Version 8 is the first 32 bit version of planEASe, with the following implications: We are no longer compatible with Windows 3.1 Calculations are somewhat faster File Open/Save dialogs allow long filenames and look like the standard Win95/98 dialogs. PlanEASe Assumption Sets now are "associated" with planEASe (that's why they have the planEASe icon on them when viewed in Explorer and the new Open/Save Dialogs), so if you doubleclick an Assumption Set, planEASe will start, and load that Assumption Set. We have replaced all planEASe components (grids, graphs, and the new word processor) with new 32 bit versions, which allows many of the improvements in this version, and also poises planEASe for additional enhancements in future versions.
The installation program has been scrapped in favor of the industry standard Wise Installation System, insuring proper registration of all components and providing a convenient standard uninstall routine (either access Start / Settings / Control Panel / Add-Remove Programs and choose Remove and planEASe, or simply run "Unwise.exe" (aptly named), located in the planwin directory.
Since the introduction of the half-period rules for depreciation in 1986, we have allowed you to ignore (avoid) them by setting the depreciation Method to the corresponding negative number (eg: -2 specifies Double Declining Balance without the half-period rule). This treatment is not legal under the current tax laws, but it let you experiment with the effect of these rules on after tax returns. Now we have eliminated this treatment in favor of using the minus number methods to specify ignoring the half period rule in the first (but not last) period. This enables you to properly handle analysis of prospective holding of currently owned properties, such as in Sale / Leaseback Analysis.
In Sensitivity Analysis, when you run using a dollar measure (NPV or AoW), we have added the option to view the results as $/SqFt (or $/Unit) in addition to simply dollars. This is particularly useful when using the new Compare capability to compare several leases with differing Square Footage. This option is only shown if all the Assumption Sets being compared have positive amounts entered for units or square footage.
We have added a "body" font availability to all the graphs and pie charts. This font is the same font you specify for body text in Page Setup. Thus, if you specify "Arial Narrow" and check the Italic box for your body text in Page Setup (perhaps to fit more columns on the page), you may choose "body italic" for a graph font and Arial Narrow Italic will be used in displaying and printing the graph.
The Recent Files lists now remember files on removable media, such as floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and CD-RW's
You may now Export any Graph or Chart as a JPEG file. JPEG files are compatible with being inserted into HTML pages, making it easy to post planEASe graphs on your website (read further for really exciting news about web sites).
You may now export any Report (Grid) as HTML, either on the clipboard or as a file. HTML retains the font and color settings in your Page Setup when pasted into Word, Excel or other programs. Unfortunately, some of these programs still do not fully implement HTML codes, so you may have to manually set Row Height and Column Width.
The Help File has been re-edited and improved, bringing it up to Windows 9x standards (with a new Table of Contents). We have also added a "planEASe on the Web ..." option to the help menu, so you can access the planEASe WebSite with all the tutorials and more from within planEASe.
Previously, if you wanted to print to a printer that was not your default printer, you could request File/Print Setup. Unfortunately, your choice of printer would not persist, so if you wanted the next output to go to that (non-default) printer, you had to access File/Print Setup again. Now we have implemented a "Session Printer" in planEASe. When you begin your planEASe session, the Session Printer is set to your default printer. If you access File/Print Setup and change to another printer, planEASe remembers this new printer as your "Session Printer", and all output is written to that printer until you again access File/Print Setup to change to another printer. Changing the Session Printer does not affect your choice of the default printer, so if you print from other software during your planEASe session, that software will print to your default printer.
In Version 8, just like the new Microsoft Office 2000, you may "Save As Web Page" any planEASe Report and/or Graph. You may then "View Web Page" to see the page(s) in your browser and e-mail it/them to your colleagues (or post them on a web site). As you have come to expect from planEASe, you have full color/font controls, commentary, disclaimers, etc., but the real shocker is the stunning appearance of the pages. We think they will revolutionize the communication of financial analysis in our industry (and make a lot of money for you!!). In Office 2000, Microsoft fixed their Office 97 bug that made it difficult to import planEASe reports and graphs. If you have had such difficulties, we recommend that you update to Office 2000 to rectify the problem. All versions of planEASe import correctly into Office 95 and Office 2000.
Previously, you needed to use a vacancy rate of 99.9999% for a vacant suite (Tenant) to have the suite (and vacancy and credit loss) show up properly in the various reports of the Reporting Extension. This still works, but you may now use 100% as well.
For users of the Monthly Extension (especially developers) we have modified the graph routines in Income Statements so monthly graphs of things like Capital Spending, Debt Draws, etc. are properly labeled with months on the X Axis for Holding Periods of 24 months or less and Years for longer holding periods. While we were at it, we also similarly modified the monthly graphs in Basic, Detail and Lease Analysis.
