Crew size These can be added up to get a total work-days. The effective number of full time staff is also found. The next calculation is to compute the quantity and cost of required material, based on the estimates in the maintenance task standards, and arrive at a total materials estimate. The particular tasks in the preceding calculations did not require specialized equipment, so a figure from a similar manual on roads and streets is provided. A summary cost sheet is then completed with the labour, material and equipment costs for each task, and the results are totalled.
Allowance is made for management, engineering and other costs.
These results are then passed into a full budget which has me items for crew labour, direct management, transport costs, administration, and pro-rated costs of central office, maintenance engineering staff etc. This type of computation will give an estimate of direct maintenance costs - but not a full operating budget. It will not have, for instance, the costs of chemicals and electric power necessary to run a full-scale water system, nor the operator salaries, unless they are expressly added in. The reader is referred to the WASH handbook, Estimating Operating and Maintenance costs for Water Supply Systems in Developing Countries, for guidance on preparing a full maintenance budget. Once the above steps have been completed for each system, and resource requirements prepared for each sector, an overall maintenance budget can be compiled.