FF&E plans

An FF&E plan is one hotel’s reserve plan: the revenue it expects, the share of revenue the management agreement sets aside for furniture, fixtures and equipment, the items it intends to buy in each of the next five years, and whether the reserve will hold.

If you don’t see this in your navigation, your administrator can switch the module on under Administration → Modules, or it may not be included in your plan.

The FF&E plans register with no plans started yet

Opening the screen needs View FF&E plans and the reserve each one forecasts. Areas and product types opens the FF&E settings, where the areas (departments) and product types items are filed under, and the replacement reasons, are kept.

The years

Year 0 is the year the hotel is in now. Year 1 is the first year the plan spends in, and the plan runs to Year 5. Year 0 is typed as totals; Years 1 to 5 are added up from the items.

The register

Stat strip: plans, drafts, out for approval and ending below zero.

Banner	What it means
These reserves end Year 5 below zero	The plan intends to spend more from the reserve than it will hold. Revenue, the rate or the items have to move, or some spend becomes owner funded
Approved, with no budget heads opened	Year 1 was approved and has nothing to be charged to until somebody with the release permission opens its heads

Column	What it shows
Plan	Name and code
Hotel	The hotel (site)
Years	Year 1 to Year 5
Status	Draft, Out for approval or Approved, with a count of blocking checks or checks to read
Items	How many items
Year 1 spend	With the split between FF&E reserve and owner funded
Five-year total	Total planned spend
Reserve at end of Year 5	The forecast closing balance

There is no rejected status: a plan turned down goes back to draft with the reason shown first on the plan, as Came back to draft.

Starting a plan

New plan needs Start an FF&E plan for a hotel.

The New plan form for an FF&E plan: hotel, calendar, years, currency, the hotel as it stands and the reserve opening figures

Section	Field	What it means	Notes
What the plan is	Name	What the owner sees in a list of every hotel’s plan	Required
	Description	Longer explanation
Which hotel, and which years	Hotel	The site the plan is for	Required
	Calendar	The fiscal calendar	Required. Year 1 becomes budget heads in this calendar’s year. If none exists the form links to fiscal calendars
	Year 1	The first year the plan spends in	Required. The form shows which year is Year 0
	Currency	The plan’s currency	Required
	Budget exchange rate	What one unit of the plan’s currency is worth in the company’s currency, at the rate fixed for this round	Appears when the plan’s currency differs from the company’s. Without it, the plan cannot be sent and its heads cannot be opened
The hotel as it stands	Date of opening, Number of rooms, Number of outlets, Last renovation	What the plan was prepared against	Carried on the plan, so next year’s can differ
Where the reserve starts	Reserve brought forward	What the reserve held when Year 0 began	Below zero if overspent
	Year 0 purchases	Booked so far this year plus the forecast for the rest
	Year 0 owner funded	Owner-funded spend this year
	FF&E % as per HMA	The share of revenue the management agreement sets aside	Applied to all six years; can be changed per year later

Click Start the plan.

Inside a plan

The plan opens at /ffe-plans/ followed by its identifier, so a link to a plan can be shared. The header shows how many items, Year 1 spend and the reserve at the end of Year 5.

Button	When	What it does	Permission
Edit	Draft	Changes the plan header and Year 0 figures	Change a draft FF&E plan, import it from a workbook, and submit it
Import workbook	Draft	Imports the hotel’s filled-in FF&E workbook — see below	Same
Submit	Draft	Sends it for approval. Disabled while blocking checks fail or the exchange rate is missing. Where nobody else has to sign, it is approved straight away	Same
Take it back	Out for approval	Returns it to draft and cancels the waiting approval, with an optional reason. Only the person who sent it	Same
Open budget heads	Approved	Opens Year 1’s items as budget heads	Release money into a budget, and change what it is sanctioned for
Delete plan	Draft	Removes the plan and all its items	Remove a draft FF&E plan nobody has submitted

Summary tab

Laid out like the workbook’s Summary sheet:

Section	What it shows
The hotel	H code, hotel, city, date of opening, years in operation, rooms, outlets, last renovation, currency and budget exchange rate
The reserve	Per year: Total revenue, FF&E % as per HMA, FF&E provision, Reserve at year start, FF&E purchases, Reserve at year end and Owner funded expenditures
Revenue and rates	Edit revenue and the FF&E % for Years 1 to 5. Grow from Year 0 by a yearly percentage and Fill Years 1 to 5 to project revenue. A box left empty keeps what that year already holds; the rate is a percentage — 4 means four per cent
Spend by area and product type	Each year’s spend per area and product type, split by funding, with totals of which from the FF&E reserve and of which owner funded

Area tabs

One tab per area (department), with New investments and Replacements listed separately, in the workbook’s order. Each item shows Project #, Item, Reason, Product type, Funding, Last purchased, Life cycle, each year’s amount, Total and Budget head. Add item opens:

Field	What it means	Notes
Project number	Assigned when the item is saved, and never changes	Quote it when the purchase comes back for approval
Item / Description	What is being bought
Area / Product type	Where it is filed	Choose the area first
Investment	New investment or Replacement
Funding source	FF&E reserve or Owner funded	Owner-funded items are reported beside the reserve and do not draw it down
Reason	From your list; choose “Others” for anything else
Last purchased	The year it was last bought	A four-digit year
Life cycle (years)	Expected life, 1 to 100	Shows when it is due for replacement
The five years	Qty and Unit price per year; Amount is worked out	Zero or more

Replacing an item before its life cycle is up is allowed, with a warning to say why in the description.

Checks tab

Blocking findings and warnings with the project number, plan and what is wrong, worked out again every time the plan is read.

Importing the workbook

Import workbook reads the hotel’s filled-in .xlsx workbook — the Summary sheet and one sheet per department. Nothing is written until you have seen what it would change and pressed Import.

Choose a workbook, then Check. An older .xls file must be saved as .xlsx first.
Review The years it plans — revenue and FF&E % in the workbook against what is on the plan now.
Under Which area each sheet is, confirm or choose the area for each department sheet. A guess is filled in where the sheet name matches an area.
Under Reasons your list does not have, map any reason the workbook spells differently.
Fix anything listed as unreadable or blocking in the workbook, then Import. It reports how many items were added, updated and taken off. Importing the same workbook again changes nothing.

Budgets

Where Year 1’s items become heads to charge purchases against.

Capex planning

The capital planning round for non-hotel organisations.

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The years

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Summary tab

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Importing the workbook

Budgets

Capex planning

​The years

​The register

​Starting a plan

​Inside a plan

​Summary tab

​Area tabs

​Checks tab

​Importing the workbook

Budgets

Capex planning

The years

The register

Starting a plan

Inside a plan

Summary tab

Area tabs

Checks tab

Importing the workbook