Budgeting, Cost Control, and Work Planning
This domain tests the money and scheduling side of UVM: how work is estimated, budgeted, scheduled, and controlled when tree populations, access, and emergencies vary.
Core rules and concepts
- Build budgets from work units: per tree, per mile, per acre, per removal, plus overhead, disposal, traffic control, and contractor markup.
- Separate routine cycle work, hot-spot work, emergency reserve, and capital or special projects; fixed costs do not disappear when production falls.
- Use historical productivity (trees per crew-day, miles per day) and adjust for species, size, terrain, access, and clearance requirements.
- Track commitments, actuals, and variance; reforecast when weather, access denials, or emergency work changes the plan.
- Compare in-house and contractor costs on a fully loaded basis; award and manage contracts with clear specifications and unit prices.
Worked example
A $600,000 budget is planned at $60 per routine tree for 8,000 trees ($480,000). Hold 10% ($60,000) as emergency reserve. The remaining $60,000 covers 200 large removals at $300 each. If access denials cut routine production by 10%, the plan must reforecast rather than assume the original tree count.
Traps that cost marks
Applying one average unit cost to a mixed workload; omitting overhead and disposal; spending the emergency reserve on routine work; and reporting budget spent instead of work completed and risk reduced.