Business Impact is where you record what an idea is expected to deliver and what it actually delivered, in money and in other benefits. It turns your innovation program's results into numbers leaders can see on the dashboards.
Business Impact is recorded on each idea's page, on the Business Impact tab, and rolls up into initiative and system dashboards and exports.
In this article
- Key terms
- Who it's for and what it's best for
- Set up benefits and costs
- Choose a monthly, quarterly or yearly timeframe
- Add Business Impact to an idea
- Give submitters access
- Edit or delete Business Impact
- Collect Business Impact with action items
- Export Business Impact
- See Business Impact on dashboards
- Things to know
- FAQ
Key terms
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Financial impact | Money: benefits (such as revenue or cost savings) and costs, each recorded as projected (expected) and actual (achieved). |
| Non-financial impact | Benefits that aren't measured in money, such as improved safety or customer satisfaction. |
| Benefit types and cost types | The categories people pick from (or type) when they record impact. |
| Projected Net Benefit | The total projected value recorded on ideas, shown on dashboards and in exports. |
| Actual Benefits | The value actually achieved, shown on dashboards and in exports. |
| Timeframe | Whether impact is recorded and reported by month, quarter or year. |
Who it's for and what it's best for
System Administrators set up the benefit and cost types for the whole system. Initiative administrators choose how their initiative uses them. Admins, moderators, evaluators and, optionally, submitters record impact on ideas. Common uses:
- Building the business case. Record projected benefits and costs while an idea is being evaluated, so decision makers can compare ideas on expected value.
- Proving results after delivery. Record actual benefits once a project is live, and compare them with what was projected.
- Reporting program ROI. Show leaders total projected and actual value across the program on the Command Center and Business Impact dashboards.
- Capturing value that isn't money. Record non-financial benefits, such as safety or sustainability improvements, so they count too.
- Making it part of the workflow. Ask idea teams to fill in impact as an action item in a Development step, instead of chasing them by email.
Set up benefits and costs
Set up your benefit and cost types before people start recording impact, so everyone uses the same categories and your reports add up cleanly.
At the system level
System-level types are the default list for every initiative.
- Go to System Setup > Ideas > Business Impact.
- Benefits are grouped into financial and non-financial. To add a type, select + Add Benefit at the bottom of the group.
- To remove a type, select the trash can to its left.
- To reorder, drag the rearrange icon on the left of an item up or down.
System-level Business Impact settings.
Adding and deleting benefit types.
Dragging benefit types into a new order.
Use a currency other than US dollars
Go to System Setup > Site > General Settings and choose your currency from the Currency dropdown.
The Currency dropdown in General Settings.
At the initiative level
Each initiative can follow the system list, use its own list or let people type their own types. Go to Site Setup > Ideas > Business Impact. You'll see separate settings for Cost Tracking and Benefits Tracking, each with three options:
| Option | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Use System Level cost types / benefit types | A dropdown of the types defined in System Setup. This is the default for new initiatives. | Consistent reporting across the whole program |
| Use Open Text input for cost types / benefit types | People type their own type instead of picking from a list. | Varied ideas where a fixed list doesn't fit |
| Use Initiative Level cost types / benefit types | A dropdown of types you define for this initiative only. | Programs with their own measures, such as a sustainability challenge |
Initiative-level Business Impact settings.
For example, to switch costs to free text, set Cost Tracking to Use Open Text input for cost types.
The Cost Tracking setting.
Choose a monthly, quarterly or yearly timeframe
The timeframe decides how finely impact is recorded and reported. Pick the one that matches how your finance team reports. New initiatives start on Quarterly.
- Go to Site Setup > Ideas > Business Impact. [Placeholder: confirm path. The original article said Site Setup > Ideas > Ideas > Business Impact timeframe.]
- Set Business impact timeframe to Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly.
- Save. A message explains how existing data will be converted.
The timeframe applies everywhere Business Impact appears: Site Setup, the idea page, pipeline dashboards, system dashboards and CSV exports.
What happens to existing data
| Change | What happens |
|---|---|
| Yearly to Quarterly | Each year's impact is divided evenly across its quarters. |
| Quarterly to Yearly | Quarters are added up into their year. |
| Monthly to Quarterly or Yearly | Months roll up into quarters or years. |
| Quarterly or Yearly to Monthly | Impact is spread evenly across the months in each period. |
Example: a projected net benefit of $120,000 recorded for a year becomes $10,000 per month when you switch to Monthly.
Dashboards and exports with Monthly
- Initiative dashboards: show financial and non-financial benefits by month.
- Pipeline dashboards: track the impact of submissions month by month.
- System dashboards: add up monthly impact across all initiatives.
- CSV exports: include monthly values for projected and actual benefits, costs and non-financial impacts, alongside any quarterly or yearly data. Run exports as usual from the Pipeline Idea List or system dashboards.
