STEP THREE – COMPONENT DATA VIEW
Remember all of that research you did in STEP ONE? The Component Data view is where this information is entered.
If you just made your new project – following the Creating A New Project guide from Help > Open Help > How To Instructions > Getting Started > Creating A New Project – and this is the first time you are in the Component Data view you will discover that everything is ‘grayed’ out or not editable. Not to worry, you simply need to push the ‘N’ button on the toolbar to create your first ‘new’ record and everything will come to life. You can also choose the New Record menu item from the Records menu to accomplish adding a new record to your project.
Using the list you gathered from STEP ONE you will begin to enter the information about your components. If you have a previous reserve study you can use that list to start your data entry.
The basic, or required, information that must be entered in this view is as follows:
Title/Name of your component: Name or describe your component in this field.
Place the component in a category: use either the drop down box or add another category using the Category button and dialog box. Each asset is required to be in a category (ie: streets & asphalt, roofing, painting). Using the Group feature is optional.
Date in Service: This date will ‘default’ to the date you put from the Account Info and ‘Incorporation Date’ field. You may need to change this date to reflect the last time that the specific component you are working on was repaired, replaced, or maintained. This will ensure that it will be replaced in the appropriate year, in the future.
Useful Life: This is the ‘best guess’ information as to how long your component is expected to last.
Quantity: You can choose to use the ‘Quantity’ field in conjunction with the ‘Units’ field where by you can enter 1000 square feet, as example.
Unit Cost: This field is where you will enter the current cost for your component. It will calculate the Current Cost using the Quantity and Unit Cost fields.
Real Record checked in the box: Having a check in the box for Real Record will include your component in your reserve study.
All of the other boxes and switches are optional features. You can either choose to write text in the Asset Comments window or not as you desire. You can always come back later and fill in other features and the Asset Comments if you wish.
For more specific information about the features available in the Component Data view refer to Help > Open Help > How To Instructions > Component Data View > specific feature page.