ROI calculator
Invested versus returned, as a clean percentage — for equipment, marketing spend, or that trade-show booth you are still arguing about.
Return over what you put in
Return on investment is gain divided by cost: spend $5,000 and get back $6,500, and the ROI is $1,500 ÷ $5,000 = 30%. Simple, which is both its usefulness and its limitation.
It says nothing about time. A 30% return over one month and the same return over three years are wildly different investments and identical ROIs, so always state the period alongside the percentage.
Count the whole cost
The costs people forget are the ones that are not invoiced: staff hours spent on setup, the training week, the productivity dip while people learn. Leaving them out makes every project look better than it was and makes the next estimate worse.
For software specifically, count the subscriptions it replaces as part of the return — that is usually where the real number lives.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good ROI?
Better than your next-best use of the same money — ROI is comparative by nature. 20% is spectacular against a savings account and poor against paying down 24% credit-card debt.
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Free to start, on Windows, Mac, iPad and Android. No credit card.