The time has finally come for you to move your office into a dream location, where your colleagues will feel motivated and inspired, your business will thrive, and your work environment will be just perfect. Although office moving is an exciting time for most companies, it does come along with some headaches and stress if handled without a proper plan, especially when it comes to financially backing the project.
Part of the preparation for an office move is to create a budget in advance that will help you stay organized and spend adequately during all stages. To help you, we’ll go through every phase of creating an office move budget, give you pointers on how to create one yourself, and share an example template that you can conveniently use.
Buckle up, here we go!
Benefits of having an office relocation budget
Although this task seems a bit frightening to most, it comes along with a wide range of benefits that can help you make the process easier for you, your colleagues, and any involved partners. It is common to wrongfully assume that creating an office move budget requires outstanding mathematical skills and complex calculations. Luckily, this couldn’t be further from the truth. We’ll show you in a few moments but first, let’s look at all the reasons to set your budget before you begin moving out and settling in your new office location.
Get a realistic overview of the cost of the office move project
The most evident benefit of an office relocation budget is to provide a realistic picture of how much money your company will need to invest in the move. The last thing you want is for this project to affect other parts of your business as a result of poor planning. Keep in mind that even if at first you pressure that changing your office location won’t burn a hole in your pocket, it could actually turn out to be a costly experience. Planning your budget in advance will help you stay stable and confident during the process.
Keep track of your finances
Moving offices is certainly challenging, time-consuming, and quite demanding. It is easy to start spending on things that arise last minute. You could forget that you need office moving professionals and call for emergency help, which could be more costly with some providers. Considering that you can’t put a stop to the office moving once it has started, you are likely to be pressured into spending on anything that comes up, which may affect the speed of the move. This is natural as you want your business to continue running smoothly but you can prevent it by knowing your expenses from the start.
Reduce your expenses
You don’t want to spend more than you can afford and you’ll surely want to minimize costs where possible. Setting up a budget for your corporate relocation will help you stay one step ahead of events. It will also require you to do a bit of research to receive quotes for any third-party services that you may need, ultimately leading to reduced expenses at the end of the project.
Keep your office relocation team organized and on time
In short, an office move budget guarantees that everything runs smoothly according to plan, with no unexpected surprises that may cause trouble along the way. All sounds great, but how do you find out the costs associated with an office move and how do you set your budget?
Setting your office move budget
1. List your basic office costs
Тhere will inevitably be basic expenses that an office accumulates during the month. These will be transferred from your old office location to your new office. But will they stay the same? Will you be switching providers or can you expect similar costs? Are you planning to buy new office supplies or will you move your existing ones along with everything else?
Some of these “basic”costs include:
- Electricity bills
- Gas expenses
- Water costs
- Telephone bills
- Internet expenses
- Stationary
- Machine use (printer, fax machines)
Make a list of these and add them together to see what your monthly basic expenses look like for your new office.
2. List your new office rental expenses
You may choose to include your monthly office rent expenses (if any) as part of your moving budget or you can plan this expenditure separately. However, it may be a good idea to include at least the first payment and the deposit in your budgeting for the office relocation as they are likely to be made around the time of the move. Of course, this will vary depending on the terms you’ve negotiated with your landlord and may not be relevant at all if you are the owner of the new office space.
3. Write down the costs of any new equipment or other products that you will need
A lot of office equipment is pricey and requires financial preparation. Write down all of the new equipment, furnishing, or other products that you will need to purchase to ensure a smooth relocation and provide everything necessary to your employees or colleagues. Will you need new office desks, more chairs, or additional equipment for the new office? Are you planning to hire more people as part of the office move if the space is larger and the company growing?
Make a note of anything that comes to mind and check online for the prices of every product or equipment that you will need. You don’t have to be precise in the numbers but rather write down an estimate that will help you get an orientation about the full cost of the move.
4. Add any potential repair costs required
In a perfect world, repair costs won’t be necessary but this is not always the case. Whether your old office needs repainting or your new office will need a change of flooring, the expenses all fall under the category office move costs. If you have rented your old office, you may need to freshen it up before returning it back to your landlord. This will depend on the agreement you’ve signed with them and may not always be obligatory. On the other hand, if you’re selling the old office space to buy a new one, you will probably want to increase the property value by a light renovation and some repair work.
And what about the office that you’ll be moving into? Is it complete and does it allow you to directly settle in or does it require some additional work? Make a note of all the repair tasks and set a price estimate based on the quotes you’ve received from technicians. If you’re working with repair professionals, don’t forget to ask if the materials will be included in the cost or you’ll need to buy them yourself.
5. Don’t forget to make add in the costs of the actual move – using professional movers
Another factor to consider for your office moving budget is the actual transportation costs. Most people prefer to move offices using the help of professional movers who can offer support with the packing and safe transportation of all the furniture, work equipment, expensive and rare materials or files, and more. Do your research and get quotes from different local movers and check for customer reviews to choose the best partner for the job. Make a note of the associated costs and you’ll notice that your budget is starting to form already!
