working unit for managing groups of budgeted items. A budget bucket can be likened to the idea of a Capital Project. Examples include the annual reseals program, installation of a new traffic signal, or a new footpath program.
The following topics are covered in this section:
Within the Metrix Asset Management system, a Budget Bucket is the key working unit for managing groups of budgeted items. A budget bucket can be likened to the idea of a Capital Project. Examples include the annual reseals program, installation of a new traffic signal, or a new footpath program.
A single Budget can have one or more budget buckets. Each bucket manages their assigned items independently of each other.
The bucket limit is the maximum amount of money that should be spent within a bucket. This limit is set by the user and can be adjusted at any time. The bucket limit is important because it helps to ensure that assignments of work to the bucket are not exceeding the expected cost of the project. In fact, when assigning items to a budget bucket, the Allocation Tracker will compare the current amount in the bucket to the limit.
By setting a limit, users can avoid over-funding a bucket and can ensure that their money is being allocated to the right places.
Each budget bucket can have three (3) separate descriptor values, including:
There are no restrictions to the use of these fields, but they are intended to be used as follows:
Each budget bucket can be controlled with optional capitalisation share settings. The capitalisation shares refer to:
When you specify capitalisation shares on a budget bucket, you are controlling how any capital expenditures within the bucket are capitalised against the underlying components. For example:
A single bucket can have multiple capitalisation shares. For example, you can have a bucket with 50% renewal and 50% upgrade. In this case, all capital expenditures within the bucket will be split 50% to renewals and 50% to the improvement of capacity of the same assets.
The total percentage share across the three (3) categories must equal 100%. For example, a project that is 50% Renewal, and 30% Upgrade, must be 20% New; or else have additional weighting directed towards Renewal or Upgrade. In most cases, the Capitalisation Shares will be set to 100% for a single category (such as 100% New), and not split across two or three categories.
A budget bucket’s allocation refers to the calculated cost of works associated with all the component items assigned to the bucket. As you add component items to a bucket, the allocation will be updated to reflect the total cost of all items in the bucket.
The calculated cost of work is based upon the component’s selected budgeted method. See Budgeted Treatment Methods for more information
The status of a budget bucket can be useful for understanding the current state of the bucket and its contents. The following status indicators are currently available for budget buckets:
Currently, the ‘Closed’ status is the only status that affects how the system treats the bucket. Any closed buckets can not be edited or modified in any way. The system will also not allow the user to assign any new items or spend items to a closed bucket.
When working with an asset portfolio across many different asset/component types, it can become tedious to constantly filter your available items to the specific type that the bucket is designed for. This is why the concept of a default filter was introduced.
The default filter is a filter that is applied to the map when the bucket is opened. The filter does NOT control the items that are assigned to the bucket, but rather, it controls the items that are displayed in the map when the bucket is opened.