Release Notes - Feastudy for Mac

Contents

• Notes on Upgrading to Feastudy 4
• Notes on Updating Feastudy 4
• v4.5 Release notes
• v4.4 Release notes
• v4.3 Release notes
• v4.2 Release notes
• v4.1 Release notes
• v4.0 Release notes
• v3.3 Release notes
• v3.2 Release notes
• v3.1 Release notes
• v3.0 Release notes
• v2.4 Release notes
• v2.3 Release notes
• v2.2 Release notes
• v2.1 Release notes
• v2.0 Release notes

If Feastudy 3 is currently installed on your Mac, then undertake the following steps:

1. Click on the above Download Feastudy 4.5 for Mac button and download the file, FeastudyMacInstall.pkg, to your Downloads folder.
2. When the installer is downloaded, ensure that the currently installed version of Feastudy is not running and then double-click on the installer in your Downloads folder. Then follow the installer's simple steps to install the upgraded application.
   (If a version of the application prior to Feastudy 4 is installed on your Mac before updating, you do not need to trash/bin that older version because Feastudy 4 will be simply installed over your current installation of the application.)

If no version of Feastudy is currently installed on your Mac, then undertake the two steps mentioned immediately above and then put Feastudy 4 into licensed mode by copying and pasting your Activation Key into the Activation Key field of the Licensing Information window of the app and then clicking the Activate button.

Just one significant change has been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.5 and it is an enhancement which provides a new database of suggested 2023-2024 scales for Stamp Duty on Transfer and Mortgage, Council Rates, Water & Sewer Rates and Land Tax for each Australian capital city, based on data obtained by Devfeas Pty Ltd for these charges from the relevant authorities in August 2023.

There are two significant enhancements and one bug fix have been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.4 are described as follows:

• (1) In the Professional version of Feastudy, feasibility study reports can now be exported to DOCX (Microsoft Word) files, in addition to being able to be exported CSV files, with the body text of these exported reports having a similar setting out to that which is used to display them on-screen when they are selected for display from the app’s Reports menu.
  
  
• (2) In the Professional and Lite versions of Feastudy, two new metrics have been enabled to appear under certain conditions. One metric is the “Total Development Cost per Dwelling/Allotment”, and the other metric is the “Development Sales Income per Dwelling/Allotment”, for “Residential” and “Subdivision” developments. These metrics are reported in the Categorised P&L, the Itemised P&L, and the Valuer’s Style P&L reports for a Development file if a (legal) positive integer is entered in the “Number of Dwellings/Allotments to be Developed” field of the Other Settings window for the file.
  
  
• (3) In the previous release version of Feastudy (Update 4.3), a bug causes both the Start Date and End Date for a Construction Cost item in a Development feasibility file to be reported as occurring one month later in the printed Inputs report for the file, e.g., an entered End Date of 11/2023 for such an item is reported as “Dec 2023” in the printed version of the Inputs report in Update 4.3. This bug has been fixed in Update 4.4 so that the Start Dates and End Dates entered for all Construction Cost items for a file are now correctly reported in the printed Inputs report.
  
  

There is only one significant change that has been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.3 and it concerns the correction of a bug in the Consultant Cost item window of Feastudy 4 (for Mac) that was introduced in Upgrade 4.0 of the app. When a number greater than 1 is entered in the Quantity field for the “Specify as a Quantity x Rate” option for the “Amount Paid on a Specific Date”, “Amount Paid over a Specified Period” and “Amount Linked to Construction Cost” options in the “Method” field of the Consultant Cost Item window, the calculation of the Quantity multiplied by Rate for such options is nearly always incorrect. This bug has been fixed in Update 4.3 so that the relevant multiplication of the Quantity x Rate is correct for all legal entries of numbers in the Quantity and Rate fields for a Consultant Cost item.

The most significant changes that have been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.2 are described as follows:

• (1) A significant enhancement has been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.2 and it is a new database of suggested 2022-2023 scales for Stamp Duty on Transfer and Mortgage, Council Rates, Water & Sewer Rates and Land Tax for each Australian capital city, based on data obtained by Devfeas Pty Ltd for these charges from the relevant authorities in August 2022.
  
