Business Cost Calculator

Worked BCC example
Further information and assistance

What is the Business Cost Calculator?

The Business Cost Calculator (BCC) is an IT-based tool designed to assist you to estimate the business compliance costs of various options. It provides an automated and standard process for quantifying compliance costs of regulation on business using an activity-based costing methodology.

Compliance costs are defined as direct costs to businesses of performing activities associated with complying with government regulation.

How do I access the Business Cost Calculator?

The BCC can be accessed at the OBPR website (through the above link) as a web-based application. Alternatively, the OBPR can provide a CD version for installation on your intranet (internal) network or stand-alone IIS enabled personal computer.

Is my data secure?

Data from your computer to the BCC application at the OBPR website is transmitted using a secure SSL encryption. The .bcc data file generated by the BCC application can be saved on your computer to the location you nominate. No information is saved on the internet. You should ensure that the .bcc data file is stored in a secure location. The data file is encrypted and can only be opened via the BCC application.

You should only use the web-based BCC to transmit unclassified or x-in-confidence data (for example security-in-confidence or commercial-in-confidence). If your regulatory proposal contains cabinet-in-confidence or other highly classified data, you should only use the CD version of the BCC on your intranet or stand-alone personal computer. Contact the OBPR Helpdesk if you require the CD version of the BCC.

When do I need to use the Business Cost Calculator?

For Australian Government proposals that are likely to have an impact on business or not-for-profit sector, unless the impacts are of a minor or machinery nature (whether in business compliance costs or other impacts), a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) is required and will need to include compliance costs estimates. The compliance costs are required to be quantified using the BCC or an OBPR approved equivalent.

If you are using the BCC in preparing a RIS or require assistance on the BCC, you can contact the OBPR.

What are the new features of the Business Cost Calculator?

The redeveloped BCC has the following new features:

constant or variable ongoing costs per year
compliance costs by size of business (small, medium or large)
calculation of present value over a period
exporting reports to Excel
comprehensive online help text and tutorial
clearer guidance for costing of activities
better graphic and interactive design.

What are the main assumptions of the Business Cost Calculator?

The main assumptions of the BCC are:

There are 9 compliance cost categories (education, enforcement, notification, permission, procedural, publication and documentation, purchase cost, record keeping and other).
The cost categories, except ‘purchase cost’, are labour activity based internal costs.
‘Purchase cost’ means purchasing a service or product, and is related only to outsourcing costs.
Compliance costs can be start up costs or ongoing costs.
Ongoing costs could be constant or variable every year.
For present value (PV) of compliance costs over a period:
- Start up costs are recognised on 1 January of the first year of operation.
- Ongoing costs are recognised on 1 January of the year of expenditure.
- The default discount rate is 7%.

Worked BCC example

The OBPR has produced a worked example of a BCC report, using a hypothetical policy proposal. The example is described in the BCC example information sheet.