From the Maximo Support Desk - Clarification of Historical Records After Recalculating Depreciation Schedules

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"Where are the historical records stored?"

Every so often, I learn that we all read documentation differently.  I have also found that documentation is more difficult to write than fiction because the author of documentation is trying to limit the reader to a singular, specific interpretation.  Sometimes, however, the published documentation becomes interpreted differently, and this gets based on the reader's expectations or current understanding of what is being documented.  I have come across this on occasion here at IBM, and here is an example of this.

The reason for my venture into re-examining and verifying the functionality of the Asset Depreciation Schedule was that a client simply asked me where the historical records are stored once the Depreciation Schedule is recalculated.  The client pointed out that the published documentation for this "states that you can set a recalculation point and that there are historical records that are preserved."  The client's quote here is not the actual text of the documentation, but is a legitimate interpretation of it, in my opinion.  So let me give you a link to the documentation for using the Asset Depreciation Schedule in Maximo for Transportation, and then finish with my interpretation of what the "historical records" component of this functionality is all about.

Background: A depreciation schedule is used to establish the current value of an asset, based on a starting value and then calculating its decreasing value over time (periodic depreciation). In Maximo, the depreciation schedule is a tool to help you determine whether repairs and maintenance make good economic sense at any specific point in the life of the asset.  You would recalculate this depreciation schedule for an asset if you make a significant capital improvement to the asset, which increases its value; such as if you upgraded it somehow.  An example might be if you added a plow and towing package onto a truck.

Here is some published documentation that describes the setup and functionality of Depreciation Schedules: 
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLL9Z_7.5.1/com.ibm.trn.doc/plustasset/c_depreciation_sched.html?

Notes about this documentation:
The historical records that are described or implied in the documentation are the rows in the depreciation schedule that were in the schedule up to the recalculation point.  In other words, if your depreciation schedule calculates the new value every month, and you make a capital improvement to the asset after 6 months, then the first six months of the schedule are the historical records, because the values from the 7th month and forward were updated based on the new starting value.

When you make a capital improvement to an asset, you modify the Starting Cost field in the depreciation schedule to reflect the capital improvement.  When you update this field and click OK, the schedule will update the affected rows only.  It will leave intact the original rows, prior to the recalculation point, and update only the rows from the recalculation point forward.

WARNING:  In early releases/IFIXs for Transportation 7.5.1.0, there was a bug reported with the depreciation schedule functionality... there was an apar for this:

APAR #: IV52653
Description: In the Assets (TR) application, when you recalculate the Asset Depreciation schedule, the application ignores the recalculation point and recalculates the
entire schedule.

This issue has been corrected in later, and current Transportation IFIX and patch releases.

Tom Richardson is an IBM Maximo Support Engineer and frequent contributor to the Asset Management Blog community.  For a complete index of links to his articles, visit
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