Learn how to enable inflation projections in Capital Planner and how inflation-adjusted values are calculated and displayed across equipment, projects, dashboards, and budgets.

How it Works

Inflation Projections lets your organization apply a single inflation rate to future equipment and project costs in Capital Planner.

When enabled, FMX keeps your original values in today’s dollars and also calculates inflation-adjusted values for future fiscal years.

Key Concepts

  • Inflation multiplier percentage
    • The annual inflation rate your organization sets (for example, 2.7%).
  • Base values are in today’s dollars
    • Inflation-adjusted calculations assume the values you enter today are current, for example:
      • Equipment Replacement asset value (RAV)
      • Project Estimated cost
  • Compounding
    • Inflation compounds year over year.

Inflation-Adjusted Calculation

FMX applies the inflation multiplier percentage once per fiscal year between today and the planned date.

Inflation-Adjusted Value = Today’s Value × (1 + Inflation multiplier)^(number of fiscal years)

Note: The number of fiscal years is determined using your organization’s Fiscal year start date.

Example

This example uses a fiscal year start date of 06/01.

  • Today: 03/10/2026
  • Fiscal year start date: 06/01
  • Inflation multiplier percentage: 2.7%
  • Today’s value: $2,000
  • Planned date: 07/15/2027

Because there are 2 fiscal years between 03/10/2026 and 07/15/2027, FMX applies inflation 2 times.

Inflation-adjusted value = $2,000 × (1.027)^2 = $2,109.46

Before You Begin

  • Capital Planner must be enabled and configured. See Capital Planner Setup Guide.
  • For the most accurate projections, make sure these fields are filled out and kept current:
    • Equipment: Planned replacement date and Replacement asset value (RAV)
    • Projects: Planned project start date and cost fields
  • If you are funding work using Accounting budgets, review Using Budgets with Capital Planner.

Enabling Inflation Projections

  1. Navigate to Admin settings.
  2. Open Capital Planner settings.
  3. Find the inflation settings.
  4. Enter your organization’s Inflation multiplier percentage (for example, 2.7%).
  5. Optional: Enable Automatically update RAV and estimated cost values using inflation.
    • This setting is explained later in Optional: Annual Updates.
  6. Click Save.

Fiscal Year Start Date

Inflation calculations and annual updates use your organization’s Fiscal year start date.

  • To review or update this date, go to Admin settings → General settings → Fiscal year start date.

How Inflation Affects Equipment

When inflation is enabled, FMX calculates inflation-adjusted values for equipment.

What It Calculates

  • Inflation-adjusted RAV

What It Uses

  • Equipment Replacement asset value (RAV)
  • Equipment Planned replacement date
  • The global Inflation multiplier
  • Your organization’s Fiscal year start date

Note: Inflation uses the planned replacement date. It does not use estimated end-of-life because inflation should reflect when you plan to replace the asset.

Where You’ll See It

  • On the equipment record
  • In the equipment grid
  • In Capital Planner grids and dashboards when using inflation-adjusted values

How Inflation Affects Capital Projects

When inflation is enabled, FMX calculates inflation-adjusted values for capital projects.

What It Calculates

  • Inflation-adjusted total estimated cost
  • Inflation-adjusted upcoming cost

What It Uses

  • The project’s Planned project start date
  • The project’s base cost fields, including any subrequest estimates, which roll up into total estimated cost

Understanding Upcoming Cost

Projects track both what you planned to spend and what you have already spent.

  • Total estimated cost is the full planned budget for the project.
  • Upcoming cost is what is left to spend after subtracting actual spend to date.

Example

This example uses a fiscal year start date of 06/01 and an inflation multiplier percentage of 2.7%.

  • Total estimated cost: $50,000
  • Actual spend to date: $12,000
  • Upcoming cost in today’s dollars: $38,000
  • Planned project start date: 08/15/2027

Because there are 2 fiscal years between today and 08/15/2027, FMX applies inflation 2 times.

Inflation-adjusted upcoming cost = $38,000 × (1.027)^2 = $40,079.68

Where You’ll See It

  • On the project or work request record
  • In the Capital Planner project grid
  • In Capital Planner grids and dashboards when using inflation-adjusted values

How Inflation Affects Capital Planner

After you have equipment and capital projects in the system, Capital Planner can display either today’s dollars or inflation-adjusted values. Use the Use inflation-adjusted values toggle to switch between them.

What Changes When You Toggle It On

When inflation-adjusted values are enabled, Capital Planner uses:

  • Inflation-adjusted RAV for upcoming asset replacements
  • Inflation-adjusted upcoming cost for upcoming project expenses

This impacts:

  • The cost projection chart
  • The supporting grids
  • Any other dashboards within Capital Planner

How Inflation Affects Budgets

If you are using budgets with Capital Planner, inflation adds inflation-adjusted budget calculations alongside the existing values.