Here’s is a quick snapshot of all the costs involved with the actual move:
- Packing materials
- Professional office moving service fees
- Car fuel (relevant if you are moving offices without the help of experts)
- Car rental (relevant if you are moving offices without the help of experts)
- Waste disposal
- Professional cleaning services
*Always work by following a strategy
*Get quotes from third-party suppliers that can help
*Move according to preset deadlines & timeframes
Creating your own office move budget template
Now that we’ve covered the most important things that you need to take note of when forming your budget, it’s time to move on to organizing everything nicely into a template that you can follow. We’ll share with you our own office relocation budget template for inspiration or use but we’d also like to go through the steps to making your own, personalized one as well.
Step 1: Creating categories
Categories are a great way to help you keep organized and to help all employees or third parties involved to quickly understand your office move budget sheet without wasting too much time. Divide all of the items that you’ll be budgeting for into separate categories. Most commonly, these will include things like basic office costs, property costs, packing materials, professional movers, self-moving expenses, storage, and others which are relevant to your office move project.
Step 2: List down all items
Using the categories that you’ve already created, start making a list of all the pieces that fall under each category. You can be as detailed as you wish at the start and gradually remove any items which are not relevant for you. The list is likely to be quite lengthy at first but as you start researching and preparing it could slim down dramatically. Use some of the ideas that we’ve provided in this article but also include things that are specific to your workplace and moving plan.
Step 3: Make space for the costs
Next up, it’s time to organize your expenses columns. When you first start making your budget template, you’re likely to make a note of the average costs of each item. For example, you may have received a few quotes from office movers and written down an average expense. When you choose your partner, the cost may be different from the one that you’ve calculated on average. This is why we advise you to create three separate columns for your costs:
- 1. Estimated Cost
- 2. Actual Cost
- 3. Reduced Amount
The reduced amount section is optional and relevant to have in case you are working towards lowering your budget. The column could be used to quickly show management or colleagues how you’ve managed to cut the costs of the project.
Step 4: Add a subtotal section
At last, you’re ready for the ultimate section – the subtotal. Make some space on your budget plan where you can add everything up and see how much you have estimated to spend and how much you’ve actually spent in the end.
How to cut the costs of moving offices
Ideally, while moving offices, you should always strive to avoid overspending. Although the expense will be corporate, why not make things lighter on your company instead of going all-in with the costs? The project does have a level of complexity but creating a plan will keep you organized and confident.
We’d like to share a few tricks that you could use to cut down the expenses of the moving project.
Repair & remanufacture
Unsurprisingly, one of the largest investments of relocating offices is purchasing new furniture and equipment to be installed in your new location. When settling into your new working space it is normal to want to offer your employees and colleagues a fresh new environment with new items. But is it really necessary?
You could easily change the setting by doing something different with the paintwork or moving the old furniture around to create a whole new interior. Rather than disposing of your old equipment and furniture, see what can be repaired or redone to fit another purpose at the office. This step alone can significantly take the weight off your overall budget.
Resell anything you can
What do you plan to do with any equipment that is now redundant and no longer useful for your company? For convenience and a quicker process, most people will choose to get rid of it and throw it away, even if there is still life left in the product. Regardless of whether we’re talking about furniture, equipment, even stationary – you could easily get some money back from your initial investment by reselling.
There is a range of online platforms that you could use, social media groups, and offline channels that can help you find buyers who would love to use your old office materials and equipment. If you feel that this is too time-consuming, hire an expert for help with advertising and finding potential buyers.
Rent out expensive items where possible instead of buying
The beauty of planning early on is that it allows you to make amendments where possible to cut costs down. When you’ve made a list of all of the new furniture or machinery that you will need to invest in for your new office location, see what can be rented instead of bought. Of course, things like laptops and other technology, in most cases, should be owned by the company but there are other things such as printers, fax machines, copiers, and more that could easily be rented.
Do your research to identify whether renting will be more cost-efficient as opposed to purchasing to see if you will truly be lowering the expenses of your move as opposed to adding on to them.
Plan for the future
What most people don’t take into consideration when moving offices is the long-term objectives of the company. Planning your budget to move into an office that will only cater to your current needs may turn out to be quite costly in the long run.
Where possible, adapt your budget to the needs of the company over time and consider the changes that are likely to happen. If your plan is to grow, plan with a 10% increase in the numbers of employees and the size of the business in mind. Make some space for new colleagues and always leave room for growth rather than restricting the space as much as you can. This may seem like a useless expense at the moment but it will save you so much in the long-term, especially if you have to move the whole office again in a few months just because your company will be hiring new employees.
Minimize waste where possible
Sending equipment to landfill is quite an expensive endeavour and projections are that will continue to rise in cost over time. Regardless of whether you’re moving your home or office, creating waste during the process is inevitable. You can lower your disposal costs by recycling all that cannot be used again. Although it is difficult to plan how much waste you’ll be able to successfully recycle, in the end, you will notice that your budget has significantly been lowered from the initial amount.
It’s time to create your office relocation budget
We’ve come to the best part – the actual budget creation. We hope that the information we’ve shared with you will help you quickly and accurately plan for your office move and will turn the process into an enjoyable experience.