The Life Starter
0 of 6 complete0%
Course Library · Lesson 4 of 6
Money · Guided lesson

Price downtime and maintenance

About 14 minutes · 4 reading + 10 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

An equipment financial decision model with service-equivalent alternatives, timed costs, downtime, residual value and a conditional recommendation.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • A service-equivalence screen with usable capacity and a changed-demand exclusion.
  • A dated four-column cash-cost ledger with separate resale and maintenance rows.
  • A present-cost table with factors, signed cash flows and final rounding.
  • A contribution-based downtime row linked to service and present cost.
  • A three-scenario sensitivity table with explicit dependent rows.
  • A conditional capital decision brief with calculations and reversal triggers.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • Service: every candidate is screened against usable demand.
  • Finance: dated signed costs and present factors reconcile.
  • Risk: downtime/residual scenarios update all dependencies.
  • Decision: conditional grounds, triggers and unresolved real terms are explicit.
Open the full course project
Want more background?
Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original fictional practice. All money is USD. No account, payment, personal record or outside participation is required. A fictional print shop needs 900 usable cutting jobs each year for three years. Buy supplies capacity 1,200, costs 2,400 now plus 200 maintenance at each year end and yields 600 resale at year 3. Lease supplies capacity 1,200, costs 100 now plus 900 at each year end, maintenance included, no resale. Repair supplies capacity 1,000, costs 600 now plus 500 at each year end, no resale. Expected lost jobs/year are buy 20, lease 10, repair 80. Each lost job forfeits 2 contribution; use an 8% annual discount rate and year-end operating costs. Ignore financing/taxes; these are exercise assumptions.

The idea

Downtime costs the forgone contribution of feasible lost work.

Follow along

Price downtime and maintenance — complete worked case

Downtime costs the forgone contribution of feasible lost work.

A fictional print shop needs 900 usable cutting jobs each year for three years. Buy supplies capacity 1,200, costs 2,400 now plus 200 maintenance at each year end and yields 600 resale at year 3. Lease supplies capacity 1,200, costs 100 now plus 900 at each year end, maintenance included, no resale. Repair supplies capacity 1,000, costs 600 now plus 500 at each year end, no resale. Expected lost jobs/year are buy 20, lease 10, repair 80. Each lost job forfeits 2 contribution; use an 8% annual discount rate and year-end operating costs. Ignore financing/taxes; these are exercise assumptions.

Original three-year alternatives

Paste at A1.

AAlternativeBGross jobs/yearCNowDAnnual end costEYear 3 resaleFLost jobs/year
Buy1200240020060020
Lease1200100900010
Repair1000600500080

Copy as plain text
  1. 1. 4.1 Price

    Identify lost usable jobs and the per-job contribution, keeping units visible.

    You should see: Lost jobs×2 dollars/job.

  2. 2. 4.2 Price

    Compute downtime costs separately and add them to the annual cost rows.

    You should see: Annual totals 240/920/660.

  3. 3. 4.3 Price

    Discount the revised annual rows with the same 8% factors and horizon.

    You should see: All costs remain comparable on the original time basis.

  4. 4. 4.4 Price

    Change repair loss to 160 jobs/year; recompute its annual total 500+320=820 and usable capacity 840.

    You should see: At 900 demand it now fails service, regardless of its revised cost.

Now change one thing

New downtime is 90 lost jobs/year and contribution per lost job is 2.50. Enter annual foregone contribution.

Your work

What to finish

A contribution-based downtime row linked to service and present cost.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Multiplying downtime by gross sales when the case specifies contribution loss.

How can I tell I understand it?

Verify that your completed contribution-based downtime row linked to service and present cost meets the three lesson-specific checks and retains the supporting original records.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Lost jobs are 30 and contribution is 3/job. What modeled downtime cost applies?
2Why does the case use contribution rather than full sales to value lost work?
3Repair’s lost jobs rise to 160. What service dependency must also change?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
4
Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

Go to the knowledge check
Tools, templates, and lesson sources

Tools and templates

Tools open in a new tab so you can keep your place here.

Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

Open Stax: Discounted capital decisions
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read discounted cash flow and comparison limits. Course compares present costs for equivalent service, not a promised return.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

SBA: Manage your business — lease or buy
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read the actual redirected public body at lease/buy section: service needs, upfront cash, maintenance and lease-term review. Tax/accounting claims in the source are not adopted as universal rules.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

Report a problem with this lesson

Tell us what went wrong. Please leave out personal information and private project contents.

No sign-in needed.