Capital Budgeting

Also known as investment appraisal is the planning process used to determine whether a firm's long term investments such as new machinery, replacement machinery, new plants, new products, and research development projects are worth pursuing. It is budget for major capital, or investment, expenditures.

Many formal methods are used in capital budgeting, including the techniques such as

• Accounting rate of return
• Net present value
• Profitability index
• Internal rate of return
• Modified internal rate of return
• Equivalent annuity

These methods use the incremental cash flows from each potential investment, or project Techniques based on accounting earnings and accounting rules are sometimes used - though economists consider this to be improper - such as the accounting rate of return, and "return on investment." Simplified and hybrid methods are used as well, such as payback period and discounted payback period.