ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes a variety of financially based methodologies, indicators, and metrics that can be used within the financial perspective of the project balanced scorecard. All projects have associated costs. All projects will also have associated benefits. At the outset of a project, costs will far exceed benefits. However, at some point the benefits will start outweighing the costs. Most organizations want to select projects that have a positive return on investment. The return on investment (ROI) as it is most commonly known, is the additional amount earned after costs are earned back. The project manager and the finance department need to be joint owners of the ROI process. Most companies track the cost of a project using only two dimensions: planned costs versus actual costs. ROI evaluates an investment's potential by comparing the magnitude and timing of expected gains with the investment costs.
