Return on Investment (RoI) is a useful method which provides the basic yardstick for measuring whether or not invested capital has been used effectively for generating reasonable amount of return. RoI can be used to measure overall performance of an organisation or of its individual departments or divisions. It can be calculated as under.
RoI = (Net Income/Sales) x (Sales/Total Investment)
Net Income before or after tax may be used for making comparisons. Total investment includes both working as well as fixed capital invested in business. According to this technique, RoI can be increased either by increasing sales volume proportionately more than total investment or by reducing total investment without having any reductions in sales volume.
RoI provides top management an effective means of control for measuring and comparing performance of different departments. It also permits departmental managers to find out the problem which affects RoI in an adverse manner.
