Where is your business money going?
Map your costs across five categories, see how each one sits against a typical small-business mix, and surface the levers most likely to free up cash. Indicative only — a starting point for a sharper conversation.
~5 minutes · No login to start
About this tool
Business Cost Diagnostic
Most owners can tell you their revenue and roughly what they take home, but far fewer can say cleanly where every dollar in between actually goes. Costs accrete quietly — a subscription here, a lease renewal there, an interest rate that crept up, recruitment spend that spikes when someone leaves — and no single line looks alarming enough to question. The Business Cost Diagnostic is a free tool that maps your whole cost base across four categories in one place, so you can see the shape of your spending rather than a list of unrelated invoices. It's built for Australian small and medium businesses that want a directional read on where cash is leaking before booking an adviser's time.
How it works
You enter your annual revenue plus whatever you know across roughly thirty cost lines grouped into four categories — people (wages, superannuation, workers compensation, training, recruitment, contractors), operating (rent, utilities, insurance, vehicle and travel, marketing, professional fees, software), production or delivery (materials, equipment, shipping, subcontractors), and financial (loan interest, bank fees, bad debts, depreciation). Only revenue is required; anything you're unsure of can be left blank. The tool then totals each category, works out your overall costs as a share of revenue, and shows how each category splits your cost base. It compares each category's share against a general small-business cost mix to flag where you look heavy, and applies illustrative reduction assumptions to your own figures to surface the biggest savings levers first — sorted into quick wins and strategic moves. Every output is directional and built from your inputs, not a benchmark for your specific sector or a guaranteed saving.
Who it’s for
Australian SME owners and operators who want a fast, plain-English picture of where their money goes across the whole business before deciding what to renegotiate, cut, or investigate.
- Maps your full cost base across four categories — people, operating, production or delivery, and financial costs — from about thirty inputs, so scattered spending becomes one clear picture built entirely from your own figures.
- Flags categories that sit above a general small-business mix and ranks savings levers biggest-first, separating quick wins (subscriptions, supplier terms, marketing ROI) from strategic moves (leases, refinancing, retention).
- Outputs are indicative and directional — a starting point for a sharper conversation with an adviser, not a sector benchmark, guaranteed saving, or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need exact numbers from my accounts to use it?
No. Annual revenue is the only required field — everything else is optional, and you're encouraged to leave anything you're unsure of blank. The more lines you fill in, the fuller the picture, but even a partial set of figures will map your cost shares and surface the larger levers. It reads best as a first pass you can run in a few minutes from memory or a rough profit-and-loss, then refine later with real figures from your bookkeeper or accounting software.
Are the savings figures a promise of what I'll actually save?
No, and it's important to read them as illustrative. The tool applies indicative reduction assumptions to the numbers you enter to show which levers are worth investigating and roughly how large each could be — for example, reviewing subscriptions or renegotiating supplier contracts. What you can genuinely recover depends on your contracts, your stage, your sector, and how much slack actually exists in each line. Treat each lever as a prompt to dig in, not a banked outcome.
What does 'above a typical mix' mean — is it comparing me to my industry?
It's directional, not a sector benchmark. The tool measures each category as a share of your revenue and compares it against a general small-business cost mix. If a category sits meaningfully above that, it's flagged as worth a closer look. That flag isn't a verdict that you're overspending — a professional-services firm and a manufacturer will legitimately have very different mixes. It simply tells you where to point your attention first when you sit down with the detail or an adviser.
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