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Capital planning

Facility condition index and capital planning for campuses

Turn equipment age, condition and cost into the numbers a capital request needs: a deferred maintenance backlog, the Facility Condition Index for every building and a replacement plan for the next five to ten years.

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Facility Condition Index: campus FCI of 0.031 rated Good, deferred maintenance and replacement value, and FCI by building rated Good, Fair or Poor.

Sample data. Northfield University is a fictional campus.

The problem

Capital requests that arrive without evidence

Capital dollars are competitive. A request for a boiler or a roof lands in front of finance, the president or a board, and the first questions are always the same: how bad is it, how much is the whole backlog, and what is coming next year. Without records, the answer is a walk-through, a consultant or a spreadsheet assembled the week before the meeting.

The surprises are the expensive part. A chiller fails and its replacement was not in anyone's plan, because nobody had an installed date, a useful life and a cost estimate in the same place.

The Facility Condition Index, or FCI, gives the conversation a common measure. It comes from APPA and is the convention in higher education facilities: FCI equals deferred maintenance cost divided by current replacement value. Under 0.05 is rated Good, 0.05 to 0.10 is Fair, and over 0.10 is Poor. For example, a building worth $10 million with $400,000 of deferred maintenance has an FCI of 0.04, which is Good.

How BldgHelm handles it

From daily records to a defensible capital plan

The same equipment records your team keeps every day feed the plan. BldgHelm adds the cost side: replacement estimates, quotes, a backlog and building replacement values.

Replacement cost for a rooftop unit: an effective cost of 78,000 dollars labelled AI estimate, a low to high range, and a line-item breakdown for equipment, labor, removal, materials and permits.

  • Deferred maintenance backlog

    List unfunded work by building, with an optional equipment or room, description, estimated cost, priority (Life Safety, Code Compliance, Mission Critical or Deferrable), year identified and status (Open, Funded or Completed).

  • Suggestions from your records

    Equipment past its useful life, or rated condition 1 or 2, is suggested for the backlog. Accept items one at a time or in bulk, or add them from a work order or punch item.

  • FCI by building and campus

    FCI counts open and funded items, and completed items drop out. Buildings without a replacement value are listed and left out of the campus figure. Daily snapshots show the trend over time.

  • Replacement value you control

    Enter each building's current replacement value, or let the app estimate it from square footage and building type. Estimated values are always labelled as estimated.

  • AI replacement estimates, clearly labelled

    From any equipment page, generate a budget-level estimate with low, likely and high totals, line items for equipment, labor, removal, materials, permits, design and contingency, assumptions and a confidence level, adjusted for your campus location. Each is marked as an AI estimate with its date and is saved, never overwritten.

  • Contractor quotes take priority

    Enter an actual quote next to the estimate. When a quote exists, it replaces the AI estimate in the capital plan and the backlog.

  • Capital plan by year

    Equipment by estimated replacement year, which is install date plus expected useful life, together with backlog items in their planned year, totalled by year, building and priority for five or ten years.

  • Export for the meeting

    Export the capital plan and FCI report to PDF or Excel for budget meetings and board presentations.

How it works

From setup to a working routine

  1. Step 1: Enter replacement values

    Add a current replacement value to each building, or accept an estimate from square footage and building type and refine it later.

  2. Step 2: Record age, life and condition

    Each piece of equipment carries an install date, expected useful life and a condition rating from 1 to 5.

  3. Step 3: Estimate or quote replacement costs

    Generate an AI estimate for budgeting, and add contractor quotes as you collect them.

  4. Step 4: Build the backlog

    Review the suggestions, add items from work orders and punch lists, and set a priority and planned year.

  5. Step 5: Read the FCI and the plan

    See each building rated Good, Fair or Poor, then the year-by-year plan, and export it.

Condition data improves with preventive maintenance and punch list records feeding the backlog. Request a demo to see an FCI report with sample data.

Rooftop condensing units on a white membrane roof, with brick campus buildings behind.

Illustrative photo.

Who uses it

Built for everyone who touches a building

  • Facilities directors and managers

    Directors and facilities managers maintain values, review suggestions, generate estimates and own the backlog and plan.

  • Technicians

    Technicians do not see costs. Their condition ratings, work orders and punch items give managers the facts that feed the backlog.

  • Contractors

    Contractors see none of this. A quote is entered by your team, and estimates, the backlog and FCI are never visible to vendors.

  • Finance and leadership

    Finance and leadership use the read-only Viewer role to read the capital plan and FCI, and take the PDF or Excel exports into budget meetings.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is the Facility Condition Index?
FCI is deferred maintenance cost divided by current replacement value, for a building or a whole campus. A lower number means a healthier building. The convention comes from APPA.
What counts as a good FCI?
Under 0.05 is rated Good, 0.05 to 0.10 is Fair, and over 0.10 is Poor. BldgHelm applies these lines to every building and to the campus, and always shows the rating as a word as well as a color.
How accurate are the AI estimates?
They are budget-level estimates, not bids. Each is labelled as an AI estimate with its date, shows a range and a confidence level, and lists its assumptions. When you add a contractor quote, the quote takes priority.
Does this replace a facility condition assessment?
No. BldgHelm does not inspect your buildings. It calculates FCI from the replacement values, equipment conditions and costs your team records, and it does not replace a professional assessment.
Do we need a replacement value for every building?
For the campus FCI, buildings without a value are listed and left out, so the figure only covers buildings that have one. You can enter values yourself or use an estimate based on square footage and building type, which is always labelled as estimated.
Who can see costs and estimates?
Owner Admins, Facilities Managers and read-only Viewers. Technicians and contractors cannot see estimates, the backlog, FCI or costs.

Keep reading

Related solutions

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A brick college quad on a clear day, with lawns, crossing paths and a few students in the distance.