Focal Point supports the option to define the units for the cost and benefit streams in the time grid attribute. The unit can be monetary, non-monetary or a mix of both.

All cost streams must have the same unit. Benefit streams can be of different units. Time series variables can be of any unit or have no unit. The time series variables do not need any assignment of units, are not included in any monetary or non-monetary calculations of benefits, and are useful only when leveraged by one or more calculator tapes. Non-monetary benefits are included in benefits calculations, even if they are not included in any of the monetary benefits calculations.

The unit is displayed in the upper left corner in the Time grid or the axis in a chart. The unit is displayed for each row in the Time Grid. The unit can be different for different variables. For example, the variable “Quantity” can be in the unit “Hours”, but cost and benefit are calculated using the unit “USD”.

A set of five statistics is displayed in the Stats tab when a page is assigned a unit other than USD or a recognized non-monetary unit. Non-monetary benefits are not included in any benefits calculations except for these five stats. This is also applicable to the time series variables.

For example, if the unit is specified in “Hours”, and the unit of Cost stream is USD, the Stats tab shows these five statistics: