How to prepare a Budget for an Office Move
Office Move Costs
Any office move without a tight control of office relocation costs is a disaster waiting to happen so, as soon as your business has agreed that you will be moving office, you need to draw up a moving office budget.
The first step to creating a realistic Moving Office Budget is to identify all the costs associated with moving office. Get quotes (best practice says 3) for everything and put a budget cost figure against the item using our handy Moving Office Budget Template. It is always best to be realistic about all office move cost items and once you have confirmed your office move budget figure for each cost item try to stick to it as much as possible (but be mindful of any cost items that may be subject to change).
Without a tight control of your office move costs it is highly likely that your overall costs for your office relocation will spiral out of control. You need to understand that moving office is a major investment for your company - and should be treated as such. Your office move budget needs to contain every conceivable cost item involved in moving office as you will not want to be blind-sided by any unplanned-for costs.
Decide your budget limitations early on in the moving office process and determine your business priorities. For some companies moving office, they will want to invest heavily on new technology (perhaps a new business phone system) but for others investing in top quality office space may be the driving priority.
Keep your Moving Office Budget updated on a continual basis and identify variances from your original quotes - both positive and negative. A negative variance means you have spent more than you planned on an office move cost item - so you will need to look hard at how this will affect your overall relocation budget. A positive variance will mean you have underspent. If you have to re-forecast your office move budget, remember to inform all the budget stakeholders early on so that decisions (and any alterations to the budget) can be agreed quickly.
Your budget needs to contain the "universe" of all things office relocation cost related. There's more to an office move budget then just the costs of your new office space (rental rates, security deposit, legal fees for office lease, office design, finish-out costs and moving costs). You will need to consider additional items such as IT infrastructure, hardware & software requirements, new phone systems and office furniture costs. You would also be well-advised to incorporate a contingency budget of 5-10% of the overall office relocation budget total (adding this contingency will cover any unexpected cost developments along the way).
Download the free Moving Office Budget to control your moving costs in an easy to use and simple format.
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