Contract Payment Stream: Introduction

Contract Payment Stream: Introduction

A Contract Payment Stream refers to the cash flow from the customer’s end to a particular Profit and Loss site in return for the services or repairs done. It represents how a customer is billed for various fees. All the factors contributing to a Contract Payment Stream are taken into consideration to ensure that the cash flow during the contract period remains relatively constant.

The Contract Payment Stream or fees may include any of the following as detailed in the contract:

• Fixed Fee

• Factored Fired Hours Fee

• Periodic Payments

• Adder Fee

• Taxes

• Escalation Amounts

Contract Payment Stream: Periodic Payments 

These payments may be calculated monthly, quarterly, or even annually, as specified in each individual contract. Sometimes, payments are made periodically during the term of the contract. Note that these are the normal components that are included in the Invoice Total. When a customer asks for the Invoice Subtotal, normally only the Fixed Fee, Factored Fired Hours Fee, and Periodic Payments are included.

You will now learn about the fundamental details of the various Contract Payment Stream.

A Fixed Fee is essentially the standard fee that is typically paid every month. This can also be paid quarterly or annually. In some contracts, the amount may change over time with different periods having different set of amounts. The customer, however, pays as specified in the contract. The customer is expected to make this fixed fee payment at the time specified in the contract.

This specified fee, which is decided at the beginning of the contract, ensures smooth flow of cash into the Contract Payment Stream.

Factored Fired Hours Fee is a major contributing factor to the payment stream. This fee is an amount charged for the hours of actual turbine operation, or the fired hours. The customer has to submit accurate and complete documentation of the operational data of each gas turbine unit for the calculation of Factored Fired Hours. This turbine operational data includes the number of fired hours, types of fuel used, and the number of starts.

The Factored Fired Hours Fee is the product of the number of Factored Fired Hours and the Fired Hour Rate.

The Fired Hour Rate is the per hour fee that a customer pays for operation of the gas turbine. In a contract, the Fired Hour Rate may be specified either as a set value or a variable value for the contract period.

Periodic Payments or Milestone Payments are made periodically or at predefined milestones. The milestones usually pertain to significant maintenance events.

The benefits of Periodic Payments are:

§  Customers are able to maximize cash retention until their maintenance is due.

§  CS is assured that there is cash in hand prior to performing the maintenance.

§  For CS, deferred revenue is minimized if the quantum of periodic payment closely matches the actual costs.

In a typical contract, the two types of Periodic Payments are:

§  Quarterly Payments

§  Mobilization Payments

Click each type of Periodic Payments to know more about it.

Periodic Payments or Milestone Payments are considered to be an important component of the payment stream. These payments are made periodically or at predefined milestones. The milestones usually pertain to significant maintenance events, such as a payment of $500,000 for every 10,000 Factored Fired Hours.

Typically, a CPM needs to ensure there is regular cash inflow at predefined milestones during the term of the contract. This helps avoid the need to borrow money to pay for repairs and maintenance services. 

Periodic Payments ensure that money is received prior to the performance of the maintenance. The benefit to the customer is that they get retain the majority of their cash till the time when the maintenance is performed. The benefit to GE is that there is cash in hand prior to performing the maintenance. Another benefit of periodic payments for CS is that deferred revenue is minimized if the quantum of periodic payment closely matches the actual costs.

In a typical contract, the two types of Periodic Payments are Quarterly Payments and Mobilization Payments. Click each type of Periodic Payments to know more about it.

The monthly Invoice Subtotal can be calculated only after the individual components of the Contract Payment Stream for the month are calculated. The components normally referred to when a customer asks for the Invoice Subtotal are Factored Fired Hours Fee, Fixed Fee, and Periodic Payments. Therefore, to calculate a customer’s monthly Invoice Subtotal, the components and fee that were due for the month are added together.

COSMOS 4.0: Reports Generation Storyboard

Welcome to this module on reports generation.

COSMOS 4.0 presents you with a variety of reports that are based on projected and actual data provided in the model. Some of the reports generated by COSMOS 4.0 include details on Contract Margin Reviews, forecasting, event details, repairs and replacement of parts.

In this module, you will learn how to generate reports.

The Generate Report feature of COSMOS 4.0 enables you to view data, based on some specific requirements, in a report form. Using COSMOS 4.0, you can generate a variety of reports. The different types of reports are Contract reports, Comparison reports, Count reports, Catalog reports, and Norm reports.

In this chapter, you will learn what these reports represent and how they are generated.

At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify the different types of reports that can be generated using COSMOS 4.0.
• Perform the steps to generate relevant reports.

