Woman looking at news article on desktop computer in library

Executive Management: Considerations for Focusing on the F&A Future—Part 4: The Evolution of The Library Infrastructure

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COVID-19, campus shutdowns, shrinking budgets, and F&A rate extensions require that administrators consider the investment in research and impact on future years’ F&A rates. More than ever before colleges and universities are planning for the next rate proposal and examine techniques to identify and optimize cost allocation to benefitting activities. For example, many institutions took advantage of the opportunity to defer F&A proposals based on FY20 until FY21. In this four-part blog series, we examine the considerations of four important initiatives including: a diagnostic review to improve costing processes via a dry run exercise; the benefits of proper utility metering; updating capital asset depreciation expense; and the evolution of the library infrastructure.

Part 1: Why Dry Runs are Important

Part 2: Understanding Your Utility Costs During COVID-19

Part 3: Fixed Asset Depreciation Reporting Exigency

Part 4: The Evolution of The Library Infrastructure

Academic research libraries support their educational institutions’ missions to conduct research, including sponsored research. Colleges and universities have performed library cost analysis studies, typically employing user surveys, for at least thirty-five years to quantify the extent to which their libraries support sponsored research. The Library cost pool is uncapped and included in the Facilities component of the F&A rate. This has given institutions an incentive to measure the extent to which their academic libraries support sponsored research.

In the absence of a library cost analysis study, the standard allocation methodology prescribes that library expenses shall be allocated to the institution’s major functions first on the basis of primary categories of users, including students, faculty and professional employees, and other users.

The purpose of the user surveys is to estimate the percentage of total library use associated with organized research for each of the library’s major activities. Each cost center identified has a corresponding allocation base with usage data collected from the library user surveys (e.g., circulation costs are allocated based on circulation usage reported during the user surveys).

The surveys involve the selection of a random sample of time periods for conducting each survey distribution and collection of surveys and an estimation of the proportion of library activities which are attributable to benefitting activities including organized research.

Academic libraries vary in their support of research, however, science, medical, and engineering libraries services and collections exhibit the most support for organized research at different universities. Journals and interlibrary loan/document delivery are consistently the most highly used collection and service in support of research. In most cases, electronic services use approximates traditional services in its level of use to support research.

Conclusion

As institutions transition in this new environment, there are various ways to create greater efficiency and improve margins associated with research services such as evaluating facilities related costs, implementing space productivity analyses for research programs, and/or recovering as much cost as possible from the F&A function. Institutions that do not act will likely see margins continue to shrink, making it difficult to facilitate cost recovery or generate the funding necessary to support productive programs.

Note: This article was first published in the January/February Issue of the NCURA magazine. Download the PDF here.

About the Author

Mark Davis, Attain Partners

Mark Davis is a Partner and founding member and leader of Attain Partners. He has been consulting for 35 years and has worked as a key business advisor to more than 100 major research universities and academic medical centers, nonprofits, and hospitals. Mr. Davis is experienced in federal cost policy, reimbursement and regulatory compliance, research finance, and grants management. Mr. Davis assists institutions to accomplish strategic, organizational, and financial goals, and manage risk and compliance.

 

 

 

Amp Impact and Attain Partners

Partnership Announcement: Attain Partners & Amp Impact

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We are thrilled to announce that Attain Partners and the Amp Impact team from Vera Solutions have officially launched a partnership. Attain Partners is now among a very exclusive group of partners around the world enabled to implement Amp Impact; a product built right on the Salesforce platform and changing the way organizations track and measure impact.

Why I’m Excited

I’ve been working for and with nonprofit organizations since 2007. In that time, I’ve had the distinct privilege of engaging with hundreds of mission-centric organizations dedicated to creating change in their communities. While there were many flavors and sounds to the conversation, each and every one of those organizations were grappling with the fundamental questions of, “Is it working? Are we having the impact we’re striving for? Are students, clients, participants and/or our community better off because of the work we’re doing?” These can be incredibly difficult questions to answer.

