Gas & Electricity Budget

neilw41

I am trying to budget for gas & electricity and Iam struggling to come up with the best approach. We have to use a profiled budget over 12 months, so a 12th each month isnt acceptable. I thought about, using the previous years total cost, calculating a % used for each period, and using the same % for the current years budget period by period, ie if last year July was 20% of the actual spend, this year I will apply 20% of the budget to July. However, this isnt working and the % are looking very odd, for a number of reasons, seasonal etc.

Can anyone think of a better idea?

Thanks

Neil.

*Jo

Try using KWH used instead of cost. That way you can work out the percentage for Kilowatt Hours used and then use this to calculate cost.

If you are unsure of costs because of price increases try using last years/this years prices and put an extra 25% on for estimated increase.

We read our meters on a monthly basis so are aware of KWH usage each month and enter estimated figures based on these readings.

neilw41

Thanks. The only problem is we have about 70 outside properties, and these meters are not read regulary. There is also standing charges, and other costs on each bill. I'm tempted to post all the invoices to a balance sheet code, examine the entries and journal the amounts to the period they relate to, eliminating late invoices, and invoices falling in the incorrect period, as energy suppliers always bill in arrears....and our P/L is sometimes behind...not sure though. I will budget as per last years period costs as a % of total cost.

*Jo

Standing Charges and Climate Charge Levy are easy to calculate on a daily basis and incorporate this into your spreadsheet.

Gas is where the problem lies as their is a lovely complicated calculation to convert the metered usage into kilowatt hours. This includes a figure for calorific value which is not available to those outside of the energy industry. To get round this i include an average figure based on the last years bills and this seems to work.

To be honest with so many properties it would seem more reasonable to use a 12th of the annual budget each month although strickley speaking not correct.

The only other way I can think of is to get the meters read at the first of every month. Surely there is someone in the properties/offices who is capable of emailing a meter read each month for you to input. Granted initially it will take a while to compose but going forward would be alot more accurate.