  
• (2) A bug in Update 4.0 and 4.1, that has been fixed in Update 4.2, relates to the miscalculation of Margin on Development Cost (MDC) metrics in each of the Variations reports for a Development file when that file has zero Equity actually injected into it. Instead of reporting various correct MDC metrics in the MDC column of each of the Variations reports for such a file, Update 4.1 incorrectly reports “>2,000%” for these rows when the correct MDC is under 2,000%. Likewise, if the Development file has zero Equity actually injected and the relevant scenario makes a loss, Feastudy incorrectly reports “<-2,000%” when the loss is smaller than -2,000%. Update 4.2 contains a fix for this bug, so that the correct MDC is reported in the MDC columns of the Variations reports.
  
  
• (3) A bug in Update 4.1, for which there is a fix in Update 4.2, concerns the "Percentage Linked to Construction Cost Item(s)" option that is available for specifying the method of payment for a Consultant Cost item in Development files. Specifically, in update 4 (build 4107), no matter what percentage is entered for the "Percentage Linked to Construction Cost(s) Item(s)" option or what Construction Cost item(s) to which a Consultant Cost item is linked, the calculation to the right of the Percent field in the relevant Consultant Cost window is always displayed as "$0 (GST-inclusive)" for the said option. Fortunately, this bug does not affect any other program calculations or reports, and a fix for the bug is contained in Update 4.2 so that the correct monetary value is displayed to the right of the said Percent field for all relevant Development scenarios.
  
  

The most significant changes that have been made to Feastudy 4 (for Mac) in Update 4.1 are described as follows:

• (1) Feastudy 4.1 displays, as a default, quick links to data entry windows in all of its on-screen reports, except for the on-screen Variations reports, for Development, Investment and Develop-and-Hold Investment feasibility files. (In previous versions of Feastudy for Mac, these links are only available for the P&L reports of Development files.) When one of these links is clicked, the app opens either: (a) the data entry window that contains details of the data set that is entered in the file for the relevant category of cost or income, or (b) a set of various buttons, which are linked to a number of data entry windows. If you do not want these links/buttons to appear while viewing on-screen reports, you can open the app’s Options window and enter an uncheck in the “Show Links to Data Windows in Reports” check box.
  
  
• (2) A new 'Customised Monthly' option is available for specifying the payment method that is to be used for a Consultant Cost item in Development files. This new feature works in a very similar fashion to the way the Customised Monthly option operates for Construction Cost items in a Development file. Each Consultant Cost item or Construction Cost item can have monthly user-customised amounts for the period defined by the Start Date and End Date that are entered for the item, provided that that period in no longer than 36 months.
  
  
• (3) There is a new option in the Print or Export Reports and Graphs window for printing the Itemised Cost Cashflow report for Development files in landscape mode. Previously, this report could only be printed in portrait mode.
  
  

Two significant changes have been made in the upgrade Feastudy 4.0 (for Mac) and these are described as follows:

• (1) Feastudy 4.0 has been developed and tested to assure compatibility with Apple’s macOS 12.1 (Monterey) operating system, and hence is the supported version of Feastudy for Mac for people using macOS 12.1. Even though Feastudy 4.0 is backwardly compatible with macOS 11.6, Feastudy 4.0 is the basis for any new updates of Feastudy for Mac, especially for making such updates compatible with macOS 12.1, which was released on 13 December 2021.
  
  
• (2) There is a set of fixes for IRR on Equity calculation bugs in each of the Profit & Loss reports for all types of feasibility files, and in the Variations reports for Development files when the option “IRRoE for Development Variations” is checked in the Options window of the application, in Feastudy 3.3. The bugs concern those files where the overall IRRoE for has an infinitely negative percentage. In such cases, a relevant IRRoE calculation either does not complete and is reported as a very low (negative but not infinite) value. The fixes for these bugs in Feastudy 4.0 make all of the relevant reports correctly show the result as “<-2,000%” for each relevant IRRoE calculation for a feasibility file.
  