I’m excited about Attain Partners’s new partnership with Amp Impact because it helps nonprofits begin to answer these questions. I believe Amp Impact can be a game changer for nonprofits because:

  • It meets you where you’re at. Amp Impact works with any indicators and evaluation frameworks. Your program team doesn’t need to adapt your measurement framework to fit a tool. In addition, you can expand your existing use of Salesforce. Amp Impact can be layered on to your current program/case management solution in order to measure outcomes. Alternatively, you can start with outcomes measurement. Amp Impact can serve as a stand alone measurement and evaluation tool to aggregate portfolio impact data.
  • It brings data together to understand performance. Sometimes program data just can’t be stored in Salesforce. You may have funder mandated or other required systems you simply must keep using. The unintended consequences are often data silos, duplicative data entry by staff, and spending countless hours to report on performance. Amp Impact eases that burden and allows you to import program data right into your evaluation frameworks so that you can measure aggregate performance about a program or the organization.
  • It’s ‘leaning in’ to Salesforce. Amp Impact isn’t just built on Salesforce with a narrow set of use cases. Just the opposite, in fact. Amp Impact is architected to take advantage of some of the best features of Salesforce serving nonprofits. It’s flexible and capitalizes on Salesforce’s drag-click-drop configuration to build out frameworks, indicators, etc. All Amp Impact features (including Indicators, Frameworks, Implementation Plans, Financials, and Narrative Submissions) can be used on any standard or custom Salesforce object. It can be used in Salesforce Communities, further extended to Tableau, on mobile and more. Amp Impact can add value without limiting how you use Salesforce today or in the future.

The Future

Our communities depend on the social sector; especially during challenging times like we’ve experienced over the last year. However, nonprofit organizations are constantly pushed to do more with less and simultaneously demonstrate success with data. In response, Attain Partners is doubling down on our commitment to the social sector. We believe Amp Impact closes the ‘input to impact’ gap challenging many nonprofits.

Attain Partners is thrilled to formally partner with Amp Impact. We believe that by implementing Vera Solutions’ innovative product, we can empower organizations to generate holistic insights that will inform decisions and ultimately transform programs—and our communities—for the better.

Interested in learning more? Email i[email protected] and our team will coordinate time to connect.

Attain Partners Admissions Connect

Salesforce Admissions Connect - Yield the Best Class!

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Attain Partners is committed to providing innovative solutions for our higher education clients by putting our users and their customers at the center of our work. With over 15 years of Salesforce–focused higher education expertise and a dominant presence in recruiting and admissions (R&A), Attain Partners provided valuable insight into a new feature set that will continue to set Salesforce apart from the competition. Introducing Admissions Connect (AC), an Education Data Architecture (EDA) based solution for recruiting and admissions organizations to process applications easily and efficiently. Attain Partners’ deep understanding of R&A and our extensive Salesforce expertise can truly deliver game changing results for our clients. 

As the strategic partner for ongoing success at a leading university, the university-wide CRM team selected Attain Partners to guide them through a full R&A solution, supported by key business process modernization and change management activities. We believe that people, process, and technology–focused delivery creates project success. This Attain Partners advantage supported the university to be selected as the very first cohort participant for AC.   

Leveraging the power of AC, Attain Partners can easily configure a one screen reader for reading applications with supporting information such as transcripts, letters of recommendations, and test scores. Checklists make it easy not only for R&A users but applicants to quickly identify what, if anything, is remaining so that admission decisions can be made more efficiently. Applicants can provide additional information for use in their admissions decision right from Experience Cloud. Additionally, the power of Salesforce API’s allows for Common App integration for quick access to all application data.  

We are thrilled to be the first partner changing the R&A game for our clients. 

