Understanding Equipment Cost Generation

You can generate the costs for the equipment cost analysis both online and in a batch. Both methods support the same functionality. We recommend using batch mode if both the group and subgroup include a large equipment selection, many levels within the parent/child equipment hierarchy, or a date range that requires a long processing time.

You run the Generate Equipment Costs program to generate equipment costs for the equipment groups or subgroups that you have defined. The program generates the costs for each piece of equipment, based on the equipment cost analysis rules that indicate from which accounts it should retrieve costs. Period totals can be retrieved from the Asset Account Balances File table, whereas partial period cost information by account is available in the Account Ledger table. The equipment costs for equipment components are rolled up to the parent level if the option to include children was selected for the subgroup.

The equipment cost analysis information is stored by group, subgroup, and date range in the F1383 table. The advantage of storing this information is that you can compare the costs that are associated with similar groups of equipment from different areas of the organization and recognize trends in the cost of groups of equipment over different time periods. You can regenerate costs whenever necessary. The system stores the generation dates for reference.

If you generate the costs for an equipment group or subgroup through batch, you access the Generate Equipment Costs program (R13801B) from the Equipment Cost Analysis menu. You can use either of these methods to do this online by accessing:

• Work With Equipment Cost Analysis form.

  Select Generate Cost from the Row menu.

• Equipment Cost Detail form.

  If the costs for any subgroup within the equipment group that you are analyzing have not yet been generated, the system displays a warning message. You can then generate the costs.