How to Budget for a Pole Attachment Audit

(Hint: You May Be Doing it Wrong!)

We’re back this month with more insight into pole attachment audits. We’ve discussed FAQs and Do’s and Dont’s … now we’re discussing budgeting.

In addition to these tips, don’t forget about our e-book: 7 steps to a successful pole attachment audit. Have a comment or question about what you’ve read? Reach out to us!

It is budget season for many utilities. For many, this means it is time to develop your wish list of projects and then try to cram them all into the budget, knowing they won’t all fit. For many of the utilities we work with in developing pole attachment audit projects, we will get feedback after the budgeting process that goes something like this: “Well, we couldn’t keep it in the budget this year. Maybe next year…” The problem with this approach is that it assumes the pole attachment audit is an expense for utilities. This is simply not the case for most utilities. The pole attachment audit is a project with a very quick payback for most utilities – often less than a year, depending on pole attachment/joint use agreements and the volume of poles to be inspected. This is not a question of spending money, but of recovering money you have already spent or getting paid for services you have already provided.

By delaying an audit, you are essentially providing an interest-free loan to your attachers.

In other words, unlike other projects in your budgeting process that are either a necessary cost, or a project with a long-term payback through some type of efficiency gain, pole attachment audits provide a near-term financial payback by recovering costs for services the pole owner has already provided.

When building your budget priority list, listing a pole attachment audit as a cost is simply delaying the financial payback your utility will receive. Instead, consider the payback associated with this project. If it has been more than five years since you have conducted an audit, delaying the project is costing your utility money.

How long do you want to wait to be paid for services you have already provided?