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Business Impact Calculator

What Could an IT Outage Cost Your Business?

Estimate the potential operational impact of technology downtime using your workforce, labor cost, outage duration, productivity impact, and optional revenue exposure.

About 2 minutes  ·  No technical expertise required  ·  Adjust the assumptions anytime

Privacy: Do not enter confidential financial statements, payroll records, client information, passwords, or other sensitive information. Use reasonable estimates for your business. No account required. No information is stored or transmitted.

Downtime Is More Than an IT Problem

When critical technology becomes unavailable, employees may be unable to work normally, customer activity may be delayed, revenue-generating processes may stop, and recovery work can create additional costs.

This calculator provides an estimate based on the assumptions you enter. Actual business impact can be higher or lower.

A — Employee Productivity Impact

Required

How many employees would be unable to work normally during the outage?

Use an approximate loaded hourly labor cost if known. This may include wages plus employer-paid costs. If you prefer, use average hourly wages as a simpler estimate.

Decimals are supported — for example, 1.5 for 90 minutes or 4.5 for four and a half hours.

Estimate how much normal productivity affected employees would lose during the outage.

25% = employees can perform most work using alternatives

75% = employees can perform only limited work

100% = affected employees are effectively unable to work

B — Revenue Exposure

Optional

Include Revenue Exposure

Enable this section to include revenue-generating activity that may be delayed or lost during the outage.

C — Additional Recovery Costs

Optional

Include Recovery Costs

Enable this section to include one-time recovery-related costs such as emergency assistance, expedited equipment, or temporary services.

Estimated Downtime Impact

$1,050

Outage Duration4 hours

4 hours

Employee Productivity Cost$1,050

10 employees × $35/hr × 4 hours × 75%

Revenue ExposureNot included
Additional Recovery CostsNot included
Estimated Downtime Impact$1,050

Adjust any input to update this estimate.

Estimated Impact

Estimated Downtime Impact

$1,050

for a 4-hour outage

This is a scenario-based estimate using the assumptions you entered. Actual financial and operational impact may be higher or lower.

Where the Estimate Comes From

Employee Productivity Impact

$1,050

Employees affected × hourly labor cost × outage duration × productivity impact

10 employees × $35/hr × 4 hours × 75%

Revenue Exposure

Not included

Enable Revenue Exposure above to include this component.

Additional Recovery Costs

Not included

Enable Recovery Costs above to include this component.

Employee Productivity Impact ($1,050)$1,050

Your Assumptions

Employees affected
10
Average hourly labor cost
$35/hr
Productivity impact
75%
Outage duration
4 hours

Estimated Operational Impact per Outage Hour

Based on recurring hourly productivity and revenue assumptions only. The one-time recovery cost estimate is not included in this rate.

$262.50/hr

Hourly Productivity Impact = 10 × $35 × 75% = $262.50/hr

What If the Outage Lasts Longer?

Same workforce and cost assumptions applied to different outage durations.

Note: All scenarios use calendar outage hours. 24 hours means 24 consecutive outage hours — not three 8-hour business days.

1 Hour$262.50
Productivity Impact$262.50
Revenue ExposureNot included
Recovery CostNot included
4 Hours$1,050
Productivity Impact$1,050
Revenue ExposureNot included
Recovery CostNot included
8 Hours$2,100
Productivity Impact$2,100
Revenue ExposureNot included
Recovery CostNot included
24 Hours$6,300
Productivity Impact$6,300
Revenue ExposureNot included
Recovery CostNot included

Why Recovery Time Matters

Difference in Estimated Impact — 8 Hours vs. 4 Hours

Using your assumptions, the difference in estimated scenario impact between an 8-hour and a 4-hour outage is $1,050 ($1,050 for 4 hours vs. $2,100 for 8 hours).

Difference in Estimated Impact — 24 Hours vs. 4 Hours

Under the same assumptions, a 24-hour outage produces an estimated impact of $6,300 compared with $1,050 for a 4-hour outage — a difference in estimated impact of $5,250.

These figures represent differences in estimated scenario impact, not guaranteed savings or avoided costs. Actual recovery time and operational effects may differ.

What This Estimate Means

The longer critical technology remains unavailable, the greater the potential impact on employee productivity and revenue-generating operations. Recovery planning is therefore not only about whether systems can eventually be restored — it is also about how quickly critical operations need to return.

This estimate currently reflects employee productivity impact only. Revenue disruption, emergency recovery expenses, customer impact, contractual consequences, and other business effects are not included.

Turn the Estimate Into a Recovery Plan

Knowing the potential impact of downtime can help a business decide which systems need faster recovery, which operations require continuity alternatives, and where backup and disaster-recovery planning deserve greater attention.

Recommended Assessment

Backup & Recovery Readiness

Available Now

Evaluate whether your business is prepared to protect critical data, restore technology after disruption, and continue essential operations while recovery is underway.

Start Assessment

IT Health & Readiness

Available Now

Review how proactively your devices, applications, Microsoft 365, support, documentation, networks, vendors, backup, and technology planning are being managed.

Start Assessment

Want Help Reducing Downtime Risk?

Edge Secure can help identify critical technology dependencies, review recovery readiness, and build a practical technology and continuity plan around the way your business actually operates.

Request a Technology Review

Send Me My Calculation — Email delivery will be available after launch.

Return to the calculator to change any assumption. All results update immediately.

Assessment Disclaimer: This calculator provides scenario-based estimates using the assumptions entered by the user. Results are informational and are not financial advice, guaranteed losses, guaranteed savings, an insurance determination, or a prediction of the actual impact of a future outage. Actual costs and operational effects may differ materially. Do not use these estimates for financial reporting, insurance claims, or legal proceedings.

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