User Story: Financial Asset Management Dashboard

1. Problem Statement

The Asset Manager is responsible for the financial lifecycle of all utility assets, from budget allocation to replacement and disposal. However, they lack a consolidated view that connects financial performance to asset operations, making it difficult to control costs, optimize spending, and justify financial decisions.

Key Pain Points:

Siloed Financial Data: Financial information like CapEx, OpEx, and maintenance spend is tracked in separate systems from operational data, preventing a holistic view of asset performance.
Poor Cost Control: Difficulty in tracking budget vs. actual spend in real-time, leading to budget overruns and reactive financial management.
Hidden Cost Drivers: Inability to easily identify which specific assets or activities are incurring the highest maintenance costs or driving unplanned emergency repairs.
Ineffective Long-Term Planning: Struggling to forecast future financial needs for asset replacement without a clear view of assets approaching the end of their lifecycle and their associated costs.

Core Problem: The lack of a unified financial dashboard prevents the Asset Manager from proactively managing asset-related expenditures, optimizing the balance between capital and operational costs, and making data-driven financial plans that maximize the value of every dollar spent.

2. Who is the User Facing the Problem?

Primary User: Asset Manager

This individual is responsible for the financial stewardship of the utility's asset portfolio. Their duties include developing capital and operational budgets, controlling maintenance expenditures, analyzing lifecycle costs, and ensuring that financial resources are allocated efficiently to support asset reliability and strategic goals.

3. Jobs To Be Done

For the Asset Manager:

When I need to present our quarterly financial performance to the executive board,
But I have to manually consolidate data from accounting, maintenance, and operations systems to explain our spending,
Help me by creating a single dashboard that visualizes all key financial metrics—from high-level budget variance to specific high-cost assets,
So that I can clearly communicate our financial position, justify our spending decisions, and proactively plan for future costs.

4. Solution

The solution is a comprehensive Financial Dashboard tailored to the needs of the Asset Manager. This dashboard will provide a real-time, multi-faceted view of all financial aspects of the asset portfolio, enabling effective cost control, budget management, and strategic financial planning.

Key Capabilities:

Financial Health Overview: Presents high-level financial KPIs at a glance: Total Asset Value, Budget Variance, Maintenance Spend, and Emergency Repair costs.
Expenditure Tracking (CapEx vs. OpEx): Provides a clear breakdown of Capital and Operating Expenditures for the current period and year-to-date, with detailed sub-categories.
Maintenance Cost Analysis: Offers a detailed breakdown of maintenance costs, including Planned vs. Unplanned spending and a "Maintenance % of Asset Value" metric to benchmark performance.
Lifecycle & Efficiency Metrics: Visualizes long-term costs through "Asset Lifecycle Cost" and tracks key performance indicators like "Preventive vs. Reactive" maintenance and "Cost per Unit Treated."
Budget vs. Actual Monitoring: Includes a dedicated chart to track CapEx and OpEx budget performance, immediately highlighting any over or under-spending.
Actionable Cost Insights: Features watchlists for "High Maintenance Cost Assets" and "Assets Approaching Replacement" to proactively identify and manage major cost drivers.
Asset Disposal Tracking: Monitors the financial value recovered from disposed assets, completing the financial lifecycle view.

5. Major Steps Involved (Asset Manager Workflow)

Monthly Financial Review: The Asset Manager opens the Financial Dashboard to prepare for their monthly review meeting. They immediately see a positive Budget Variance of +8.5%, but also high Downtime Costs ($125K).
Investigate Cost Drivers: They examine the OpEx breakdown and see that "Routine Maintenance" is a major component. The Maintenance Cost Breakdown shows that Unplanned spend ($89K) is a significant portion (31%) of the total.
Identify Problem Assets: The manager looks at the "High Maintenance Cost Assets" list and sees that "Pump Station #4" is costing $12K per month. They click "Review" to flag this for the O&M Manager to investigate for a potential replacement or overhaul.
Plan for Future Costs: They shift their focus to the "Assets Approaching Replacement" list. They see "Main Water Pump #1" needs replacement soon at a cost of $125K. They click "Plan Budget" to add this projected cost to the next fiscal year's CapEx forecast.
Report on Performance: The manager uses the "Budget vs. Actual Spend" chart and the "Cost Efficiency Metrics" to build their report, concluding that while the overall budget is on track, a strategic investment in replacing Pump Station #4 could reduce unplanned costs and improve efficiency.

6. Flow Diagram

Asset Manager - Financial Review & Planning Flow

mermaid

Source

graph TD

A[Login & Open Financial Dashboard] --> B{Review High-Level KPIs <br> Budget Variance, Downtime Costs};

B --> C{Analyze OpEx & Maintenance Breakdowns};

C --> D[Identify High Unplanned Spend];

D --> E{Review 'High Maintenance Cost Assets'};

E -- Asset Identified --> F[Click 'Review' to Flag for Investigation];

F --> G{Review 'Assets Approaching Replacement'};

G -- Future Cost Identified --> H[Click 'Plan Budget' to Add to Forecast];

H --> I[Use Dashboard Data to Prepare Financial Report];

7. Business Rules

General Rules:

The dashboard defaults to the current month and fiscal year-to-date, with options to filter by different periods.
All currency values are displayed in thousands (K) or millions (M) for readability.
Trend indicators (e.g., ↑) on KPIs like Budget Variance compare current spending against the planned budget for the period.