Comparison Reports: Introduction

The Comparison report is used to:

•  Evaluate the profitability of the CSA, MMP, and Aero Energy contracts
•  Analyze the financial background and inspection schedule details of a customer’s contract

The Comparison report is also known as the Contract Review Report. It serves as the output for the Contract Margin Review process, which compares the actual operational and financial data with the forecasted data. This is used to evaluate the past and projected profitability of each contract, which is important for the success of Contractual Services. The Contract Margin Review must happen before this report is generated.

The various types of Comparison reports that can be generated are: 

• Margin Review CSA
• Margin Review MMP
• Margin Review Aero Energy
• Budget Comparison
• Activity Comparison

The Generate Report menu on the COSMOS home page is used to display Comparison reports. To display Comparison reports, under the Generate Report menu, select the Comparison Report sub-menu, and then select the required report. This displays the relevant report details page that enables selection of the prior and current model versions for a particular client under the Details section. In this section, select the prior and the current estimated billing streams, and the quarter and year for which the report is required. Once the appropriate selections are made, click Show Report to view the report or click Cancel to return to the COSMOS home page.

Click Show Report, to display various sub-reports for the chosen quarter and year. For Margin Review reports, the sub-reports displayed are: MR Model Assumptions, Financial Summary, Margin Adjustment, Contract Variance, Project Payment Schedule, Actual Payments, Current Forecasts, Cost Comparison, Sales Comparison, Operational Summary, and MR Comments.

For Budget Comparison reports, the various sub-reports that can be viewed are: Projected Analysis, Impact to Parts, Impact to I&FS, Impact to Unplan, CSA Impact Summary, Impact to I&RS, Impact to GECS, Impact to Others, and Comments.

Click Save Report to save the contents of the report. Click Print to print the report.

Click the links under the sub-reports listed on the page to view the required report. Each link opens a separate page that displays the report under the Report Preview tab.

The Comments tab on the same page helps in providing comments on the displayed report. To close the displayed report, click Close.

Comparison Reports: Activity

Case Study

You are currently working on the Contract Margin Review version of the Duke Energy contract for the first quarter of 2006. This version is named USER10-TCS-USER14-07062005. The earlier model version was USER10-TCS28July2005 Copy of User12. The current estimate of the billing stream is Billing Stream 2 and the prior estimate of the billing stream is Billing Stream 2. Generate a report to view the operational summary of the model.

To view a Comparison report displaying the operational summary of a model, you need to perform the following steps:

1. On the COSMOS home page, click the Generate Report menu.
2. Under the Generate Report menu, select the Comparison Report sub-menu, and click the Margin Review CSA link.
3. On the Margin Review- CSA page, from the Prior Model Version list, select USER10-TCS28July2005 Copy of User12 and from the Current Model Version list, select USER10-TCS-USER14-07062005.
4. On the Margin Review-CSA page, from the Billing Stream list, select Billing Stream 1 as the prior estimate and select Billing Stream 2 as the current estimate.
5. From the For Quarter list, select Q1 and from the For Year list, select 2006.
6. To view the report, click Show Report.
7. On, Margin Review-CSA- Qtr2,2000 page, click the Operational Summary link.
8. On the Margin Review-High Value- Qtr2,2000 - Operational Summary page, click the Comments tab.

Pop-up text: Enter your comments on the displayed report here.

Domestic Savings Bank's Trainer’s Guide Storyboard Sample

Trainer’s guide

Domestic Savings Bank-Institutional – Salary Relationship

Greet the participants and welcome them to the session.

Show: Session Title Slide

Facilitator Notes:

Tell: In this session, you will learn about the features, benefits and attributes of each variant of Salary Account and the required documents for the product.

Tell: Before we proceed let me ask you a few questions.

 

Facilitator Notes:

Start by asking some questions on money, like “My company makes my salary payment by cheque. Can I open a bank account where they can directly deposit my salary?”, “My salary is deposited in my personal savings account. Can the bank open a separate account for receiving my salary and provide me some additional benefits?”

Listen to what the participants have to say with their experience with money.

End of note.

Sample Responses:

• Yes, she can open a Salary account which is specially offered for receiving salary from the employer.
• Since a Salary account is different from a normal Savings Bank account, it have some special benefits.

Facilitator Notes: Show them slide 4 and explain to them what is the use of a Salary account.

End of note.

Tell: That’s correct.

XYZ Bank provides financial solutions to the employer as well as the employee, in form of salary relationship. It offers different salary accounts to employees in an organization according to their different financial and banking needs.

Show: Session Objectives slide

Tell: After completing this session, you will be able to:

Describe the features, benefits and attributes of each variant of Salary Account and the required documents for the product.

