What constitutes good record keeping for firms who perform building area measurements?
Accounting for square feet is like accounting for money. Attention and effort have to be expended to establish a formal system to track measurements made and applied to leases. It doesnt matter what form this system takes, but it should be significantly better that a typical architectural project file containing only a stack of old bum wads with pencil scratchings meaningful only to their authors. An effective database can be maintained using organized 3-ring binders and columnar pads, or a database in Excel or Access with archived CAD files, or using specialized custom software. Many architectural firms become mired in documents and keep them only as long as they are required under the statutes of repose and limitations in their state. In some states, this is as short as 7 years. Leases often extend for longer periods of time, which requires that record-keeping for building area measurements be accomplished differently than normal architectural project file record keeping.
