Replacement Forecast Report

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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The Replacement Forecast report lists information about expected replacement of units due to age. Information for this report is taken from the Value section of a unit record. (For more, see Editing Units.)

In order for a unit to be listed in the replacement forecast, the unit record must have replacement-related information. Specifically:

• Either the record has a non-blank "Scrap Date" exists, or the record has a non-blank "Purchase Date" and a "Typical Life" greater than zero.
• Either the record has a non-blank "Replacement Cost Last Date" or a non-blank "Purchase Date"

To print a replacement forecast, go to Units | Reports | Replacement Forecast. The window contains the following:

Grouping section: Options controlling how the report is organized.

Group by list: These options determine how the report is broken into sections. Each section will start with a heading, and may have a footer as well. If you select a Group by option, one or more Then group by lists may appear to let you break sections into subsections.

Sort Direction: Determines whether grouping will go from lowest to highest (Ascending) or highest to lowest (Descending). Sort Direction options only appear if you pick an option where sort direction is relevant.

Sorting section: Options controlling how the contents of groups are sorted.

Sort by list: These options determine how records are sorted within each group. If you select a Sort by option, one or more Then sort by lists may appear to let you refine the sorting process.

Sort Direction: Determines whether sorting will go from lowest to highest (Ascending) or highest to lowest (Descending). Sort Direction options only appear if you pick an option where sort direction is relevant.

Filtering section: Options controlling which units will be included in the report. The window lets you select units in several ways:

Show deleted records: If this box is checkmarked, the report will include deleted records. Otherwise, deleted records are omitted from the report.

Unit Filters: Make selections based on basic unit information. For example, if you filter by Unit Location, you can restrict the print-out to units at a particular location (e.g. all units in a specific building).

Unit Value Filters: Make selections based on other properties of the unit. For example, if you filter by Purchase Vendor, you can restrict the print-out to units purchased from a particular vendor.

Advanced section: Miscellaneous options.

Suppress Costs: Omits any money information that might otherwise be displayed in the report.

Title: The title to be printed at the beginning of the report.

Font Size: The font size to be used for all standard characters in the print-out (i.e. anything that isn't a heading).

Main Font: The font that will be used for most of the characters in the report. This should be a font that is supported by both your Windows system and your printer.

Fixed-width Font: The font that will be used for information that is printed with fixed-width characters (mostly unit specifications). This should be a font that is supported by both your Windows system and your printer.

Inflation rate (%): The expected annual inflation rate to be used in estimating replacement costs. For example, if you enter 5, MainBoss will calculate costs using an annual 5% inflation rate.

In a unit record, replacement costs should be estimated using current dollars (i.e. current prices, not adjusted for inflation). To account for inflation, you set "Inflation rate (%)" to a possible inflation rate; MainBoss will then calculate future replacement costs using this rate.

You might want to run the report several times using different inflation rates to get an idea of replacement costs under various economic conditions.

Show checkboxes: A list of checkboxes that let you determine what information is displayed in the report. If a box is checkmarked, that type of information will be displayed; if a box is blank, that type of information will not be displayed.

Preview section: Displays a visual preview of the report. If you click the Preview button, you automatically go to this section.

The Preview section contains buttons for looking through the report preview and for actually printing the information. For more on using the Preview section, see Report Buttons.

Preview: Clicking this button generates a preview of the report, displayed in the Preview section of the window.

Print: Immediately prints the report.

Export Data: Exports the report's data in XML format.

Cancel: Cancels the preparation and printing of a report. This button is enabled only when MainBoss is preparing a report, i.e. gathering the data and formatting it. For more information, see Report Buttons.

Close: Closes the window.

For general information on MainBoss reports, see Reports. For more on units, see Units.

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