Learn more

Watch our on-demand webinar, How to Create an Optimized, Mobile-ready Application Experience, to learn more about how Attain Partners leveraged Formstack to develop an Admissions Application Template designed to accelerate your Salesforce Admissions Connect implementation.

Interested in learning more about Salesforce’s Admissions Connect? Contact us here and one of our experts will follow-up with you directly.

Outside of a university building

Attain Partners at NCURA FRA/PRA

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We’re kicking off the spring season with our annual participation in the National Council of University Research Administrators’ (NCURA) Financial Research Administration (FRA) and Pre-Award Research Administration (PRA) Annual Conferences—and this year, we’re excited to make our NCURA debut as Attain Partners! Talk to our team, visit our virtual booth, and learn more about this exciting evolution and what it means to your organization. We may have a new name, but our steadfast commitment to helping the research community thrive remains the same.

Though still virtual, we’ll be providing the same informative education sessions and workshops during both events. Read on for details from our team of experts.

FRA

Hot Topics in Post-Award Administration
Susan Sedwick, Vivian Holmes, and Cynthia Hope
March 16, 2021, 3:45p – 5:00p

Hopefully spring will bring hope for a return to a somewhat more normal work environments for our offices, normalizing of current hot topics and we will have moved on to the next big group of challenges. I will assemble and moderate a panel of senior level post-award administrators to present the next five biggest issues that will face our profession. After all, it is the Endless Frontier.

The Role of the Post-Award Office in Foreign Influence Compliance
Susan Sedwick, Ara Tahmassian, and Jim Luther
March 17, 2021, 2:00p – 3:15p

Addressing foreign influence concerns does not stop with pre-award and the post-award office has a critical role in monitoring throughout the life cycle of a project. Effective strategies go beyond a “one and done” approach and educating post-award and departmental staff can expand your capabilities to provide oversight. I will assemble a panel of senior post-award administrators who have played an active role at their institutions in foreign influence compliance.

WORKSHOPS

Workshop: Foreign Influence: Responding to Agency Inquiries and Non-Compliance
Susan Sedwick, Kim Melville-Smith, and Trey Atchley III
March 22, 2021, 1:00p – 5:00p

Where do you start when you suspect non-compliance or when you receive an inquiry from a sponsor that one of your researchers has not complied fully with reporting outside activities and interests? When non-compliance is suspected, knowing what steps must be taken initially to ensure your institution and your science is protected. Seasoned research administrators will provide guidance on how to investigate allegations of non-compliance in science security and respond to agency inquiries with insights from what was learned from the NIH Survey on foreign influence practices at institutions.

PRA

Educating Clinical Researchers on Foreign Influence Concerns
Susan Sedwick, Martha Ogilvie, and Winona Ward
March 23, 2021, 2:00p – 3:15p

When we think of clinical researchers and foreign influence, our first thought is of global humanitarian impact of research and the importance of medicine without borders. For most clinical researchers it is antithetical to fathom questioning the need for collaborating internationally to address health issues and certainly, never more so than this past year. Educating physicians and clinicians on the concerns that have arisen for the security of our intellectual capital and research takes a tailored approach. This session will delve into the approach taken by two university academic centers and will provide an interactive forum for answering questions from the clinical research administration community.

Global Warming: Combatting the Chilling Effect of Foreign Influence Compliance
Susan Sedwick, Courtney Swaney, and Kim Melville-Smith
March 25, 2021, 3:45p – 5:00p

One needs only to peruse the annual list of Nobel Prize winners in the scientific fields to understand the importance of international collaboration in science. Unfortunately, fear over concerns about foreign influence have had a chilling effect on international collaborations. I will assemble a panel of senior level research administrators who have moved beyond compliance and back to our equally important role of facilitating research as we support and help make research happen.

Interested in connecting directly with our experts? Email [email protected].

