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
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.
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.
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.
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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.
These tools work together to give you a clearer picture of your business.
Use these results to make better decisions. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on them, an advisor can walk through what they mean for the business.
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