Digital Scrapbook Designing Kit Tutorial

Instructional Designing Sample for a Scrapbook Designing Kit

 

School ensemble:

1. Let’s begin working on this school ensemble by taking out all the diecut pieces given. Ink the edges of all these pieces with a colour that is a shade darker. Next, take a black pen and make dots/dashes along the edges of all these pieces. Use a white and black pen to add little details on these pieces as pictured. Finish the red apple diecut by crimping it twice in diagonal directions using a crimper.

2. Now, let’s create the large apple design appearing in the middle of both the pages. Take a needle and the brown thread given. Working a running or straight stitch, create the design for an apple as pictured on both the pages. Outside its boundary, using a black pen, write words related to schooling and education like “I love to read”, “learning”, “outdoor schooling”, “education”, “I love libraries”, “home school”, “my mom is my teacher”, etc...each beginning with a hashtag (#) to add interest.

3. On the first page, aligning to the right side of the page, on the top of the apple design, work a running stitch with a green thread and to make a leaf. Adhere 1 tiny, 4 small and 1 medium dark green buttons on it. In between these buttons, adhere 5 triangle eyelets and 10 green beads.

4. Take the ruler diecut and place it in the middle of both the pages, slightly tilted upwards on the 2nd page, creating a seesaw. On top of the first page portion of the rule diecut, adhere the blue paperclip, crayola and the school bus diecuts. Adhere 2 small black buttons below the school bus diecut for wheels.

5. Below this, adhere the yellow paperclip, along with the diecuts for the pencil, red apple, blue and yellow books, and the letters “S”, “C”, “H”, and “O”. In between these diecuts, adhere 1 eyelet of golden, silver and blue each.

6. On the second page, aligning to the left side of the page, on the top of the apple design, work a running stitch with a dark brown thread and to make a twig. Adhere 4 small brown buttons on it.

7. To assemble the elements of the apple, adhere the diecuts for the scissors, 2 green books and a stapler on the top of the ruler diecut as pictured.

8. Below this, adhere the diecuts for the red and green books, pencil, crayola, globe, scissors, red apple, and the red and green paperclips. Also adhere th letters “O”, “L” at the bottom. In between these diecuts, adhere 1 golden eyelet, 1 silver eyelet, 2 red eyelets and 1 blue eyelet.

9. Complete this ensemble by cropping and matting your favorite school pictures of your child.

Why is strength training important?

Are you a person like me who resolves to lose a few extra pounds every year when a family vacation or a wedding is fast approaching? Do you want to give your best shot at firming up your sagging muscles and look amazing in a favourite old dress?

If you have been thinking of starting with just a cardio exercise schedule to achieve this and more, you must seriously give a thought to trying strength training or exercising with weights along with it. Though cardio exercises or aerobic exercises are one of the most propagated forms of exercises to increase the heart rate and metabolism that are important to shed fat, strength training helps you to gain muscles, improve balance, improve heart fitness, strengthen your bones and give your body a toned look.

It’s a myth that strength training makes women bulk up. High levels of estrogen in women make it difficult for women to bulk up. Bodybuilders have to go through rigorous training and maintain a protein rich diet to bulk up. Thus, if you think that only lifting a few weights a few days a week will make you bulk up like them, be rest assured that bodybuilding needs a lot more effort than this. So instead of worrying about this, let’s look at some of the benefits that strength training offers.

Shedding fat and maintaining weight loss: Strength training helps in replacing the fat loss by building lean body mass. This muscle gain helps your body to burn fat more efficiently and also helps in maintaining weight loss.

While performing cardio exercises, your body consumes oxygen proportionately to the amount of calories burnt, resulting in weight loss in the form of fat and water loss. Whereas, strength training results in afterburn as the proportion in which the calories are burnt and oxygen is consumed is not proportional. Hence, an oxygen debt is created which results in excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC. This helps in replenishing the body after the wear and tear post exercise in a resting state. Thus, calories are burnt even after you have completed your workout. The more intense the workout the more afterburn you experience. But, the exerted muscles require rest to repair themselves and hence, strength training of the same set of muscles should be done only after a day’s rest. Ideally, performing aerobic exercises and strength training on alternate days provides best results.

Preserving muscle mass and strengthen bones: As we age, your lean body mass depletes slowly and fat piles on. But strength training helps in preserving and enhancing muscle mass and keeps our body toned and fat gain at bay. Also, as we get older, hormonal changes result in loss of bone density that can put you at the risk of encountering osteoporosis and make the bones brittle. Whereas, regular strength training can slow the rate of bone deterioration and also help in strengthening bones by improving bone density.

Preventing and reducing blood pressure: Strength training exercises also help in improving the muscles of the heart because while during strenuous exercise our muscles required more blood and the heart needs to work extra hard to keep up with it. Thus, over time the muscles of our heart strengthen and its efficiency to beat blood goes higher.