Fixed Asset Depreciation Reporting Exigency

Executive Management: Considerations for Focusing on the F&A Future—Part 3: Fixed Asset Depreciation Reporting Exigency

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COVID-19, campus shutdowns, shrinking budgets, and F&A rate extensions require that administrators consider the investment in research and impact on future years’ F&A rates. More than ever before colleges and universities are planning for the next rate proposal and examine techniques to identify and optimize cost allocation to benefitting activities. For example, many institutions took advantage of the opportunity to defer F&A proposals based on FY20 until FY21. In this four-part blog series, we examine the considerations of four important initiatives including: a diagnostic review to improve costing processes via a dry run exercise; the benefits of proper utility metering; updating capital asset depreciation expense; and the evolution of the library infrastructure.

Part 1: Why Dry Runs are Important

Part 2: Understanding Your Utility Costs During COVID-19

Part 3: Fixed Asset Depreciation Reporting Exigency

How is your institution keeping pace so that it is prepared for quarterly and annual financial reporting and the upcoming FY21 or FY22 base year F&A proposal? Fixed asset accounting is a comprehensive process to account for cost expenditures to purchase capital assets, ranging from land and buildings to various types of equipment. While most of the process is routine, we all have adapted with our teams working remotely during this pandemic. However, specific steps to meet federal reporting requirements common to research and healthcare have been interrupted since March.

While certain institutions only fell three months behind, other research institutions will not have their staff back on campus until January 2021, putting them 9 months behind. The information gathered during the inventory, tagging, and reconciliation process feeds management reports, financial reports, and ultimately is required to meet Federal A-133 audit requirements. These required steps include affixing barcode tags to equipment and recording their room location so that management can rely on this information to properly assign depreciation expense to buildings, departments, principal investigators, and projects.

Beyond the regulatory requirements, the institution should consider building construction cost componentization in order to enhance depreciation related to new construction and renovation projects by identifying building, building services, and fixed equipment rather than capitalizing all project costs to one “standard” life. OMB Uniform Guidance indicates that research building components be depreciated on a building-by-building basis, understanding that institutional use varies based on the functional use and type of research activities and the useful lives should be reviewed on a periodic basis.

We suggest beginning equipment inventory and building componentization studies early in the base year to accommodate a potentially longer timeline during the pandemic and the successful integration of the results into the accounting system and F&A proposal planning process.

Note: This article was first published in the January/February Issue of the NCURA magazine. Download the PDF here.

About the Author

Andrew Campbell

Andrew Campbell is a Senior Manager at Attain Partners. He has over 30 years of experience advising clients in fixed asset management and depreciation reporting, building componentization studies, useful life studies, equipment inventory and reconciliation, and asset valuation services.

 

 

Attain, LLC Restructures, Launches Attain Partners

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Professional Services firm doubles down on commitment to education, nonprofit, healthcare, and state and local government markets

McLean, VA – March 1, 2021 – Attain, LLC, a leading management, technology, and compliance consulting firm, announced that the company has restructured, separating its operating divisions into two companies. The education, nonprofit, healthcare, and state and local government division will remain privately-owned and will operate under the name Attain Partners. The federal business, which will maintain the name Attain, LLC, was acquired today by Maximus (NYSE: MMS), a leading provider of government services worldwide. 

Leveraging deep industry expertise and a consultative approach to business solutions, Attain Partners delivers forward-leaning services that yield exceptional results. The firm serves clients across the public sector, including 100% of the Ivy League, more than 70 of the top 100 U.S. Research Institutions, and nearly 150 of the nation’s largest nonprofit organizations, and has completed more than 900 Salesforce projects. 

“We are confident that this new direction is a very positive step forward for our teams,” shared Attain President and COO Manish Agarwal. “The acquisition of the federal practice by Maximus provides a unique opportunity to bring further innovation at scale for our clients in the federal market and growth opportunities for our people. The transaction also will infuse Attain Partners with the funding to make strategic investments that significantly increase its services and solutions across the education, nonprofit, healthcare, and state and local government landscapes,” he said. 

