Steps of Cost-Benefit Analysis
1. Organize your analysis using a framework
You must first set the framework for your analysis for it to be as precise as feasible. The characteristics of your company will determine how this framework appears.
Describe the aims and purposes you hope to achieve with the proposal. What must you do for the project to be deemed successful? This will be crucial in evaluating the findings of your investigation and can help you discover and comprehend your expenses and advantages.
Similarly, choose the statistics you'll use to quantify and contrast the advantages and disadvantages. Your expenses and benefits should be calculated using the same "common currency" in order to appropriately compare the two.
2. Determine your benefits and costs
The next thing you must do is create two distinct lists, one, of all the anticipated expenses and the other, of all the anticipated advantages of the proposed project or course of action.
You'll probably start by adding up the direct costs, which are expenditures directly associated with creating or developing a good or service (or the implementation of a project or business decision). Examples of direct expenses include labor costs, production costs, materials costs, and inventory costs.
However, it's also crucial to go beyond the apparent. There are a few other expenses you should consider:
- Indirect costs: These are often fixed costs associated with running a firm, such as rent and utilities.
- Intangible costs: Any present and future costs that are challenging to identify and assess are considered intangible costs. Examples can be lower productivity levels after the implementation of a new company process or lower customer satisfaction following modifications to customer care procedures that result in fewer repeat purchases.
- Opportunity costs: Opportunity costs are the benefits or opportunities that are missed when a company chooses one course of action over another.
After those specific charges have been determined, it is similarly crucial to comprehend any potential advantages of the suggested course of action or undertaking. Among those advantages are:
- Direct: More money and sales brought in by a new product
- Increased consumer interest in your company or brand, indirect
- Intangible: increased staff morale
- Competitive: being a pioneer in a particular sector or business
3. Assign a monetary value or amount to each benefit and cost
The correct monetary units must be established by giving each expense and benefit a dollar figure once you have created detailed listings of all prices and advantages. It will be challenging to evaluate costs and benefits correctly if you don't assign a value to each one.
Direct expenses and benefits will be the ones that are the simplest to put a price on. However, it can be difficult to estimate indirect and intangible costs and benefits. Although there are several software choices and approaches available for determining these less evident numbers, that does not imply you shouldn't attempt.
4. Add up all the costs and benefits, then make a comparison.
You may compare the two lists once each expense and benefit have a dollar value next to it.
There is a business case for you to move forward with the project or choice if the total benefits outweigh the whole expenses. If overall expenditures are more than overall benefits, you might want to reevaluate your plan.
You should refer to the framework created in step one in addition to just comparing the overall costs and advantages. Have you achieved the objectives you've selected as success indicators, or does the analysis indicate that you haven't?
If the expenses outweigh the advantages, investigate whether there are any other options you haven't thought of. Additionally, you might be able to find savings that will help you accomplish your objectives more inexpensively while still being successful. You need to opt for digital transformation solutions.
+65 90084846
-2.png?width=192&height=68&name=image%20(11)-2.png)
