Unit 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This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.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 Unit 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.)

The more information you record in the unit record's Value section, the better your replacement forecasts will be. If you don't fill in some of the section's fields, MainBoss will do its best to choose substitute values; however, the results will probably be less reliable.

If too many Value fields are blank, MainBoss will not be able to calculate meaningful information. In this case, MainBoss will either omit forecast values or will completely omit the unit from the report.

The Replacement Forecast report is designed to calculate the replacement costs for units once the units reach the end of their operational lives. There are many ways this can work, but here are a few examples:

When you purchase a unit, you specify the purchase cost and the unit's expected lifetime as given by the manufacturer. MainBoss then calculates the unit's expected end-of-life date, increases the purchase cost to account for inflation, and gives you the result as the expected replacement cost.
Periodically, you might review your units and enter new replacement cost estimates. For example, you might say, "If we had to replace this unit today, we'd have to pay $1000." MainBoss would then calculate the unit's expected end-of-life date and would inflate the $1000 appropriately to get the actual expected replacement cost.
After a unit has been in operation for a while, you may set a "Scrap Date" estimate that is different from "Purchase Date" plus "Typical Life". In this case, MainBoss will calculate replacement cost based on the "Scrap Date" you set (again using price information inflated by an appropriate amount).

Many other scenarios are possible. In each case, MainBoss applies a given rate of inflation to obtain an estimate of the final replacement cost for a unit. You set your expected rate of inflation in the Advanced section of the window for generating the report.

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

When calculating values for the Replacement Forecast report, the following rules apply:

If you specify a "Scrap Date" and a "Purchase Date", the unit's lifetime will be calculated as "Scrap Date" minus "Purchase Date"; in this case, "Typical Life" will be ignored (since "Scrap Date" is taken to be more authoritative)
MainBoss must calculate an expected end-of-life date for the unit. This will be:

The "Scrap Date" if given
The "Purchase Date" plus "Typical Life" if "Scrap Date" is not given; if the unit record doesn't give a "Purchase Date", MainBoss assumes the unit was purchased today
Today's date if neither of the two preceding options is available, or if the options give a date in the past; for example, if "Scrap Date" is in the past but the unit is still active, MainBoss uses today's date as the end of the unit's life

MainBoss must also calculate a "basis cost" to be used in determining the actual replacement cost. This is the cost that will be inflated to determine the final replacement cost. The basis cost is:

The "Replacement Cost" if given
The "Purchase Cost" if there is no "Replacement Cost"

Note that "Scrap Value" is never used in determining the replacement cost. "Scrap Value" is assumed to have nothing to do with replacement cost.

The assumptions listed above may sometimes give unsatisfactory cost estimates. However, they are considered to be the best choices available in the absence of useful information.

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

Grouping section: Options controlling how the report is broken into sections and sub-sections.

Show summary footer for the overall report: If this box is checkmarked, the report will include a final line summarizing information from the entire report. If the box is blank, no such line will be included.

Sorting section: Options controlling how records are sorted within each section and sub-section.

For more on how to use Grouping and Sorting, see Report Sections.

Filters section: Options controlling which units will be included in the report. For more information, see Report Filters.

Include Inactive records: If this checkbox is checkmarked, all relevant records will be included in the report, no matter how old they are. If this checkbox is blank, only active records will be included; this means that old "inactive" records will be ignored.

For more about the active filter, see The Active Filter.

Field Selection section: Options controlling which information fields will be included in the report.

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

Advanced section: Miscellaneous options.

Summary Format: If this checkbox is checkmarked, you get a summary of all records in a particular group, as dictated by the options specified in the Grouping section. Instead of seeing all the records in a group, there will be a single-line summary for the entire group.

Report width in pages: Makes it possible to have lines that are wider than a single page. This is particularly useful when you are previewing reports on a monitor screen. For further information, see Report Sections.

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

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.

Preview section: Displays a visual preview of the report. If you click the Refresh 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.

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.

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

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

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