The payback period is the length of time it takes to recover the amount of cash inflow invested
into a capital project. It is the time it takes the cash inflows from a capital investment project to
equal the initial cash outlay. It is usually expressed in years.
It is a way of assessing the viability of an investment and is often used as the first screening
method. It answers the question, “how long will it take to pay back the cost of investment”? A
business may have a target payback period, so it would likely reject any projects with longer
payback periods than its target payback period.
For an investment with a constant amount of yearly cash inflow, the payback period will be
straightforward to calculate. For example, an investment project with capital outlay of £50,000,
if it generates a cash inflow of £10,000 per year, then the project will have a payback period of
5 years (£50,000/£10,000).
The cash inflow could vary from year to year.