Reducing back pain: Strength training exercises helps in strengthening the muscles that hold up your back bone and thus helps in reducing back pain.

Improving the ability to carry out everyday work better: Toning your muscles will not only improve the way you look but will also help you improve your posture, balance, flexibility and coordination. With the strength you gain, you can carry out your everyday chores easily. You can easily carry your groceries, pick up a heavy package, push your lawn mover, carry you young ones, etc.

If these aren’t good enough reasons for you to start strength training, one more of its benefits is that it acts as an anti-depressant as it increases the level of endorphin in your body and makes you feel happier. You feel energetic and fit. It also helps you sleep better and improves the overall quality of your life. So pack up your gym bag and get ready to pump some iron!

Baking Soda - Its uses in solving everyday health and beauty issues

Did you know that a simple ingredient in your kitchen can help in solving a number of health and beauty issues? Be it indigestion, gas, acidity or a pimple on your face, it works wonders in all these cases.

What is sodium bicarbonate or baking soda?

It is a soluble white powder called Nahcolite. It is a part of the natural mineral called natron that is found in different parts of the world as well as naturally occurring mineral springs. It has natural cleansing properties because of which it is used in most of the household cleaning products, but it has a number of amazing medical benefits too.

How does sodium bicarbonate in solving health issues?

It is important for the human body to maintain its acid-base balance to remain healthy. The bicarbonate in soda is found in all the fluids in the human body and also in the organs to help maintain its pH balance.  When taken orally, sodium bicarbonate turns into carbon dioxide in the stomach after reacting with the organic acids in it. This results in an increase in the carbon dioxide level of the blood and tissues, which in turn also increasing the level of oxygen in the blood. A gain in one gas does not result in the loss of the other. Carbon dioxide helps in forming the bond between the oxygen and haemoglobin and results in release of oxygen from haemoglobin.

Some doctors give their patients oral, intravenous and aerosol doses of sodium bicarbonate to treat diseases like prostate cancer, breast cancer etc. Cancer cells multiply rapidly and result in the breakdown of sugars and the production of organic acids in the vicinity of the tumors. This acidic environment around the tumor in turn helps the cancer cells to spread rapidly. Thus, by raising the pH level around the microenvironment of the tumor prevents the cancer from spreading by starving the cancer cells. It also protects the organs from the harmful effects of chemotherapy and other cancer drugs.

What are the other everyday health and beauty benefits of sodium carbonate?

Treating cold and flu: One of the first uses of baking soda for medical purpose was to treat cold and flu. Consuming it with water helped in prevention of cold and flu, and also its treatment by reducing its symptoms in a day or two.

Treating heartburn and indigestion:  To treat heartburn and indigestion, you can stir half a teaspoon of baking soda into half a cup of water and drink it an hour or two after meals. Avoid drinking this alkaline liquid too often as this can also weaken your gut and the digestive system in general.

Reducing allergic itching: Baking soda can be applied as a topical antiseptic agent that helps in reducing itching caused by allergic skin reactions. It helps in balancing the pH balance of the skin and sooth itching.

Preventing blisters and scarring: Since blisters are tender areas on skin that are filled with fluid, application of baking soda on them can help in drying them out. Since it sooths itching, it also reduces your desire to scratch and pick at scabs and thus helps in avoiding scars from forming. A paste of three parts of baking soda combined with one part water can be used as a scrub to remove dead skin and lighten scars.

Treating pimples: A teaspoon of baking soda can be mixed with a little water and applied directly on the pimples. It can be kept on for about 15 minutes and should then be rinsed off with water. The paste can be applied and kept overnight too but with precaution as it quickly dries out skin. You must apply moisturizer to the skin after the application of baking soda to keep it hydrated.

Removing splinters: Baking soda can be mixed with a few drops of water and applied to the affected area and kept for a few minutes twice daily. After a few applications, the splinter will come out on its own.

Busting plaque and stains from teeth: A mixture of six parts of baking soda to one part of sea salt can be stored in a container and used to clean gums and remove plaque from teeth. This mixture can also be used with a few drops of lemon and applied to remove stains from teeth. This should be done just once a week as using it more often and keeping it too long on teeth can damage the tooth enamel.

Deodorizing feet and underarms: You can add one-half cup of baking soda to bathwater to sooth your skin and also remove bacteria from it to make it odour free. You can also mix a little of baking soda and water to form a paste and apply it on your feet or on the underarms to deodorize them.

I’m sure that by now you are convinced to bring out the unused packet of baking soda lying in your kitchen drawer and try it out to see its magical properties work wonders for you!