Formulas for Key Metrics:

Metric	Formula	Business Meaning for Asset Manager
Total Asset Value	`SUM(Purchase Price of Asset - Accumulated Depreciation)`	The current book value of the entire asset portfolio.
Budget Variance	`((Budgeted Spend - Actual Spend) / Budgeted Spend) * 100`	A primary indicator of financial control. A positive value indicates under-spending.
Maintenance % of Asset Value	`(Total Maintenance Spend / Total Asset Value) * 100`	A benchmark metric to assess if maintenance spending is appropriate for the portfolio's value.
Asset Lifecycle Cost	`SUM(Initial Cost + Operating Costs + Maintenance Costs - Disposal Value)`	The total cost of owning an asset, used for long-term financial planning and asset selection.
Preventive vs. Reactive	`(Planned Maintenance Work Orders / Total Maintenance Work Orders) * 100`	A key efficiency metric. A higher percentage indicates more proactive and cost-effective maintenance.

8. Sample Data

Asset Name	Monthly Cost	Type	Status	Replacement Cost
Pump Station #4	$12K	High Maintenance	Review	$250,000
Main Water Pump #1	$2K	Approaching Replacement	High Priority	$125,000
Treatment Plant #2	$9K	High Maintenance	Review	$5,000,000
Backup Generator #3	$1K	Approaching Replacement	Medium Priority	$85,000

9. Acceptance Criteria

The system must display the Total Asset Value based on the current book value.
The system must calculate and display the Budget Variance as a percentage.
The system must show separate totals for CapEx and OpEx for the current period and year-to-date.
The system must break down Maintenance Cost into Planned and Unplanned spending.
The system must calculate and display the "Maintenance % of Asset Value."
The "Budget vs Actual Spend" chart must accurately visualize spending against the allocated budget for both CapEx and OpEx.
The system must display the total Asset Disposal Value for the current period and year-to-date.
The system must display the three "Cost Efficiency Metrics": Preventive vs Reactive, Cost per Unit Treated, and Energy Efficiency.
The "High Maintenance Cost Assets" list must display the top 5 assets ranked by monthly maintenance spend.
The "Assets Approaching Replacement" list must display assets with a defined replacement date within the next 18 months, prioritized by cost and date.
The "Review" button on a high-cost asset must open a detailed view or flag the asset for follow-up.
The "Plan Budget" button must open a workflow to add a projected cost to a future budget cycle.
All financial KPIs must have a tooltip explaining how they are calculated.
The dashboard must load completely within 5 seconds.
All interactive elements must provide a visual cue on hover.

10. Process Changes

From (Current Process)	To (New Process)	Impact Analysis
Reviewing financial performance from static, month-end accounting reports.	Monitoring financial performance in near real-time through an interactive dashboard.	Enables proactive cost control and reduces the risk of budget overruns by identifying issues mid-cycle instead of after the fact.
Unplanned maintenance costs are accepted as a cost of doing business.	Unplanned costs are actively tracked and linked back to specific "High Maintenance Cost Assets."	Shifts focus to root cause analysis, justifying strategic replacement (CapEx) to reduce long-term operational costs (OpEx).
Budget planning for replacements is based on asset age and general estimates.	Budget planning is driven by a specific list of "Assets Approaching Replacement" with defined costs and timelines.	Improves the accuracy of capital forecasting by 20-30% and ensures funds are allocated for known future needs.

11. Impact from Solving This Problem

Metric	How it Improves
✅ Cost Control & Budget Adherence	Real-time visibility into spending and variance allows for immediate corrective action, improving budget adherence.
✅ Reduced Operational Costs	By identifying and addressing high-cost assets, the manager can lower unplanned maintenance and downtime costs by an estimated 15-20%.
✅ Optimized CapEx/OpEx Balance	The dashboard provides the data needed to make strategic decisions, such as investing in new assets (CapEx) to lower long-term maintenance (OpEx).
✅ Improved Financial Forecasting	The "Assets Approaching Replacement" watchlist provides a clear pipeline of future capital needs, leading to more accurate and defensible long-range financial plans.

12. User Behavior Tracking

Question to Answer	Event to Track	Properties
Is the manager actively monitoring budget performance?	`Budget_Chart_Viewed`	`timestamp`, `date_filter_range`
What are the biggest areas of financial concern?	`Cost_Widget_Interacted`	`widget_name` ('High Maintenance Cost', 'Assets Approaching Replacement')
Is the manager taking action on high-cost assets?	`Asset_Action_Clicked`	`action_type` ('Review', 'Plan Budget'), `asset_id`, `asset_cost`
Are the efficiency metrics being used to gauge performance?	`Efficiency_Metric_Hovered`	`metric_name` ('Preventive vs Reactive')
What is the primary focus: short-term spend or long-term planning?	`Expenditure_Drilldown`	`expenditure_type` ('CapEx', 'OpEx'), `timeframe` ('Current Period', 'YTD')