“I am excited to accelerate the growth of the Attain Partners business by providing investment capacity to realize the vision of building a next generation, asset-powered consultancy and enabling us to attract top talent, innovate market-leading solutions, and make strategic acquisitions,” said Greg Baroni, Attain Partners Chairman and CEO, and founder of Attain, LLC. 

About Attain Partners 

Based in McLean, Va., Attain Partners is a leading management, technology, and compliance consulting firm delivering services and solutions to advance client missions across the education, nonprofit, healthcare, and state and local government landscapes. For more information, please visit attainpartners.com. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Media Contact:
Ellen Walsh, Attain Partners
703.857.2178 | [email protected]

Various charts and graphs floating between hands

Transforming the Oracle Cloud Application User Experience

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Many large Higher Education institutions have invested a lot of time and money into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, and yet so many are not satisfied with the value their system delivers.

If your organization completed a cloud ERP implementation in the past several years, you may be asking some of the following questions:

  • Why are the financial reports generated from PC-based tools such as Excel and Access? Is the data in the cloud incomplete or not summarized correctly?
  • What is the cause of the aged receivables balance increasing and the significant balance of unapplied and unidentified cash?
  • Why are project managers not addressing project overspending more quickly?
  • Why does staff cling to old programs and processes rather than working in the cloud?

If these questions sound all too familiar, there are three things you can do.

1. Survey the managers and administrators in the field to solicit honest feedback on their cloud experience. For example: 

  • Do they trust the integrity of the data?
  • Is reporting in the cloud:
    • Complete
    • At the correct summary or detail level
    • Timely
  • Are approvals managed in the cloud?
  • Are work tasks and deadlines managed in the cloud?
  • Is processing and information spread out between too many navigation points/pages?
  • Are staff creating and changing data in the cloud based on rote instructions instead of an intuitive understanding of the system?

2. From the feedback observations create two lists: 

  • Quick Hits – easy to fix items such as:
    • Modifying setup items
    • Addition or modification of workflows and task management features
    • Existing functionality to improve data integrity (e.g., setup defaults and templates)
  • Prioritized Pain Points with related return on investment
    • Missing, incorrectly summarized or untimely reporting data
    • Easy to access relevant training and on-line help
    • Task streamlining via application tools

3. Assess if in-house resources (time and knowledge) can design and implement solutions 

  • Are setups clearly documented and understood?
  • Will IT staff need to be trained on reporting and application development tools?
  • Is training available and relevant?

If you need further assistance, Attain Partners has developed two Oracle offerings which will close the gap between original expectations and your current ERP experience.

ENHANCED USER EXPERIENCE

  • Identify high impact business flows for improvement
  • Guide deployment of underutilized Oracle tools
  • Provide detailed instructions for the setup and maintenance of Oracle tools

HEALTH CHECK

  • Identify setup and feature usage changes to improve reporting, invoicing, and task completion
  • Identify data patterns to:
    • Reduce list of values (LOV’s) to only those items needed
    • Reduce direct inputs by default of data via setup configurations

We’re ready to hear about your challenges and help you navigate a path forward. To start the dialog please contact us directly at [email protected].

Debbie Pegram, Attain Partners

Debbie Pegram is a Senior Specialist with Attain Partners with over 25 years of experience serving customers before, during, and after ERP implementations. After carefully listening to understand clients’ challenges, she engages every available resource to deliver a solution. Her experience spans from implementing new financial systems and building data warehouses at Walt Disney World to being a part of both Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) and cloud ERP implementations for large municipalities, prestigious universities, and international entities such as the United Nations.

Students walking in university building

Surviving a Title IV Program Review

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Federal Program Review—this term strikes fear into the hearts of financial aid administrators everywhere. The Federal Student Aid (FSA) division of the US Department of Education (ED) conducts periodic Federal Program Reviews to assure that colleges and universities who administer Title IV aid are abiding by the provisions that govern Title IV programs. After many years of deferring program reviews for schools whose A-133 annual audits did not indicate problems, FSA has stepped up their program review schedule over the past year and a half. This action has greatly increased the chances of schools undergoing program reviews, regardless of audit status. Your college or university could be next!

