Starting your accreditation process – Tip #3: Establish a budget
There’s more to an accreditation budget than paying the application fee.
Consider these other factors when you establish your project budget:
- Figure out the hourly rate of all staff members involved in the process (salary + benefits, divided by the number of hours per year that they work – typically 2000)
- Figure out the average number of hours per week each person will be able to dedicate to the project
- Now that you have the weekly cost of the project, multiply that by the number of weeks in your project timeline.
- Be sure to add in technology costs, application fees, consultant fees, conferences, travel, etc.
- Take a deep breath.
- Now make sure everyone is aware of the budget and the impact delays will have on the bottom line.
Knowing the real cost will help with decision making, and calculating return on investment (ROI) when considering options such as consultants or technology purchases to speed up the process.