Add Business Impact to an idea
Record impact as soon as there's a reasonable estimate, then update it as the idea moves forward. These roles can add and edit Business Impact:
- System Administrators
- Community Administrators
- Initiative/Pipeline Administrators
- Moderators
- Evaluators
- The idea's submitter, if an admin allows it (see Give submitters access)
- Open the idea and select the Business Impact tab.
- Select Add Impact.
- Fill in the financial and non-financial details (listed below).
- Select Save. Each save creates a new version.
The Business Impact tab on an idea.
Selecting Add Impact and entering details.
Financial Business Impact fields.
Financial impact includes:
- Start date
- Projected and actual benefits
- Projected and actual costs
- Attachments
- Notes
Amounts are split into the initiative's timeframe, for example into quarters when the initiative uses Quarterly.
Non-financial impact includes:
- Benefit: title, type, start date and end date
- Description
- Attachments
Non-financial Business Impact fields.
View earlier versions
Every save is kept. Choose a timestamp from the version dropdown to see what the impact looked like at that point. This is handy for comparing the original projection with today's numbers.
Choosing an earlier version from the timestamp dropdown.
Give submitters access
By default, only admins, moderators and evaluators can see the Business Impact tab. Give submitters access when the people closest to the idea are best placed to estimate its value.
- Go to Site Setup > Ideas > Business Impact. [Placeholder: confirm path. The original article said Site Setup > Ideas > Ideas.]
- Turn on Submitter access to Business Impact Tab.
- Save.
The submitter access setting.
Submitters can then view and edit Business Impact on their own ideas.
Edit or delete Business Impact
Edit
Update impact as estimates firm up or results come in.
- On the idea's Business Impact tab, select Update.
- Make your changes and select Save.
Updating and saving Business Impact.
Delete
To remove a benefit or cost entry, select the trash icon next to it.
The trash icon next to a benefit.
Collect Business Impact with action items
The most reliable way to get impact recorded is to make it a task. Add a Development step to your pipeline, and the people assigned can enter projected and actual impact as part of their action item.
- As an admin or pipeline moderator, add a Development step to the pipeline.
- In the step configuration, turn on Allow Assignees to Edit Idea Attributes. Without this, assignees can't enter impact.
- Optionally, add a Development field question, such as "Have you recorded the Business Impact?", so assignees confirm they've done it.
- Optionally, write a custom email that explains what the action item is for.
Configuring the Development step.
A custom email for the Business Impact action item.
When the assignee opens the action item, they can enter Business Impact for the idea and answer any Development questions.
Entering Business Impact from a Development action item.
Export Business Impact
Export when you need to analyze impact in a spreadsheet or share it with finance.
- Open the Pipeline Idea List.
- From the gear menu, add any of these columns: Projected Net Benefit, Actual Benefits, Non-Financial Benefits.
- Select the green Excel icon at the top right to run the export.
Adding Business Impact columns to the idea list.
See Business Impact on dashboards
Command Center
Key Program Results in the Command Center summarizes Business Impact across the system. You can view Projected Net Benefit, Non-Financial Benefits and Actual Benefits for one site, a group of sites or all sites.
Business Impact totals in Key Program Results.
Business Impact dashboards
Track impact on an initiative-level dashboard or the system-level dashboard. Both show Financial Benefits Over Time and Financial Summary by Innovation, and you can export the data to a spreadsheet.
A Business Impact dashboard.
For quarterly initiatives, the dashboard can show quarters, years or a running total for all time, and the target financial impact is shown by quarter too.
Quarterly financial targets on the dashboard.
When you view by quarter, any yearly impact is divided evenly across the quarters. When you view by year, quarterly impact is added into its year.
Things to know
- Changing the timeframe converts existing data by splitting or adding it up evenly. Check a few ideas afterward.
- Saves create versions. Nothing is overwritten without a record, so you can always look back.
- Need more decimal places? Turn on Increased Decimal Precision under System Setup > Beta for up to 7 to 8 decimal places.
- Project Rooms have their own Business Impact Timeframe, Cost Tracking and Benefits Tracking settings. When a Project Room belongs to an initiative, the initiative's settings control them.
FAQ
A submitter can't see the Business Impact tab. Submitter access is off by default. Turn on Submitter access to Business Impact Tab for the initiative.
An assignee can't enter impact from their action item. Check that Allow Assignees to Edit Idea Attributes is on in the Development step's configuration.
The benefit type I need isn't in the dropdown. Add it at the system level, define initiative-level types, or switch the initiative to open text input.
Can I show amounts in euros or pounds? Yes. Change the currency in System Setup > Site > General Settings.
Hi Daniel,
Can we hide it on the idea page?
Thank you.
Best,
Roc
Can we leverage reports/exports to track Net Impact (e.g. Benefits - Costs) in addition to just Benefits? In exports, we can see the net projected impact, but only the actual benefits - this doesn't seem right!
agreed with Kevin!!