 

So, what exactly is a Federal Program Review, and how does your school prepare for it before you are selected for one? A Federal Program Review is conducted by two or more reviewers from ED to assure your school is in compliance with Title IV regulations. This involves either an in-person or virtual review, normally a week in length, to review student records as well as other institutional documents. There are always follow-up questions and requirements from the reviewers as well. The reviewers will ask your school to provide a list of students who received Title IV aid during certain academic years, as well as all of the school’s catalogs, academic calendars, academic and financial aid policies, and consumer information, among many other types of documentation. The reviewers will select students from the reports that your school provides and do an in-depth review of each student’s Title IV aid that was awarded and disbursed, and all other circumstances that may impact Title IV eligibility. Your school may be subject to a limited-focused review or a full scope review depending on the requirements the reviewers have. Schools that have Title IV findings or violations may be subject to liabilities (monetary amounts that schools have to repay to ED due to improper receipt or disbursement of Title IV funds) and/or fines (more serious misconduct or other violations).

Schools usually have up to four weeks to prepare for the review but may have a shorter time frame depending on when the announcement is made and when the review is scheduled to begin. Four weeks or less is a tight time frame for such a review and can throw an institution into a frenzy to secure all required documents as well as determine if there are any issues to be aware of prior to the review. One way to relieve much of the stress of preparation is to have an outside consulting firm (with professional staff experienced in Title IV regulations and Federal Program Reviews) conduct an Operational Review ahead of time, to determine if the school meets Title IV compliance standards and if there are problem areas that can be remedied prior to any Federal review. Operational Reviews, such as the ones conducted by Attain Partners’ experts, are comprehensive and often more thorough than some Federal Program Reviews.

What happens during an Attain Partners Operational Review, and how does it help your institution? Our comprehensive assessment evaluates the people, processes, and technology that comprise your financial aid operations. Following our review, we provide schools with a customized action plan to reduce compliance risks, improve efficiencies, and streamline the flow of paper and electronic data.

Similar to a federal program review, our assessment starts with an on-campus or virtual visit during which we interview staff, and review institutional eligibility documents, policies and procedures, and student files. We also analyze the staffing level and expertise in the financial aid office, examine how operations are coordinated at the institution, and evaluate the general use of technology to support financial aid processing.

By conducting an inventory of existing policies and procedures and reviewing how the policies and procedures are applied in a sampling of student files, we can help uncover any processing gaps or compliance shortfalls. We then provide detailed recommendations to help put you on the right track for meeting applicable regulatory requirements and best practices.

Attain Partners’ comprehensive assessment will help ensure your school is prepared for a Federal Program Review; and we will specifically review areas that are identified by ED as part of their Top 10 Program Review Findings:

Top Ten Program Review Findings

  1. Student Status – Inaccurate/Untimely Reporting
  2. Return to Title IV (R2T4) Calculation Errors
  3. Entrance/Exit Counseling Deficiencies
  4. Verification Violations
  5. Consumer Information Requirements Not Met
  6. Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy Not Adequately Developed/Monitored
  7. Student Credit Balance Deficiencies
  8. Lack of Administrative Capability
  9. Account Records Inadequate/Not Reconciled
  10. Crime Awareness Requirements Not Met

Your institution has already been selected for a Federal Program Review. How can you obtain assistance with preparation? Attain Partners can assist with preparation for a Federal Program Review as well as resolution of findings and responses to ED. Our consultants have decades of experience both working in college and university financial aid offices as well as consulting with schools in need of our services. Contact us directly at [email protected] with any questions or to learn more about our services.

