Understanding Your Energy Costs
Utility bills are considered an inevitable part of doing business. Unfortunately, most overlook them when planning our finances, but they can be significant expenses. Nevertheless, holding our company and employees accountable can and will crucially impact our bottom line. So, how do you reduce your environmental impact, keep track of these costs and maximize your savings? Allocating costs to specific departments shows where your business can obtain energy savings.
Allocating Energy Costs
But, what does cost allocation mean? The Corporate Finance Institute defines cost allocation as “the process of identifying, accumulating, and assigning costs to costs objects such as departments, products, programs, or a branch of a company.” The process (shown below) identifies a company’s cost center and their costs, then assigns them based on specific criteria.
Still with me? Cost allocation creates accountability and makes them part of the solution. Moreover, raising general awareness of energy consumption helps improve energy conservation efforts. In short, understanding which cost center is using the most energy will lead your organization to the right questions to ask.
For example:
- Do we have lighting controls in our facilities?
- Have we replaced our HVAC system with the most energy-efficient models?
- Do we need to retrofit our lighting?
- Is there newer machinery that will have a short return on investment?
Who in your organization has the highest level of approval for purchase orders?
Most companies would say the purchasing department. Meanwhile, no one makes changes without having the right information to make decisions. Energy bills will always be a big part of any companies operating expenses. Failing to understand them only costs businesses more, further affecting the bottom line. So why risk it? Understand and manage it no different than other overhead.
Why APT?
APT is a west coast team of customer-focused, vendor-independent systems integrators in the power and energy market. We help clients with the high cost of energy, high cost of interruption, improve reliability, and reduce costs by providing the information you need to run your business.
APT Cost Allocation Features
- Simple web portal to ensure all your energy costs are covered and fairly shared with the tenants.
- Utility costs fully compliant with regulations for allocating costs to tenants and tenant billing service charges to cover overhead.
- Supports all forms of metered utility billing (i.e., electricity, natural gas, water) for energy and demand
- Multiple utility meters with multiple tariffs all supported with standard deployment and updated as energy and demand price changes occur.
Let us help your business through engineering, planning, and execution. Want to know the details? Have the support of Professional Electrical Engineers and major manufactures? Are you looking for the right software applications and a team with decades of proven experience? Then, APT has the solution for you.
Contact an APT Professional today and design a solution to fit your needs.
Scott McGaugh, APT Chief Revenue Officer