How to calculate earnings for downtime buildings when the hero is away?

Question

I have read the Downtime rules and I am still unsure about some key aspects of it.

Lets say I have a building with an Artisans' workshop and a team of Craftspeople

Craftspeople

Earnings gp, Goods, or Labor +4

Create 3 Goods, 2 Influence, 4 Labor (200 gp); Time 2 days; Size 3 people

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Artisan's Workshop

Earnings gp, Goods, or Influence +10

Benefit counts as masterwork artisan's tools for one Craft skill

Create 9 Goods, 9 Labor (360 gp); Time 20 days; Size 8–16 squares

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As I understand it, when the hero is in town, he can make a capital check: 10 (d20) + 10 (craft skill) + 2 (Masterwork craft tools bonus from workshop) + 4 (Craftspeople) + 10 (Artisan's Workshop) = 36 = 3.6 gp OR 3 Goods per day.

Question 1: What happens if the hero is away? Does he make the checks for each day he was away when he gets back?

Question 2: Can a manager make daily checks instead of the hero?

Question 3: Can the hero make his daily checks when he is away using magical means of communication, e.g. with Sending?

Question 4: For each 10 units of capital check I can either get 1 capital or 1gp. Isn't it way better to make capital than gp, when each unit of capital is worth at least 10gp? Or do I still have to pay the price for earning the capital through rooms?

Thank you for your time and effort

Answer 1

Question 1) You can make the checks when he goes back, or he can make the checks himself every day. The business works even if the owner isnt there to activelly direct the workers, as it is assumed you hired people to make your business work, and your earnings are your profit after you paid them and the business paid all it's cost. Though, if the hero isnt there, you should apply the 7 days absence penalties as normal, which could ruin the business after a while (which can be fixed with a manager).

Question 2) The manager's job is to prevent the absence penalties and roll for the random events instead of the hero, but the earning checks will happen wether or not the hero is there. Personally, i prefer to roll them after they get back, we count the days away, i roll a couple of random events, see how many checks they have to make, and they take 10 on all of them.

Question 3) As said above, the checks will happen regardless of his presence. But that is a good question because if the hero can communicate at distance, the absence clock is reset everytime he communicates with them. That way they know what to do and they know their boss is still alive.

Question 4) Everything other than GP you will have to pay the half-price for it. If i recall correctly, labor and goods are 20 gp (half price is 10 gp), while influence is 30 gp (half price is 15 gp), and magic is 100 gp (half price is 50 gp). So, when you are earning capital you dont gain any GP, but you are not actually losing any either, because the price for rooms and hirelings are based on the full cost of the capital, so if you take your time to earn the capital, you can buy things at half the cost. See that as an investment of your money, in the long run you will have discounts to build other rooms and hire more people.