Budgets include:

  • Inflation-Adjusted Upcoming Amount
    • The budget’s upcoming amount calculated using inflation-adjusted values for assigned items, including equipment replacement costs and project costs.
  • Inflation-Adjusted Available Balance
    • The budget’s available balance calculated using the inflation-adjusted upcoming amount instead of the non-inflation-adjusted upcoming amount.

Example

If a budget has $10,000 in upcoming work (today’s dollars) and inflation-adjusted upcoming work of $10,800, you will see two different available balances:

  • Available Balance uses $10,000.
  • Inflation-Adjusted Available Balance uses $10,800.

To learn more about creating and managing budgets, see Budget Set-up (Accounting).

Optional: Annual Updates

Annual updates determine whether FMX updates your base values for you each fiscal year.

This is important because inflation-adjusted calculations assume base values are in today’s dollars. If base values are not kept current, inflation-adjusted projections can drift away from real replacement and project costs.

Inflation Projections supports two approaches.

Option A: Do not update base values automatically

When annual updates are off:

  • FMX does not change your base RAV or project Estimated cost values.
  • Inflation is applied only in inflation-adjusted fields and when you choose to view inflation-adjusted reporting.
  • Your team is responsible for keeping base values current, for example by updating RAV and project estimates using updated quotes.
    • If base values are not kept up to date, projections will become less accurate over time.

Example

Inflation-adjusted values are based on the number of fiscal years between today and the planned date.

For example:

  • Fiscal year start date: 06/01
  • Inflation multiplier percentage: 2.7%
  • Asset RAV in today’s dollars: $2,000
  • Planned replacement date: 05/15/2027

On 05/31/2026, there are 2 fiscal years between today and the planned replacement date, so FMX applies 2 years of inflation.

On 06/01/2026, there is now 1 fiscal year between today and the planned replacement date, so FMX applies 1 year of inflation.

This is expected. You are one fiscal year closer to the planned replacement date, so there is one fewer year of future inflation remaining to apply.

Option B: Update base values automatically each fiscal year

When annual updates are on:

  • At the start of each fiscal year, FMX updates base values such as:
    • Equipment RAV
    • Project Estimated cost
  • The update uses your organization’s inflation multiplier.

Example

This example uses a fiscal year start date of 06/01 and an inflation multiplier percentage of 2.7%.

Step 1: Annual updates change the base RAV

If an asset has an RAV of $2,000 on 05/31/2026, then on 06/01/2026 FMX updates the base RAV to:

  • Updated base RAV = $2,000 × 1.027 = $2,054.00

If annual updates stay enabled, FMX applies the same update again at the start of the next fiscal year.

  • On 06/01/2027, the base RAV becomes $2,054.00 × 1.027 = $2,109.46

This is compounding. Each year’s update is applied to the most recently updated base value.

Step 2: The new base RAV becomes the starting point for inflation-adjusted values

After a base RAV update runs, FMX calculates the inflation-adjusted RAV from the updated base RAV.

For example, if the planned replacement date is 07/15/2028, FMX applies inflation for the fiscal years between now and that planned date.

  • If you view the asset on 05/31/2026 (before the update), the inflation-adjusted RAV is based on the base RAV of $2,000.
  • If you view the asset on 06/01/2026 (after the update), the inflation-adjusted RAV is based on the new base RAV of $2,054.00.

Because the starting value is higher after the update, the inflation-adjusted RAV will also be higher.

Important: Turning on annual updates permanently changes your base values over time. Review this option carefully before enabling it.

What Happens When Planned Dates Have Passed

If an asset or project has a planned date that is in the past, FMX does not apply negative inflation.

Inflation-adjusted values

  • Equipment: If the Planned replacement date is in the past, the inflation-adjusted RAV is the same as the current RAV.
  • Projects: If the Planned project start date is in the past, the inflation-adjusted project values are the same as the current values.

In both cases, inflation-adjusted values will increase again once you update the planned date to a future fiscal year.

Annual updates

If Automatically update RAV and estimated cost values using inflation is enabled, annual updates still run at the start of each fiscal year.

  • Even if an item’s planned date is in the past, the base values can still be increased as part of the annual update.
  • To prevent unexpected cost projections, update planned dates that have passed to the next realistic replacement or start date.

Troubleshooting

  • I don’t see inflation-adjusted fields
    • Confirm Capital Planner is enabled.
    • Confirm your user type has access to Capital Planner and the relevant asset lifespan fields.
  • Equipment inflation looks wrong
    • Confirm the equipment has a Planned replacement date and a current RAV.
  • Project inflation looks wrong
    • Confirm the Planned project start date and cost fields are filled out.
  • Annual updates did not run when expected
    • Confirm your Fiscal year start date.
    • Confirm annual updates are enabled.

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