# Does the tool pay off? Cost per use, top and flop

Has the A/C service unit for €4,900 paid for itself? And which expensive special tool is just lying around? Under *Reports → Cost-effectiveness* Tulz calculates the **cost per use** for every tool with a purchase price.

### What is calculated

- **Uses** – every loan counts as one use: since purchase, in the last 12 months and in the selected period
- **Job orders** – how many different job order numbers in the period, and **Loan days** in the period
- **Running costs** – the inspection costs from recorded inspections and the repair costs from damage reports (the tooltip shows the breakdown)
- **Cost per use** = (purchase price + running costs) ÷ uses since purchase; for bulk items price × quantity counts
- **Requests** – how often other sites or partner businesses in the workshop network requested this tool in the period

Tools without a purchase price, retired and lost tools and tools on loan from outside are not included. Enter the price on the tool under *Edit → Purchase*; on goods receipt of a purchase order it is added automatically.

### Step 1: Choose the period

At the top set **From** and **Until** or tap **30 days** or **This year** – as in the other reports. The period applies to the columns "In period", job orders, loan days and requests; total uses and cost per use are always calculated from the purchase date.

### Step 2: Read top and flop

- **Top – these paid off**: the lowest cost per use with at least three uses.
- **Flop – expensive and hardly used**: at most two uses in the last 12 months, in stock for more than six months, sorted by capital tied up (price plus running costs). These are candidates for retiring, selling – for example via the network marketplace – or handing over to another site. The **Dead stock** link leads to all tools that have not been loaned for months.

### Step 3: Sort all tools

Tap a column heading in the table below to sort it – for example by **Per use**, **Purchase** or **Uses**. Tools not loaned in the last 12 months are shown in grey. **As CSV** or **As Excel** downloads the whole table, **Print / as PDF** prints the page.

### Buy instead of borrow?

The last section shows tools you fetched several times elsewhere during the period: from another site, from a partner business in the network or as a **tool on loan from outside** (rental service, importer), with the number of times and – for loan tools – the days borrowed. **Create purchase order** immediately creates a purchase order with the tool as a line, **Purchase request** creates a request that colleagues can vote on. **Calculate** opens the purchase calculator – with how often it was borrowed as uses per month.

### Calculate a new tool

Whether a tool you do not have yet would pay off – and from when – is shown on the **Purchase calculator** tab next to *Cost-effectiveness*. Everything about it is in the article *Purchase calculator: does a new tool pay off – and from when?*

### On the tool page

In the *Details* section, under **Purchase**, you will find the short version, e.g. "34 uses · €12.40 per use" – with a link to the report.

---

Source: https://tulz.work/en/help/article/cost-effectiveness · As of 2026-10-22 · Tulz