A Tool for Estimating the Cost of Reports Required by US Federal Regulations

What is the cost of complying with government regulations? Business­men would like to know. Lawmakers and bureaucrats would like to know as they conduct cost-benefit analyses prior to creating new regulations on businesses. Regulations often require specific actions or specific reports. Some of the actions (Install wheelchair ramps) lend themselves to straight-forward cost estimates but what about the many reports required by regulations? Mandatory reports are not free. The reporting cost estimator developed in this book provides an or­derly way to focus choices define assumptions and arrive at an esti­mated cost of compliance with government reporting requirements. The elements used in the estimator were developed through inter­views with people who are complying with existing reporting requirements. The estimating tool itself passed a preliminary vali­dation by using it to estimate the cost of compliance with existing regulations and then comparing the estimated cost with the actual costs as nearly as they were known.