  

Two significant changes have been made to Feastudy 3 (for Mac) in Update 3.3 and these are described as follows:

• (1) A significant enhancement has been made to Feastudy 3 (for Mac) in Update 3.3 and it is a new database of suggested 2021-2022 scales for Stamp Duty on Transfer and Mortgage, Council Rates, Water & Sewer Rates and Land Tax for each Australian capital city, based on data obtained by Devfeas Pty Ltd for these charges from the relevant authorities in August 2021.
  
  
• (2) There is a set of fixes for IRR on Equity calculation bugs in the Joint Venture report of the Professional version of Feastudy 3.2. The bugs concern those cases where the IRRoE for the JV and/or Equity Partner and/or Debt Partner has/have an infinitely positive or infinitely negative percentage. In such cases, a relevant IRRoE calculation either does not complete and is reported as a very high or very low (but not infinite) value, or it is reported as zero. The fixes for these bugs in Update 3.3 make the JV report correctly show the result as “>2,000%” or “<-2,000%” for each relevant IRRoE calculation, as the case requires.
  
  

Two significant changes have been made to Feastudy 3 (for Mac) in Update 3.2 and these are described as follows:

• (1) A bug, which involves the “crashing” or exiting of the application, is caused in Feastudy 3.1.4.0 by some rare instances of the Line Fee’s End Date in a Development file being able to be changed so that that date is outside of the Development Dates range as entered in the Development Dates window for the file. This bug has been fixed in Update 3.2 so that the Line Fee’s End Date cannot be changed to be outside the Development Dates range.
  
  
• (2) The application has been enhanced with respect to the handling of Line Fee calculations for the purposes of the Construction Period Variations and Sell-On Period Variations reports when a Line Fee greater than zero is entered into a Development file. In Feastudy 3.1.4.0, these two Period Variations reports assume that both the Start Date and the End Date change together in ‘lock step’ for the purposes of calculating each of the “Rows Below” the Primary Scenario row in these reports. (The “Rows Below” in these two reports relate to various months of delays in Sell-On Income being received relative to what is entered in the Primary Scenario, which is the entered scenario for the file.) As Devfeas Pty Ltd believes that the reality is that a Line Fee’s Start Date does not change because the length of time the development takes to be constructed and/or sold off is increased, Update 3.2 of Feastudy assumes that, for the Rows Below in the said two reports, the Line Fee’s Start Date remains static but the Line Fee’s End Date is, relative to the Primary Scenario, made one month later for each month of delay in Sell-On Income receipts relative to the Primary Scenario.
  
  

Feastudy 3 is a major upgrade version of Feastudy for Mac and the most significant enhancements in this upgrade are described as follows:

• (1) Details of a Line Fee can now be entered in the Primary Debt Funds tab of the Loans & Interest window of Feastudy 3 for the purpose of providing specific calculations about the Line Fees costs in the reports for Development files. The data that can be entered for the Line Fee consist of: the Maximum Limit of the Loan facility for Primary Debt Funds, the Line Fee as an annual percentage rate of the Maximum Limit of the Loan, and the Start and End Dates of the loan.
  
  
• (2) Data entry fields are available in Feastudy 3 for entering: (a) up to 36 months for Provisional Debt Advances in the Secondary Debt Funds tab of the Loans and Interest window (instead of the limit of 10 months in Feastudy 9 for this window) for Development files; and (b) up to 36 months of Lump Sum Instalments of Equity in the Joint Venture & Equity window for Development files and the Equity window for Investment files (instead of the limit of 10 months in Feastudy 2 for these windows).
  
  
• (3) The Consultant Cost, Other Cost and Other Income item windows in Feastudy 3, for Development or Investment files (as the cases apply), enable the entry of a ‘Quantity’ and a ‘Rate’ for an item for the purpose of the program computing the amount that is paid for these items (instead of the user having to use a separate and external method of arriving at the relevant amount for inputting into Feastudy in the relevant windows).
  
  
• (4) The currency symbol that is relevant to the Language & Region settings in the System Preferences for macOS on a modern Mac is now the currency symbol that appears in Feastudy 3’s data entry windows, reports and graphs. (In Feastudy 2 only the dollar currency symbol is available.)
  
