NACUFS OPERATING PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING SURVEY

Transcription

1 NACUFS OPERATING PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING SURVEY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS The following is a listing of the basic questions that often come up when filling out the benchmarking questionnaire. We have tried to make what we consider to be the most logical response. It may not be the only answer based on the variety of colleges and universities responding. Our response will hopefully be the most common answer. If you need further guidance or have questions not addressed in this document, please contact the association s executive director, Dr. Joseph H. Spina, at 517/ , or send an to jhspina@msu.edu. Dr. Spina will have a benchmarking consultant contact you for one-on-one assistance. This consultant may be one of the NACUFS benchmarking training facilitators or a representative from Industry Insights, Inc. GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION QUESTIONS 1. I don t have all the requested information. Can I leave some of the survey items blank? Answer: Yes, feel free to leave some blanks. However, the more information you provide, the more detailed will be your customized Individual Operator s Report. 2. What if my fiscal year ends on a day other than December 31 st? Answer: This is no problem. Just provide full year results for your fiscal year ending closest to December 31, For example, your year may end on June 30, 2005 or September 30, Use these dates rather than December 31, 2005.

2 3. Why isn t there a less than $1million sales grouping in the final report? Answer: We have produced this in some years of the survey and will do so again in the future if we receive a sufficient sample size of respondents to this category. This has not been the case in the past few years. 4. Is it possible to request a customized report of specific participating institutions? Answer: Yes, for an additional fee of $100, you can request a special aggregation of 6 or more specific institutions that have participated in the most recent survey and have granted permission to be included in these custom reports. (Only aggregated group information will be provided rather than individual institution figures, due to confidentiality considerations). The opportunity to order a customized report is only available to current survey participants. These will be available once the overall survey has been completed. SURVEY QUESTIONS Background Information Items 1. Line number 5: Asks for the number of enrolled students during the fall. Should I average my fall and spring enrollment? Does this include graduate students as well as undergraduate students? Answer: Only use the fall semester enrollment unless there is a substantial difference between the fall and spring enrollment. If there is, then average the enrollment. You should make a note in your personal documentation regarding this change from the directions. If, in line 1, you checked off that your campus serves 4 year + graduate, then you should list graduate students in your count. 2. Line number 6: Asks for the average number of enrolled students that are residential and commuter. Should I average the number of enrolled students between the two semesters or three quarters? Should I include the summer session in my average? Answer: Yes, you should average your semesters or quarters. You should not include summer session in your answer. 3. Line number 7: Asks for the average number of students who participated in meal plans during the most recently completed fiscal year or calendar year. Should I average participation between semesters or quarters? Should I omit the summer session from this average? Can I use my highest fall count to show my best participation? Answer: You should average your semesters or quarters to show the correct relationship of meal plan participation to revenue and expense. You should not include your summer meal plan counts, particularly if they are small. This will skew your results. Using just your fall meal plan counts will also skew the results. 4. Line number 8: I operate a warehouse (or a bakery, or a central commissary or a laundry); where do I put the square footage for these operations? Answer: List the square footage of these operations in Sq. Ft. All Other. If your warehouse services other non-food service departments, be sure that you only include the square footage of the warehouse that supports your food service operations that you are reporting in this survey.

3 Income Statement Items Revenue Lines I operate a warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) that charges a fee to all units for products purchased by them. Should I list this revenue under other operations? Answer: Since you are charging a fee, the warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) could be considered another unit similar to a cash operation. However, it is not a cash operation as defined by this survey and should be considered an Other Operation. 2. I collect revenue during the summer months for summer conferences and summer camps. Where do I list this revenue? Answer: If possible, extract summer conference and summer camp revenue and list it under Other Operations. 3. How do I treat my summer conference business/events in terms of revenue and expense when they are part of a board or a cash operation? Is it okay to put these into board and cash operations or do I have to move the revenue and expense to catering or other operations? Answer: This can be your choice. What ever you do, please be consistent from year to year. Some institutions will handle many conferences over the summer and will place the participants on summer meal plans. If you are content calling this board income and wish to also count the expense as part of your board operation (or cash operation), this is okay as long as you are consistent from year to year in your calculations. If you run a summer catering operation out of your board or cash operation, you will have to break out the sales and expenses that represent the true catered event. However, if your summer conference guests are on a meal plan or pay cash for their meals, it might be easier to count them as board or cash customers in your respective facilities. 4. Do I list my Convenience Store revenue under the Other Operations? Answer: No. The instructions state to exclude any Convenience Store data. There is a separate section on the back page relating to Convenience Store Operating Information. 5. If I have Declining Balance Meal Plans, as well as Board Meal Plans, where a pre-set amount of Points are deducted upon entrance to the facility, can I include this revenue as part of my Board Plan (meal plan) revenue in line 4? Answer: Yes, include all the revenue from both types of plans in this line. Direct Expense Lines Line 10: Asks about my exempt employee wages. What is the best way to distribute exempt wages between board, cash, catering, other operations and convenience stores? Answer: Most respondents will use income generated by each category as a percentage of their total income and then divide the exempt wages by these percentages. If a portion of exempt wages are allocated to a non-foodservice function, such as a bookstore or post office management. Please exclude a reasonable portion of these wages from this survey.

