What is a Budget Bucket Item

An item within a Metrix Assets Budget Bucket is an Asset Component that has been assigned to the bucket, setup with a proposed budgeted treatment method, and hence, a proposed budgeted cost. The allocation of a budget bucket is the sum of all the bucket items within it.

In order to be assigned to a bucket as a bucket item, an Asset Component should have the following properties:

• a Valid Construction Date or Intervention Date value
• a Valid Cost Units value

Whilst the above requirements to not preclude the assignment of an Asset Component to a bucket, they do mean that the allocation assumptions and/or the capacity for the bucket item costs to be capitalised may be limited. Below are some details pertaining to these issues:

• Missing Construction Date: If a bucket item does NOT have a valid construction date, then the system will disallow capital spends within the bucket. This is because, presently, Metrix does not allow the creation of capital valuation transactions against components with no construction date.
• Missing Cost Units value: If a bucket item does NOT have a valid cost units value, then the system will calculate a ZERO dollar cost for any non-fixed price budgeted treatment method. This is simply because any treatment based budgeted treatment method will leverage the cost units value to calculate the budgeted cost.

Budgeted Treatment Methods

A budgeted treatment method is the method used to calculate the cost of works for a component item in a budget bucket. A budgeted method is chosen by the user for each component item in the bucket and can include:

• Current Treatment: The cost of works will be calculated using the current intervention treatment assigned to the component.
• Next Treatment: The cost of works will be calculated using the next intervention treatment assigned to the component.
• Budget Override: The cost of works will be calculated using a custom override method that applies to the current bucket, for the current component item only.

Upon assigning an item to a budget bucket, the system will automate the selection of the budgeted method as per the following:

• If the component item has a ’next treatment’ available, the budgeted method will be set to ‘Next Treatment’.
• If the component item has a ‘current treatment’ available, the budgeted method will be set to ‘Current Treatment’.
• Otherwise, NO budgeted method will be set and the calculated cost of works will be zero.

It should be noted, that for ‘Next Treatment’ and ‘Budget Override’ specifications, the following options exist:

• Treatment with Percent of Cost Units:
  • An intervention treatment definition is assigned as the treatment method.
  • The user will specify a percentage value (more or less than 100% permissible) to be applied to the Component’s cost units (size) to calculate the cost of works.
• Treatment with Fixed Cost Units:
  • An intervention treatment definition is assigned as the treatment method.
  • The user will specify a fixed value to be applied to the Component’s cost units (size) to calculate the cost of works.
• Fixed Value:
  • This method is useful when a quotation or fixed cost is available for the works.
  • No intervention treatment definition is assigned.

Selecting Items for Assignment

The following is a generic guide on making a selection set for assigning items to (or unassigning items from) a Budget Bucket. The process remains the same regardless of whether you are assigning singularly or in bulk.

To assign/unassign Components to a Budget Bucket as an item, you will need to have navigated to the desired Budget Bucket in the Capital module. The entry point for any budget bucket is the ‘View Items’ tab; navigate, using the tabs, to the ‘Assign Items’ tab to enter assignment mode.

From here you should see a map containing ALL the Asset Components in your portfolio. In the case that a Default Filter has already been assigned to the Budget Bucket, you will see all the Asset Components relative to that filter.

The most common approach to assigning items to a Budget Bucket is a two-step approach:

1. First, design a filter that scopes the visible Asset Components down to a relevant set of items. This is done using the ‘Filter’ on the left-hand side of the map window. For help with filtering, see this section.

2. Once you have a relevant set of Asset Components visible on the map, you can select them using either:

   • the ‘Info/Pan’ tool: allows you select one item at a time by clicking on the map feature.
   • the ‘Select’ tool: allows you to select multiple items by clicking and dragging a box around them. Any intersected map features will be APPENDED to your selection set.
   • the ‘Deselect’ tool: allows you to remove items from your current selection set by clicking and dragging a box around them. Any intersected map features will be REMOVED from your selection set.

   All of the above tools are available in the top-left corner of the map window. The ‘Info/Pan’ tool is the default.

3. The above process will result in a ‘selection set’ of one or more Assets. That is, selections are ‘Asset based’ meaning that one (1) selection could pertain to multiple Component records related to the same parent Asset record.

4. Your ‘selection set’ will be displayed in an Info Panel on the right-hand side of the map window. If your selection set contains more than one (1) Asset, the Info Panel will display the list of selected Assets, rather than details about any single Asset. Clicking one of the listed Assets will narrow your selection set to that Asset.