 

About the Authors

Rhonda Pickerel

Rhonda Pickerel is a Manager in Attain Partners’ Education, Nonprofit, and Commercial Services practice and oversees the Financial Aid Management and Student Services (FAMSS) division. She has over 30 years of financial aid and higher education experience working with public universities and colleges, as well as private, for-profit, and nonprofit institutions. During her 14-year career as a consultant, she has managed several financial aid reviews for clients, including “mock” program reviews, Title IV compliance reviews, processing reviews, and general operational reviews.

Julie Setzer is a Senior Specialist in the Financial Aid Management and Student Services (FAMSS) division of Attain Partners’ Education, Nonprofit, and Commercial Services practice. She has over 34 years of financial aid and higher education experience working with public colleges and universities as well as private nonprofit institutions. During her six years as a consultant, she has provided interim management services at a number of schools as well as taken part in several “mock” program reviews, Title IV compliance reviews, processing reviews, and general operational reviews.

Outside of a university building

Executive Management: Considerations for Focusing on the F&A Future—Part 2: Understanding Your Utility Costs During COVID-19

/in , , , /by

COVID-19, campus shutdowns, shrinking budgets, and F&A rate extensions require that administrators consider the investment in research and impact on future years’ F&A rates. More than ever before colleges and universities are planning for the next rate proposal and examine techniques to identify and optimize cost allocation to benefitting activities. For example, many institutions took advantage of the opportunity to defer F&A proposals based on FY20 until FY21. In this four-part blog series, we examine the considerations of four important initiatives including: a diagnostic review to improve costing processes via a dry run exercise; the benefits of proper utility metering; updating capital asset depreciation expense; and the evolution of the library infrastructure.

Part 1: Why Dry Runs are Important 

Part 2: Understanding Your Utility Costs During COVID-19

The knee-jerk reaction we have heard many times is that institutions are reluctant to prepare a F&A cost proposal because of the uncertainty around costs, including utilities. Most assume that utility costs are lower than normal in response to closures at the institution, but is that true?

Before we get to that, let us take a moment to understand the importance and relationship of the F&A, utility costs, and metering. The O&M cost pool represents the largest uncapped pool and can account for over 15 points of the Facilities component of the F&A rate. Utility costs are normally the largest component of the O&M pool and are identified to the building based on utility consumption meters.

A closer look at recent actual metered data have spotlighted some surprising results. Though we have seen decreases in utility usage and corresponding cost, we have also seen many instances of no change in utility usage (when taking into account degree-days) or even an increase in utility costs related to the age of building (e.g., increased airflow rates, older building control systems not having the ability to address partial occupancy, longer ‘occupied’ periods as physical distancing requires occupancy to be spread out, etc.). Campus wide, there can be significant variations in utility consumption on a building type basis such a research, medical, classroom, administrative, housing.

A closer analysis of utility usage and cost using building metered consumption is an important step when considering when to approach your next F&A rate proposal. If you are not yet in your base year, now is a good time to do a review of your system and replace/service meters in need so you can make an informed decision.

Note: This article was first published in the January/February Issue of the NCURA magazine. Download the PDF here.

About the Authors

Tony Benigno, Attain Partners

Tony Benigno is a Specialist Leader with Attain Partners’ Education, Nonprofit, and Commercial Services practice. Tony has more than 25 years of experience in the HVAC industry, ranging from routine assessments and troubleshooting of existing meters and collection and reporting systems, to Project Management, Commissioning, and M&V related to the identification and recovery of utility and utility related costs including, but not limited to, F&A rate proposals.

Monika Moses, Attain Partners

Monika Moses, PE is a Leader with Attain Partners’ Education, Nonprofit, and Commercial Services practice. Monika has more than 25 years of engineering experience, including energy benchmarking, energy utilization studies, conceptual design and implementation of metering programs, costing studies for cogeneration systems, and identification of strategies to improve the allocation of costs in the Operation and Maintenance cost pool.

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