4 2. I operate a warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) that charges a fee to all units for products purchased by them. Should I list the expenses of the warehouse, etc, under other operations? Answer: Since you are charging a fee, the warehouse, (or bakery, or commissary) could be considered another unit similar to a cash operation. However it is not a cash operation as defined by this survey and should be considered an Other Operation. 3. I operate a warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) that does not charge a fee to all units for products delivered to them. Should I list the expenses of the warehouse, etc. under other operations? Answer: If possible you should try to allocate the expenses of the warehouse, etc. to each of the units serviced by the warehouse, etc. You should use a reasonable % break down for board, cash, catering and other, based on the services provided. You should provide the appropriate expense break down for all lines from Direct Expense Line 10 through line 22 if possible. 4. If I collect revenue during the summer months for summer conferences and summer camps and list this revenue under Other Operations, should I also list my expenses under Other Operations? Answer: Yes, if you extracted your summer conference and summer camp revenue and listed it under Other Operations, then you also need to extract all expenses as well and list them, under Other Operations. 5. I operate a Central Administrative Office. Where do I list the expenses for this office? Answer: If possible you should try to allocate the expenses of the Central Administrative Office to all units serviced by this office. Line number 10 requires you to allocate your Central Administrative Office exempt salaries between board, cash, catering and other operations. You should do the same for Central Administrative Office non-exempt wages, student wages, temporary employment costs, benefits, supplies, and other Central Administrative office direct expenses. You may want to allocate these expenses on a reasonable percentage like income generated by each type of operation. 6. What category should I consider a Graduate Assistant? Answer: Consider Graduate Assistants under the most appropriate area for the work performed. If they work in catering, place them in catering expense. If they work in an administrative capacity, place them under administrative expenses. The actual payroll expense category may vary by institution. Please place this expense in payroll line that is utilized by your institution for a graduate assistant. (Either exempt, non-exempt, student or temporary). 7. Line 14: Asks about benefits. I am confused about vacation benefits? Most institutions will calculate a single percentage of full time labor (exempt and nonexempt) as their annual budgeted figure and charge this off to each operating unit in the budget process and then at the end of the fiscal year, make an adjustment to actual. The survey asks for vacation expenses to be included in benefits. Is it okay to leave vacation expenses in exempt wages (line 10) and non-exempt wages (line 11) and not include it in benefits? Answer: Yes. If all vacation expenses are charge backs to the home unit as payroll costs, it is okay to record it as a payroll expense.

5 8. Line 20: What can I consider a Miscellaneous Direct Expense? What is the difference between a direct expense and an indirect expense? What costs make up Miscellaneous Direct Expenses? Answer: A direct expense is generally considered to be an expense that you have Direct control over. It is an expense that you have the ability to raise or lower. An Indirect expense is generally considered to be an expense that is dictated to you by your Budget Office or some other entity on your campus. For purposes of this report, telephone, travel, trash removal, postage, printing services, advertising, clothing and uniform purchases and rentals, dues and subscriptions and other items such as these can be considered direct expenses and should be listed under Miscellaneous Direct Expenses. All Other Expense Line Line 22: What type of items should be listed on, All Other Expenses Not Reported Above? Answer: This line should include all remaining expenses not listed in the direct expense section. These include capital costs, university administrative overhead allocations, rent, utilities, debt service, computer costs, debt service, interest expenses, informational technology charges, grounds, fuel, lights and power, water, security patrol, taxes and assessments, any extraordinary expenses, and any indirect expenses mandated to you should be listed in this area. 2. Line 22. The survey instructs me to place my computer costs in line 22 as indirect costs. What is the definition of computer costs? Answer: If the computer costs are the charges that are determined by your institution and billed to your department for the computer support, information technology services that keep your computers running and up to date, these are indirect and should be listed on line 22. Productivity Information Items Lines I operate a warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) that charges a fee to all units for products purchased by them. Do I report these personnel hours and costs in the productivity section? Answer: No. Because you charge a fee for the items you sell to your board and cash operations, you must exclude them from this section. In this case your warehouse, bakery or central commissary acts like a vendor selling your products and services. However, you would include the food and beverage that you sell from your warehouse, bakery or central commissary in line 6, Food and Beverage cost. 2. I operate a warehouse (or bakery, or central commissary) that does not charge a fee to all units for products delivered to them. What do I consider the hours and costs of these personnel? Answer: Consider these personnel under Operational Labor Hours and Operational Labor Costs. Allocate these hours and costs to the Board and Cash operations based upon a reasonable percentage. Exclude convenience store, catering, concession and central administrative areas. 3. Should I exclude summer conferences and summer camp productivity from all productivity questions? Answer: If you excluded summer conference and camp revenue and expenses from previous sections, then exclude this area from productivity information as well.

6 4. Why does the operational labor costs line in the productivity information section include fringe benefits? Answer: We are trying to capture the total labor cost from all sources. Fringe benefit expenses are an important part of labor costs. In previous surveys, employee benefits have ranged from 18.4% % of the total labor cost. Convenience Store Operating Information Items 1. What is the difference between sales of prepared food items and that of prepackaged resale items? Sales, costs of goods and ending inventory figures are requested for these items. How do I answer these line items? Answer: This section has been expanded this year to identify the difference between these two items. Prepared food items are foods that are made on premises from ingredients such as deli s, ice cream counters, fresh made beverages, pizza shops, and fresh baked cookies that are part of a convenience store sales mix. Prepackaged resale items represent all items that are already packaged when delivered to you. These would include items such as food, groceries, house wares, health and beauty items, film, snack foods, candy, gum, cards, magazines, bottled beverages and related items such as these. If you have trouble breaking these items apart, please make your best estimate, or, just complete the questions that address the total.