🏗️ Asset Valuer Pro: Business-Technical Overview

⚠️ Important Note:
This documentation describes the business and technical aspects of Asset Valuer Pro, but the actual source code is maintained in a separate repository and is not included in this documentation repository.

📋 Introduction

This document provides a high-level overview of Asset Valuer Pro (APV), connecting the business purpose and processes with their technical implementations. It serves as an orientation for new developers to understand how business requirements are realized in the codebase.

📝 Business Background

According to the legacy documentation, Asset Valuer Pro was developed in the early 2010s to address specific business challenges:

1. Difficulty in onboarding new staff due to the specialized knowledge required in:

   • Valuation methodologies
   • Accounting standards
   • Financial reporting requirements
   • Excel proficiency
   • Local government asset knowledge

2. The need to leverage intellectual property by making the database cloud-based and available to external entities

📝 Core Business Functions

Despite its name, Asset Valuer Pro delivers more than just valuations. The system provides:

1. Financial reporting valuations under IFRS and IPSAS standards
2. Insurance valuations (replacement and indemnity values)
3. Asset management outputs including:
   • Lifecycle optimization modeling (EasySAM)
   • Projected renewals reporting
   • Cost to bring assets to satisfactory condition
   • Portfolio analysis by condition or value
4. Financial statement disclosures including:
   • Movements reconciliation
   • Valuation measurement disclosures
   • Other disclosure note information

🏗️ System Architecture Overview

The technical implementation uses a modern web architecture:

📋 Core Business Processes and Technical Implementation

📋 1. Setting Up a File

Business Process:

• Create client and license
• Create users and roles
• Create valuation framework (asset hierarchy and assumptions)
• Create valuation job
• Register assets

Technical Implementation:

• ClientController.cs and SubscriptionController.cs manage clients and licenses
• UserController.cs and RoleController.cs handle user management
• AssetHierarchyController.cs and related controllers establish hierarchies
• JobController.cs manages valuation jobs
• AssetController.cs and ImportController.cs handle asset registration

📋 2. Collecting Key Data

Business Process:

• Field data collection via mobile app (currently File Maker Pro on iPad)
• Import from client systems (Excel)
• Validate and enrich data

Technical Implementation:

• ContentController.cs handles mobile data synchronization
• ImportController.cs and ImportService.cs manage data imports
• ValidationService.cs validates imported data

📋 3. Valuation Calculations

Business Process:

• Apply different valuation methodologies based on asset type:
  • Market approach for assets with active markets
  • Income approach for income-generating assets
  • Cost approach for community benefit assets
• Run calculations to determine current values

Technical Implementation:

• Valuation methods implemented in various classes:
  • MarketValuationMethod.cs
  • IncomeValuationMethod.cs
  • ApportionmentCostValuationMethod.cs
  • DirectCostValuationMethod.cs
  • HistoricalCostValuationMethod.cs
• RefreshJobDataService.cs orchestrates calculation processes

📋 4. Reporting

Business Process:

• Generate financial reporting valuations
• Generate insurance valuations
• Produce asset management outputs
• Create financial statement disclosures

Technical Implementation:

• ReportsController.cs manages report generation
• Various report generator classes implement specific reports
• BlobStorageService.cs stores generated reports

🔗 Key Technical Components and Business Alignment

📊 Data Models

Business Entity	Technical Implementation	Purpose
Asset	Asset.cs	Represents physical assets being valued
Asset Class	AssetClass.cs	Top-level asset categorization
Component	Component.cs	Parts of assets with different lifecycles
Job	Job.cs	Represents a valuation at a point in time
Valuation Profile	ValuationProfile.cs	Defines valuation parameters

🔧 Core Services

Business Function	Technical Implementation	Purpose
Asset Import	ImportService.cs	Imports asset data from Excel
Calculation	RefreshJobDataService.cs	Performs valuation calculations
Field Data Collection	ContentService.cs	Manages mobile data collection
Reporting	ReportService.cs	Generates valuation reports

🔄 Key Workflows

📋 Asset Valuation Workflow

📋 Data Import Workflow

📋 Integration with External Systems

According to the legacy documentation, Asset Valuer Pro is designed to work alongside but separate from an entity's ERP or finance system:

It is important to note that the valuation process must be undertaken external to any live data held in an entity's ERP or finance system. A valuation is undertaken at a point in time and the process (including final audit review) can sometimes take more than six months. The data held in the valuation must be quarantined from live data to ensure agreed valuation results are not impacted by changes to the live data.

The technical implementation supports this through:

• Isolated database for valuation data
• Import/export capabilities for data exchange
• Job-based isolation of valuation processes
• Point-in-time snapshots of asset data

📋 Technical Component Distribution

The system's business functionality is distributed across controllers as follows:

🏗️ Setup and Configuration

• ClientController
• UserController
• RoleController
• SubscriptionController
• AssetHierarchyController
• ValuationProfileController

📊 Asset Management

• AssetController
• ComponentController
• AssetClassController
• AssetTypeController
• AssetSubTypeController

📝 Data Collection

• ImportController
• ContentController
• DocumentController

🧮 Calculation

• RefreshJobDataService
• ValuationMethodServices

📄 Reporting

• ReportsController
• Report generator implementations

🔄 Next Steps

New developers should:

1. Review the business processes in the legacy documentation
2. Understand how these processes are implemented in the codebase
3. Reference this documentation when making changes to ensure business requirements continue to be met