Payback Period Advantages and Disadvantages

Payback Period Advantages & Disadvantages

In many businesses, capital investments are obligatory. Say as an example investment on plant & machinery, furniture & fittings, and land & buildings to name a few. But, such investments do incur a lot of money outlays. And business homes certainly are going to be anxious to know when they will recover such an initial cost of an investment. Below we have discussed some examples of payback period advantages & disadvantages to understand it better.

Summary – Advantages & Disadvantages of Payback Period

Advantages

• The formula is straightforward to know and calculate
• Payback Period Helps in Project Evaluation Quickly
• Helps in Reducing the Risk Of losses

Disadvantages

• It doesn’t take Time Value of Money into consideration.
• Doesn’t take into consideration the inflow of cash after the payback period.

Advantages of Payback Period Formula

#1 – The formula is straightforward to know and calculate

You simply need the initial investment and the near term money flow information. The formula for calculating even cash flows or in other words the same amount of cash flow every period is:

Let us, now, see how easily it can be calculated under different circumstances –

Example #1

Caterpillar Inc. is considering the purchase of furniture & fittings for $30,000. Such furniture & fittings encompass a useful life of 15 years, and its expected annual cash inflow is $5,000. The company’s preferred payback period is 4 years. You need to find the payback period of the furniture & fittings and conclude whether or not buying such furniture & fittings are desirable?

The answer will be –

= ($30,000 / $5,000)

Payback period = 6 years

Thus, it may be concluded that the purchase of such furniture & fittings isn’t desirable as its payback period of 6 years is more than Caterpillar’s estimated payback period.

#2 – Payback Period Helps in Project Evaluation Quickly

Example #2

The Boeing Company is considering purchasing equipment for $40,000. The equipment has a useful life of 15 years, and its expected annual cash inflow is $40,000. But, the equipment has annual cash outflow (including preservation expenses) of $30,000 as well.  The aircraft manufacturer’s desired payback period is 5 years. Should, Boeing purchase the new equipment?

• Total investment = $40,000
• Net annual cash inflow = Annual cash inflow – Annual cash outflow = $40,000 – $30,000 = $10,000

Answer will be –

= ($40,000 / $10,000)

Payback Period = 4 years

Hence, it may be settled that the equipment is desirable as its payback period of 4 years is less than Boeing’s maximum payback period of 5 years.

In the aforesaid examples, the various projects generated even cash inflows. What if the projects had generated uneven cash inflows? In such a scenario, payback period calculations are still simple! You just need to first find out the cumulative cash inflow and then apply the following formula to find the payback period.

Example #3

Suppose Microsoft Corporation is analyzing a project that requires an investment of $250,000. The project is expected to come up with the following cash inflows in five years.

Calculate the payback period of the investment. Also, find out whether the investment needs to be made if the management wants to recover the initial investment in 4 year-period?

Step 1

Calculation of cumulative net cash inflow –

Note: In the 4th year we got the initial investment of $250,000, so this is the payback year.

Step 2

• Years before the full recovery takes place = 3
• Annual cash inflows during the payback year = $50,000

Calculation of not recovered investment at the beginning of the 4th year = Total investment – Cumulative cash inflows at the finish of the 3rd year = $250,000 – $210,000 = $40,000.

Therefore, Answer will be –

= 3 + ($40,000 / $50,000)

Payback Period = 3.8 years.

So, it can be concluded that the investment is desirable as the payback period for the project is 3.8 years, which is slightly less than the management’s desired period of 4 years.

#3 – Helps in Reducing the Risk Of losses

A project with a short payback period indicates efficiency and improves the liquidity position of a company. It additionally means the project bears less risk, which is significant for small enterprises with restricted resources. A brief payback period also curtails the risk of losses caused due to changes within the economic situation.

Example #4

There are two varieties of equipment (A and B) within the market. Ford Motor Company wants to know which one is more efficient. While equipment A would cost $21,000, equipment B would value $15,000. Both the equipment, by the way, has a net annual cash inflow of $3,000.

Thus, in order to find efficiency, we need to find which equipment has a shorter payback period.

Payback Period of Equipment A will be –

= $21,000/$3,000

Payback Period = 7 years

Payback Period of Equipment B will be –

= $15,000/$3,000

Payback Period = 5 years

Since equipment B has a shorter payback period, Ford Motor Company should consider equipment B over equipment A.

• Any investments with a short payback period to ensure that adequate funds are available soon to invest in another project.

Disadvantages of Payback Period

• It doesn’t take Time Value of Money into consideration. This method doesn’t consider the fact that a dollar today is way more valuable than a dollar promised in the future. For instance, $10,000 invested for a period of 10 years will become $100,000. However, even though the amount of $100,000 may look profitable today, it won’t be of the same value a decade later.
• The method additionally doesn’t take into consideration the inflow of cash after the payback period.

Example

The management of a firm is failing to understand which machine (X or Y) to buy as both of them need an initial investment of $10,000. But, machine X generates an annual cash inflow of $1,000 for 11 years whereas machine Y generates a cash inflow of $1,000 for 10 years.

The answer will be –

Payback Period = 10 years

The answer will be –

Payback Period = 10 years

Therefore, just by looking at the annual cash inflow it can be said that machine X is better than machine Y ($1,000 ∗ 11 > $1,000 ∗ 10). But, if we tend to apply the formula, the confusion remains as both the machines are equally desirable given that they have the same payback period of 10 years ($10,000 / $1,000).

Summary

Despite its shortcomings, the method is one of the least cumbersome strategies for analyzing a project. It addresses simple requirements such as how much time period is needed to get back the invested money in a project. But, it’s true that it ignores the overall profitability of an investment because it doesn’t account for what happens after payback.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Payback Period Advantages and Disadvantages. Here we discuss the top advantages & disadvantages of payback period along with examples and explanation. You can learn more about financial analysis from the following articles –

• Meaning of Dollar-Cost Averaging 
• Formula of Discounted Payback Period
• Top Capital Budgeting Methods
• What are the Capital Budgeting Techniques?
• What is Cost Volume Profit Analysis?