In Sensitivity Analysis, we've added a Compare Button for easy access to the new Sensitivity Analysis Comparison function added in version 7.02.
We have added "Save as Web Page" and "View Web Page" capability to all of the Financial Utilities functions. This means all reports and graphs throughout the planEASe product line now have this capability
On a very few (5 so far) machines, TitlePages documents do not print properly. To fix this, we have added the capability to adjust margins within the body text box of the printed page for TitlePages reports. Just pull down the new File/Margins ... menu option in TitlePages. Thanks to Deb Perr, Phil Woollcott, Richard LeBlanc, CCIM, Jim Murphy, and Brad Cox, CCIM for their patience, cooperation, and good humor while we were researching this problem.
If you specified a holding period ending in mid-month, such as 4.05 years, the Basic Analysis and all other computational functions computed correctly, but the Sale Report reported the partial period debt payment incorrectly so that the Sale Report values did not agree with the Sale values in Basic Analysis. On some printers, when printing Sensitivity Analysis, the Specification (eg: "Price of Property versus Rate of Return after Tax") would not print. Thanks to Joe Varacallo for the first report. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.01. When printing Pie Charts, the format always defaulted to "Full Page Landscape" rather than remembering and defaulting to the last format requested. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.01. In Income and Annual Statements containing values in the "Vacancy & Credit Loss" line, the Taxable Revenue, Ordinary Income and Suspended Losses lines were mis-stated because the Taxable Revenue line erroneously contained Gross Income values rather than Effective Income values. No other values were mis-stated (including Cash Flow After Tax and all ratios, returns and NPV's) . Thanks to Steve McNew for the first report. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.01. When choosing to open new files and no file was open, the default was "untitled" rather than blank Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.02. In Lease Analysis, if you changed any Square Footage amount and then exited Lease Analysis, planEASe would offer to post the change(s) to your Assumption Set. While in many cases this was successful, in some cases it caused irreparable damage to the Assumption Set. For this reason we have eliminated the option. Thanks to Brad Vear for the report. In Lease Analysis, the printed reports for the individual leases lacked the vertical line column dividers. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.02. Thanks to Pummi Bais at NYU for the report. The input process for entering a New RentRoll has been improved, and the RentRoll is now smarter when computing the End Date for a lease. When exporting a grid, if you chose to export to a text file, you would be asked to save it as a JPEG File. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.02. Thanks to Fritz Wolff for the report. In the Installment Sale Analysis (the RSA Model), if you entered a multi-page loan and specified a new loan amount in one or more of the continuation pages, the Installment Sale Report erroneously added the loan amounts to the Purchase Money Note amount. The cash flows and NPV's in the basic analysis were not affected. In Utilities/Cash Flow Analysis, when AutoCalc was turned on and you copied the previous Cash Flow amount by using the single or double quote character, the Cash Flow Report would not update properly. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.03. Thanks to Dave Pinkerton for the report. In Reports/Assumptions Report/Save As Web Page , if you checked Show Page Notes and one or more Page Notes contained a Blank Line or ended with a Blank Line, planEASe would report an "Overflow" Error. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.03. Thanks to Joe Manausa for the report. In Reports/Titlepages, if you requested Insert/Image and chose either choice, you would be greeted with an error message rather than an open dialog for the image file to insert. Caused by a glitch in the new install program which placed the file ic32.ini in the Windows directory rather than the Windows\System directory. To fix this you can simply move the file to the Windows\System directory (for Win 95/98) or the Windows\System32 directory (for Win NT/2000). Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.03. Thanks to Jerry Conroy for the report. At the same time, we have enhanced version 8.03 to Insert/Image for JPEG files. For Users with the Partnership Models, File/Convert Assumptions worked 95% of the time, but at unpredictable times would not save the converted Assumption Set after the Save Button was pressed. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.03. Thanks to Chris Carlsen for the report. If you changed printers during a session, the new Session Printer routines introduced in version 8.00 would (rarely) say you were printing to a new printer (that you chose), but would actually direct the output to the old printer. As far as we can tell, this is a Windows problem, but we have changed the Session Printer concept so that choosing a new printer in a session now changes the Windows Default Printer to the newly chosen printer. This accomplishes the same thing as the Session Printer concept, except that any printing from other applications during your planEASe session will also be directed to the newly chosen printer. At the conclusion of the planEASe session, the Windows Default Printer is reset to its original value at the beginning of the planEASe session. Introduced in 8.00 and fixed in 8.03. Thanks to Chuck Ciolino, CCIM for the report. When you used a negative depreciable life (as for Construction Period Interest) in Build-to-Suit analyses, the taxes in the Sale Report were (slightly) mis-stated. The cash flows and taxes in all other areas of planEASe were correct. Thanks to a good friend/user of planEASe who prefers anonymity.