We have made several expansions and improvements in the Unit Sales capability. First, we have added the ability to plan Unit Sales by the Absorption Method in addition to the current Discrete Method. When you enter the Unit Sales Dialog for the first time, your sale plan for each Unit Type will now default to the Absorption Method (if you want to plan sales for this Unit Type by the previous Discrete Method, just click on the new Discrete CheckBox in the Unit Grid and the previous Discrete Method grid will appear for your editing pleasure). The Absorption Method Grid asks for the following Assumption Values for a Unit Type: Unit Price Total Units to be Sold Unit Sale Start Date Unit Sale Growth Rate Units Sold per Month Unit Standard Cost Unit Sale Cost Unit Sale Growth Rate allows the Unit Price to inflate at a specified rate unique to this Unit Type. Units Sold per Month can be fractional (eg: 2.54 per month would result in a forecast of 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, units, etc until the Total Units to be Sold amount is reached. Upon leaving the Unit Sales Dialog, these assumptions are saved in a new rev-usa Page Type (one per Unit Type), and therefore are available to you in Sensitivity and Risk Analysis.
We have changed all the Reports in the Unit Sale Dialog so that the numbers now reflect the values on the Unit Sales Parameters (rev-usp) Page, just as the reports in planEASe itself always have. This means that all reporting now agrees, even when the Parameter Page assumption values have been changed from the defaults. To alert you to the effects of non-default Parameter values, when reports are affected, the title bar caption is changed to show “Reports reflect Non-Default Parameters” and the default Report Commentary shown when printing reports shows the status of all non-default Parameters. Additionally, when processing reports for a Unit Sales Assumption Set using Non-Default Parameters in planEASe itself (NOT in the Unit Sales Dialog), the default Report Commentary has been adapted to show the status of all non-default Parameters.
You may now edit all Unit Sales Parameter Assumption values within the Unit Sales Dialog by accessing the new menu choice: Edit/Edit Parameters ...
We have added a new Unit Sales Parameter: the Parameter Application Offset. This value, measured in Months from the Date of Acquisition, negates application of any Parameter Values (Price and Cost Multipliers as well as Price and Cost Inflation, but excepting the Absorption Schedule Stretcher described below) for all Sales and Costs occurring before the named number of months after Acquisition. This facilitates posting (and maintaining) actual costs and sales and only applying Parameters to costs and sales scheduled for the future.
We have added another new Unit Sales Parameter: the Absorption Growth Override, which may be set to Yes or No. If set to Yes, the Unit Sale Growth Rate for all Units planned by the Absorption Method will be ignored, and the Price Inflation Rate Parameter Value will be used instead. This allows you to apply the Price Inflation Rate to all future sales, whether planned by the Absorption Method or the Discrete Method, which may well be useful in Sensitivity and Risk Analysis.
We have added yet another new Unit Sales Parameter: the Absorption Schedule Stretcher, which allows you to stretch (or contract) the schedule for all Unit Sales planned by the new Absorption Method. You can do this for individual Unit Types by changing the Units Sold per Month on the Unit Sales Revenue Page (Absorption), but this Parameter varies ALL Absorption Sale Schedules at the same time. Entering 10 here means that all Absorption Schedules will be 10% longer in time, while minus 20 means they will be 20% shorter than specified. The actual calculation involves planEASe changing the Units Sold per Month by the entered percentage for each Unit Type. Thus an entry of 50% Longer would cause a Units Sold per Month of 2.54 to be computed as 2.54/1.5 or 1.69 Units Sold per Month. The maximum stretch allowed is 200%, and the maximum contraction is 50%. This Parameter applies from the beginning of the Absorption Schedule(s) no matter what the Parameter Application Offset value is. Whether you are using the Absorption Schedule Stretcher or not, if you are performing a Unit Sales Analysis, planEASe in version 17 and following will automatically stretch the Holding Period and adjust the Date of Acquisition to assure that all scheduled sales and costs will occur within the Holding Period. If these adjustment(s) occur within the Unit Sales Dialog or during calculations of an Audit, Detail or Basic Analysis, you are notified of the adjustments by a status message and the actual Assumption Values are changed at the Assumption Edit Screen. If the adjustment(s) occur during Sensitivity or Risk Analysis, they occur without notice, and the original values are restored following the Analysis.
We have added a Project Draw Loan Report to the Reports Menu in the Development Spending Dialog.
We have added the Interest Cost for the Draw Loan to the Project Cost Summary Report in the Development Spending Dialog.
We have eliminated the File Open/Save Capability within the Development Spending and Unit Sales Dialogs because it was redundant with the ability to open and save Assumption Sets.