Assign a Budget Item

To assign a Component as an Item to a Budget Bucket, you must have navigated to the desired Budget Bucket, and have selected the parent Asset or Assets of the Components you want to assign. See Selecting Items for detailed instructions on doing this.

To assign a Component as an Item to a Budget Bucket, follow these steps:

1. Select a single Asset from the map using the above-mentioned methods. You will know that you have a single selected Asset when the Asset is highlighted in blue on the map, and the Asset’s details are displayed in the right-hand Info Panel.

2. The Info Panel is split into three main sections:

   a. The top of the Info Panel has information pertaining to the selected Asset, such as its classification, ID, and description.

   b. Below this, on the left-hand side, is the Component Switcher, which allows you to select a particular Component of the Asset to view its details, and manage its assignment state.

   c. The right-hand side of the Info Panel contains the Component information pertaining to the selected Component above.

3. Isolate the single Component you wish to assign to the Budget Bucket by selecting it in the Component Switcher.

4. Click on ‘Assign to Bucket’ to assign the selected Component as an Item to the Budget Bucket.

The Component has now been assigned to the Budget Bucket as an Item. It will be configured automatically with a default budgeted treatment method, and if this treatment method amounts to a cost, the Buckets Allocation gauge will react accordingly.

Further to the above, any assigned Component Items will appear with an orange halo around their map feature in the map window.

Bulk Assign Budget Items

To assign many Components as Items to a Budget Bucket, you must have navigated to the desired Budget Bucket, and have selected the parent Assets of the Components you want to assign. See Selecting Items for detailed instructions on doing this.

To assign Components as Items to a Budget Bucket, follow these steps:

1. Make a selection of multiple Assets from the map using the above-mentioned methods. You will know that you have a multiple selected Assets when they are highlighted in blue on the map, and a list of Assets are displayed in the right-hand Info Panel.

2. Once multiple Assets are selected, you will see an option to ‘Bulk Assign’ at the top of the Info Panel. Click on this option.

   

3. A dialog window will appear with some options for refinement of the selected Assets. For each unique Asset Classification, you will be offered a choice to ‘Include’ or ‘Exclude’ the one or more Component Groups within that classification. By default, all Component Groups are marked as ‘Excluded’ - that is, nothing will be assigned by default. To ‘Include’ a Component Group, click on that Component Group tile. The tile will change colour. To ‘Exclude’ it, simply click on it again and the tile will revert to no colour.

   Example

   Your selection may contain Sewer Reticulation Mains and several Local Sealed Roads. In this case, you may see the following options (represented by gridded tiles):

   • Sewer > Reticulation > Mains > Gravity
     • Pipe
     • Manhole
   • Transportation > Roads > Local Road > Sealed
     • Earthworks
     • Pavement
     • Surface

   In the above, you could elect to Assign just the Sewer Manhole Components (by ‘Including’ the Manhole Component Group), or you could Assign all Sealed Road Components (by ‘Including’ the Earthworks, Pavement and Surface Component Groups).

4. Once you have marked items to be ‘Included’ for assignment by clicking on their Component Group tile, you can then click the ‘Add Filtered Component Types’ button at the bottom of the dialog window.

The Components have now been assigned to the Budget Bucket as independent Items. Each will be configured automatically with a default budgeted treatment method, and if this treatment method amounts to a cost, the Buckets Allocation gauge will react accordingly.

Further to the above, any assigned Component Items will appear with an orange halo around their map feature in the map window.

Un-Assign a Budget Item

To unassign a Component Item from a Budget Bucket, you must have navigated to the desired Budget Bucket, and have selected the parent Asset of the Component you want to unassign. See Selecting Items for detailed instructions on doing this.

To unassign a Component Item from a Budget Bucket, follow these steps:

1. Select a single Asset from the map using the above-mentioned methods. You will know that you have a single selected Asset when the Asset is highlighted in blue on the map, and the Asset’s details are displayed in the right-hand Info Panel.

2. For items already assigned to the Budget Bucket, the Info Panel will show a ‘Manage Item/Treatment’ button at the top. Next to this button will be an actions menu (denoted by three dots) with additional options. Click on the ‘Actions’ menu.

3. From the actions menu, select ‘Remove from Bucket’.

4. A confirmation window will appear. Click ‘Delete’. This will unassign the selected Component from the Budget Bucket.

The Component Item has now been removed from the Budget Bucket. If the budgeted treatment method for the Item resulted in a cost, the Bucket’s Allocation gauge will react accordingly.