  

One significant bug-fix has been made to Feastudy 2 (for Mac) in Update 2.3 and it concerns a correction to Feastudy 2’s data base of the default (suggested) 2019-2020 scale for Stamp Duty on Transfer for the capital city, “Sydney”. In Update 2.3, when the following is entered in the Development/Investment Identification window of a feasibility file:

• (a) “Sydney” for the “Capital City” field; and
• (b) either “Commercial”, “Offices”, “Retail”, “Industrial”, “Special”, “Mixed” or “General” for the “Type of Development” or “Type of Investment” field as the case requires;

the fifth bracket for the “Up to and including” column of the Stamp Duty on Transfer scale for Sydney (as suggested by Devfeas Pty Ltd) is incorrectly given as $10,130,000 when it was intended to be $1,013,000. (The fix for this bug in Update 9.4 is that $1,013,000 is the default/suggested amount for the said fifth bracket.)

Two significant enhancements have been made to Feastudy 2 (for Mac) in Update 2.2. The enhancements are:

• (a) A new data base of suggested 2019-2020 scales for Stamp Duty on Transfer and Mortgage, Council Rates, Water & Sewer Rates and Land Tax for each Australian capital city, based on data obtained by Devfeas Pty Ltd for these charges from the relevant authorities in August 2019, is included in Feastudy 2.2.
• (b) The Valuer’s Style Profit & Loss report for Development files has been revised and upgraded as a result of feedback to Devfeas from valuers, who use Feastudy. In particular, the Residual Land Value or Land Purchase Price (depending on which case applies) is now displayed/printed as the ‘bottom line’ of the report.

Only one significant bug fix (correction) has been made to Feastudy 2 (for Mac) in Update 2.1. The bug concerns calculation errors in the program’s cashflow reports when:

• (a) the Development or Investment Reference Date (cashflow start date) for a feasibility file contains “06” for the “MM” part of the “MM/yyyy” date format;
• (b) ”Annual” cashflow intervals are selected for the file’s cashflow reports; and
• (c) “July” is entered as the “First Month of the Financial Year” for the file.

(The fix for this bug in Update 2.1 ensures that the program’s calculations for “Annual” cashflow reports are correct.)

There are three significant enhancements in Feastudy 2.0 and they are described as follows:

1. The application is compatible with Apple Corporation's operating system, macOS 10.14 (Mojave).
2. In accord with the Australian “GST at Settlement” laws enacted in 2018, Feastudy 2.0 assumes that, at the settlement of each purchase of a “new Residential property” from a GST-registered developer, the purchaser must remit to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) either: seven (7%) of the purchase price of that property if the Margin Scheme (MS) applies to the transaction; or all of the GST that applies to the purchase price of that property if the Full Taxation (FT) method of GST applies to the transaction.
   For the purposes of Feastudy 2.0: “new Residential property” is one or more new residential allotments; or one or more new residences; and “GST at Settlement” is only paid for a Sell-On Income item when a check is entered in the check box for the question, “Is this item for new Residential property?”, for that Sell-On Income item.
   In the case of MS-taxed Sell-On Income items for “new Residential property,” if 7% of the value of such items is too high or too low for the purposes of the overall amount of GST that needs to be remitted to the ATO for the MS-taxed Sell-On Income, the application makes appropriate credit or debit adjustments at the relevant Business Activity Statement intervals. (The 2018 Australian “GST at Settlement” laws do not actually require a change in the overall [net] amount of GST that should be paid for a development’s GST-taxed development sales but they do require a change in the timing of the payment of GST cashflows that are relevant to “new Residential property.”)
   For a Development file, Feastudy 2.0 assumes that, when “the MS is to be applied” and "no Sell-On Income is MS taxed” are entered in the GST Settings window, all Sell-On Income items for the file are for “new Residential property.”
3. A new data base of suggested 2018-2019 scales for Stamp Duty on Transfer and Mortgage, Council Rates, Water & Sewer Rates and Land Tax for each Australian capital city, based on data obtained by Devfeas Pty Ltd for these charges from the relevant authorities in September 2018, is included in Feastudy 2.0.