budgeting for an office move

Relocating offices can be an expensive business. This makes it essential that you prepare and stick to a proper budget for the relocation process. If you don’t, you may find that costs spiral out of control – effectively negating the value of any benefits associated with the move, or at least putting a dampener on what should be an exciting change for your company.

What costs to consider when relocating an office

It’s easy to underestimate the costs involved in moving an office. Of course there’s the cost of hiring a moving company to move your office furniture, files and equipment to your new premises, but what other costs should you take into account?

Just some of the types of costs your company might have to absorb are those associated with:

  • setting up required business and IT infrastructure, including phone and network systems, in the new location
  • updating all your company’s stationary, business cards, electronic templates and so on with the address of your new business location
  • paying rent for both your existing and new office premises, for a month or more, and covering a security deposit for the new premises
  • purchasing new office furniture and filing solutions to suit the size and layout of the new premises
  • repairing damage and making improvements to the new premises; for example, replacing worn carpeting, fixing leaky plumbing, painting or having an air-conditioning system repaired or installed
  • installing a security system to suit your company’s needs
  • cleaning up your old premises and completing any repairs, to the satisfaction of the property owner or office rental agency.

How to manage office relocation costs

Even for a small business, the process of managing office relocation costs requires sound project management skills. You’ll need to start by creating an accurate forecast of all the costs associated with moving offices, based on information such as preliminary quotations. Then create an initial budget that suits your company’s financial situation, while also accounting for the costs you’ve estimated.

From the time when work on the office relocation project starts, you should track variances between the costs you predicted and actual costs. As work proceeds, you then need to take steps as necessary to keep actual costs in line with your budget.

Unless your job already involves project management, these steps can be daunting – and even if you are accustomed to managing project budgets, the process takes time. In practice, it may be more important that you focus on your company’s core line of business.

One solution is to contract out the process of managing your corporate office relocation, from start to finish. K-Mark provides expert office relocation project management services, potentially saving you time, money and frustration.

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