We have made all reports on the Reports Menu available when using the Partnership/LLC Models , so you will no longer have to Convert Assumptions back to the RU Series to get Income Statements. Affected reports now have a Report Commentary warning that the report has not been adapted for the effects of Group Investments, and the tax section of the Income and Annual Statements is not available when using the Partnership/LLC Models.
The planEASe Help System has received a major update making it completely compatible with Vista, providing improved Help and new navigation capability. This what it looks like in Version 17 when you press "F1" at the Assumption Edit Screen. Note the Tree Structure on the left side of the window, allowing you to quickly access any area of the help. Click on the Index tab above and a huge index file allows you to look up virtually any reference you want. All areas of planEASe Help work as before, only better ... MUCH better.
As with previous updates, a new Version 17 planEASe Manual is included, and a PDF version of the manual is installed at Start /All Programs /planEASe /planEASe Manual. For the last two versions, the PDF has been bookmarked for fast and easy access to individual manual sections. This year the bookmarks continue, and we have added links for even easier navigation within the document. To use these links successfully, you should modify your Acrobat Reader toolbar to add buttons for Previous View (back) and Next View. Within the Reader, choose Tools / Customize Toolbars... and scroll down to the Page Navigation Toolbar area. Ensure that it is checked, and then check the Previous View and Next View Icons to add them to your toolbar. Now you're all set to skip about in our documentation. In version 17, you also can access the PDF Manual from the Help Menu with the new Menu Option Help / planEASe PDF Manual which automatically brings up the linked and bookmarked Manual in the Acrobat Reader.
The input routines for the new Unit Sales Absorption Sales grid in the Unit Sales Dialog have been revised to be more in line with the other grid input routines in planEASe.
Formatting for the Unit Sales Draw Loan Report and the new Construction Draw Loan Report has been improved, eliminating printing of $0 amounts and, for the Unit Sales Draw, shortening the report to eliminate trailing months when they are irrelevant.
We have expanded the new Help File shipped with Version 17 to include a complete new section on Owner / User Analysis (this includes Tenant Rep, Owner Rep, Lease/Purchase, Sale/Leaseback and Cost Comparison subsections). Additionally, the Introduction Sections for all analysis functions now include links to the relevant WebSite Sample Reports and Movies, and the Index now includes Sample Movie and Sample Report items so you can go directly to the Movie and Sample Reports that you want to see. Try it .... You’ll like it !!
If you entered Sale Costs of more than 100 (so it was interpreted as a dollar amount rather than a percentage), the Cost of Sale in the Sale Proceeds area of the Income and Annual Statements was 12 times the entered amount. No other amounts or calculations were affected. Introduced in version 15 and fixed in version 17. Thanks to Jim Campney, CCIM If you used Continuation Pages or SubPages in planning Expenses, then reimbursed those Expenses for some or all leases, set planEASe to view reimbursements separately at File/Preferences, and then asked for Reimbursement Details for the Income Statements, Annual Statements, APOD or Detail Revenues, the Expense Titles were wrong. Introduced in version 15 and fixed in version 17. If you had Passive Losses, and chose to carry them forward, the amount shown the the Income and Annual Statements in the (Cum Suspended Losses) line was wrong. This line is simply an information line and does not affect any measures or other information. Introduced in version 15 and fixed in version 17. Thanks to Mark VanArk, CCIM Some Assumed Loans with Continuation Pages did not compute correctly, placing the continuation steps wrongly in the future. Introduced in version 16 and fixed in version 17. When using the new Unit Sales Absorption Sales capability, the Gross Income Line in the ProForma Income Statements and Annual Statements did not compute correctly, but all other lines below Gross Income (including Effective Income) were correct. Introduced in version 17 and fixed in version 17.01. If you used a zero value for Units Sold per Month together with a positive Unit Sold value in the new Unit Sales Absorption Grid, planEASe would hang up. We have changed the edit for this field to accept only positive values. Introduced in version 17 and fixed in version 17.01. If your Unit Sales Absorption Sales ended in the last month of the Holding Period, planEASe would erroneously increase the Holding Period from X years to X years rather than to X+1 years. Introduced in version 17 and fixed in version 17.01. Thanks to Roy Hanlin, CCIM CPM for the report. For the new Construction Draw Loan Report, the “Draw every X months” field did not work properly for X not equal 1 month. Introduced in version 17 and fixed in version 17.01. The routine for an assumed loan with a Continuation Page starting after the Acquisition Date did not place the continuation properly in time. Thanks to Lester Ip for the report. Introduced in version 17 and fixed in version 17.01. If you opened a Reader File (in either the Demo-Reader or planEASe itself) and then exited planEASe while still viewing the Reader File, it was possible that several of your preferences could be changed to those of the person creating the Reader File. Introduced in version 16.01 and fixed in version 17.01.