Cost-Benefit Analysis template

by Kishan Tambralli

A Cost-Benefit Analysis is a financial analysis that calculates the costs and benefits of an investment. It can determine whether it is worth investing in a particular project, product, or service. If the cost is high, but the benefit will bring greater returns than if you did not support it, it may make sense to proceed with this decision; however, if the cost outweighs any potential return on your investment, you should think twice about proceeding.

Cost Benefit Analysis Template, Cost Benefit Analysis Dashboard, cost benefit analysis

A cost-benefit analysis is a financial analysis that helps you determine if an investment is sound. You can use it to:

  • Compare the total expected costs against the total expected benefits and see which one outweighs the other by how much.
  • Estimate how long it will take to achieve your desired results and determine if your investment sounds worth pursuing.

How to Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis?

A cost-benefit analysis is a type of financial analysis that helps you determine the relative value of an investment. It calculates the total benefits gained from the investment against the total costs and then presents these figures in either table or graph form. When you consider whether to invest, it's essential to know how much money comes in versus how much money goes out. This way, you can make sure your returns will be worth your time and effort before spending more resources.

Steps of Cost Benefit Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis Steps, cost benefit analysis

It involves calculating the costs and benefits of an activity to determine its value. The benefit can be measured in terms of dollars (benefits) or units (prices).

  • Step 1: The Status Quo of Cost-Benefit Analysis:
    The phrase "cost-benefit analysis" typically applies to an organization's decision-making process. A cost-benefit analysis will help you determine which option is more profitable for your company and if it's worth the investment. The status quo in cost-benefit analysis stems from various factors such as regulations, technological advancement, and economic changes.
  • Step 2: Identity Cost:
    Identifying costs in a cost-benefit analysis is the first step to making a sound decision. Several benefits and costs should be considered when determining whether to move forward with one's proposal, project, or idea.

    After identifying all potential opportunities and possible threats, you must determine which factors impact the outcome most. These circumstances include tangible items such as money spent on equipment, labor hours needed from employees/contractors, etc., and intangible assets such as time savings from using new technology or reduced stress levels due to improved workplace morale.
  • Step 3: Identify Benefits:
    I
    dentifying benefits in cost-benefit analysis can be challenging because it requires understanding both sides of the equation: what you gain from your investments and what you lose from them. Here are some examples to help with identifying potential benefits: 
    1. High-profit margin through reduced production time. 
    2. Decreased call volume due to lower customer frustration.
    3. Once benefits are thoroughly understood, they must be translated into measurable units such as dollars or percentages so that their significance is evident when compared to costs. This step will ensure your decision-making process is as accurate as possible.
  • Step 4: Assign a Monetary Value to Your Costs:
    It would help if you assigned a monetary value to the costs of your business. This is necessary to make informed decisions about how much profit you need from each customer and what price you should charge for your product or service.

  • Step 5: Compare cost and benefit:
    The cost analysis shows how much it will take to produce something, and its benefit is what you get in return. Benefits can be both tangible and intangible. Therefore, when you decide whether a project is worth doing, you must look at all the potential benefits before deciding.

How can Our template help you conduct a cost-benefit analysis?

Features:

  • The Cost Category - The cost category includes any expenses related to the project. These include both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are anything paid out of pocket for this specific project, while indirect costs are things like salary or rent that would normally be paid regardless of current status.
  • Total present value (TPV) is a technique used in cost-benefit analysis. It's an estimation of the total cost and benefits that will be incurred over time by an investment, project, or process. For example, if we were to calculate this for a single year, then:
  1. For example:
    The total present value of $100 invested at 10% interest compounded annually for 50 years would be $1,561.12 ($1,560.12 +10*$61). This means that if you invest $100 now and do nothing more with it for the next 50 years, your investments will grow to over $1,500!

    The total future value – Is used in decision analysis to compare different investment opportunities based on their expected return and estimated costs. Still, it requires you to know both the amount of money being invested and when that money will be paid back or reinvested into other investments.
  2. For example:
    If an individual were trying to decide between two savings plans with annual interest rates of five percent per year for four years, he would have a choice between investing $30,000 today at one speed or waiting until next year to invest $60,000 (at which point his annualized return would increase by 0.25%). Thus, calculating the total future value helps him make a comparison using only these factors.
    The graph gets the data from the Total present value (TPV) and the total future value.

3 Benefits of Cost-Benefit Analysis:

There are many benefits to cost-benefit analysis, including:

  • Ensuring a good return on investment.
  • Preventing overspending -costs should not exceed benefits from a project, or investments should net positive returns.
  • Identifying hidden opportunities.