Decision-relevant costs

Decision- relevant costs are a business cost category . This is understood to mean those costs that are triggered by the implementation of an alternative course of action.

Decision-relevant costs cannot be absolutely defined, but are determined by the respective decision context. For example, when deciding whether to travel a certain distance by car or train, the full cost rate for the car should not be taken into account, but only costs for the fuel used and, if applicable, a proportion of wear and tear. Costs for depreciation, insurance or vehicle taxes are incurred regardless of the decision and are therefore not relevant to the decision. Furthermore, costs that were incurred before the planning time are not relevant to the decision, since they have already arisen. For example, a visit to a trade fair cannot be factored into the decision-making costs relating to the purchase of a machine visited there.

Decision-relevant costs can not only be costs in the normal sense, but also include so-called opportunity costs , which assess the lost benefit of the unrealized alternative course of action (e.g. unrealized sales ). The opposite of decision-relevant costs are the decision-irrelevant costs .