Bulk Un-Assign Budget Items

To unassign many Component Items from a Budget Bucket, you must have navigated to the desired Budget Bucket, and have selected the parent Assets of the Components you want to unassign. See Selecting Items for detailed instructions on doing this.

To unassign Component Items from a Budget Bucket, follow these steps:

1. Make a selection of multiple Assets from the map using the above-mentioned methods. You will know that you have a multiple selected Assets when they are highlighted in blue on the map, and a list of Assets are displayed in the right-hand Info Panel.

2. Once multiple Assets are selected, you will see an option to ‘Bulk UnAssign’ at the top of the Info Panel. Click on this option.

   

3. A dialog window will appear with some options for refinement of the selected Assets. For each unique Asset Classification, you will be offered a choice to ‘Include’ or ‘Exclude’ the one or more Component Groups within that classification. By default, all Component Groups are marked as ‘Included’ - that is, all currently selected Items will be removed by default. To ‘Include’ a Component Group for unassignment, click on that Component Group tile. The tile will change colour. To ‘Exclude’ it (saving it from unassignment), simply click on it again and the tile will revert to no colour.

   Example

   In this process, ‘Include’ means that you with to ‘Include the Component Group for Unassigning’ from the Budget Bucket. ‘Exclude’ means that you do NOT wish to Unassign any Items associated with the Component Group from the Budget Bucket.

   Your selection may contain Sewer Reticulation Mains and several Local Sealed Roads, all of which are currently assigned to the Budget Bucket. In this case, you may see the following options (represented by gridded tiles):

   • Sewer > Reticulation > Mains > Gravity
     • Pipe
     • Manhole
   • Transportation > Roads > Local Road > Sealed
     • Earthworks
     • Pavement
     • Surface

   In the above, you could elect to Unassign just the Sewer Manhole Components (by ‘Including’ the Manhole Component Group), or you could Unassign all Sealed Road Components (by ‘Including’ the Earthworks, Pavement and Surface Component Groups).

4. Once you have marked items to be ‘Included’ for unassignment by clicking on their Component Group tile, you can then click the ‘Remove Filtered Component Types’ button at the bottom of the dialog window.

The Components have now been unassigned from the Budget Bucket. If any of the Items had a budgeted treatment method amounting to a cost, the Buckets Allocation gauge will react accordingly.

Set Budgeted Treatment Method

This page describes how to set the budgeted treatment method for a Budget Bucket Item. It is presumed that you have already followed the required steps to assign the Items to the bucket, either individually or in bulk. It is also presumed that you understand the different budgeted treatment methods available to you.

To set the budgeted treatment method for a Budget Bucket Item, follow these steps:

1. With the desired Budget Bucket Item selected, you will see an option to ‘Manage/Item Treatment’ at the top of the Info Panel for the Item. Click this option.

   

2. A dialog window will appear with the range of possible budgeted treatment methods available to the selected Item. In the top-right corner of this window, the current method will be displayed.

3. Each available budgeted treatment method is represented by a Tab within the dialog window. Each tab can be selected and viewed without any changes being made to the Item.

   If a particular Tab is deactivated (i.e. Next Treatment) this means that that specific method is not available for the selected Item. This would be due to a lack of information on the underlying Component. Updating this information (i.e. adding a ‘Next Treatment’ definition) and refreshing the Budget page will resolve this.

4. To set either the Current or Next Treatment Methods as the current budgeted treatment method, select the desired Tab and click the ‘Set this as the Budgeted Treatment Method’ button at the bottom of the Tab panel.

   

For Current and Next Treatment methods, you have finished the process. For Override Treatment methods, you will need to follow the additional steps below:

5. To set a Budgeted Override Treatment as the current budgeted treatment method, select the ‘Override Treatment’ Tab and click the ‘Define an Override as the Budgeted Treatment Method’ button at the bottom of the Tab panel.

6. The Tab panel will change to display the Override Treatment definition options where you can proceed to choose the desired Override Treatment method. For this, you will need to define either:

   • An estimated cost override (i.e. a fixed quote or estimate).
   • An intervention treatment with a fixed cost unit value (i.e. for a fixed area or volume, rather than a size relative to the Component).
   • An intervention treatment with a relative cost unit value (i.e. for a size relative to the Component).

7. The override treatment also requires that you enter a brief description of the treatment, as well as provide a reason for the override. This is important for audit purposes (helping future you).

8. Once finshed, click on the ‘Apply Override Treatment’ button at the bottom of the Tab panel.

The Budget Bucket Allocation gauge will react to the new costs associated with the chosen budgeted treatment method.