Portfolio Item Costs

Every portfolio item can have costs attached to it. Costs feed directly into the Business Case tab — they appear in the P&L projection, influence ROI, and contribute to break-even calculations. Without costs, your Business Case will show zero investment, which understates the true economics of the item.

Who can edit costs? Users with Admin, Power User, or Editor roles for the relevant module (Data or AI) can add, edit, and delete costs. Viewer roles have read-only access.

Opening the Costs Window

Costs are managed in a dedicated window, separate from the portfolio item detail view.

1. Open the portfolio item you want to work on.
2. On the Overview tab, click the Manage Costs button (or use the costs shortcut from the Business Case tab).

A modal window opens with two tabs: One-Time and Recurring.

Cost Categories and Cost Drivers

Costs in Vane Loop are not entered as free-form numbers. Instead, they are always attached to a cost driver — a named cost type that belongs to a category.

Your organisation's admins configure the available cost drivers in My Organisation → Cost Drivers. Common examples:

Each cost driver is defined as either one-time or recurring — it will only appear in the matching tab.

One-Time Costs

One-time costs represent a single investment — paid once and not repeated.

Adding a One-Time Cost

1. In the One-Time tab, locate the appropriate category section.
2. Click Add Cost.
3. A search dropdown appears. Type to filter, then click the cost driver you want to add.
4. The cost entry appears with an amount of 0. Click the amount to edit it inline.

CAPEX: Amortisation

Cost drivers in the CAPEX category have an extra field: Amortize over (months).

This spreads the capital expenditure across your projection period rather than recording it as a single lump sum. The default is 36 months.

Deleting a One-Time Cost

Click the delete icon on the cost row and confirm in the dialog.

Recurring Costs

Recurring costs represent ongoing expenditure — for example, a monthly hosting fee or an annual licence renewal.

Adding a Recurring Cost

1. Switch to the Recurring tab.
2. Click Add Cost in the relevant category section.
3. Select a cost driver from the search dropdown.
4. The cost is added with defaults: Monthly frequency, never-ending duration, and a Fixed growth model.

Configuring a Recurring Cost

Each recurring cost has a Configure button (gear icon). Click it to open the Configure Recurring Cost modal.

The modal has the following settings:

Frequency

How often the cost is incurred:

Duration

• Never ends — the cost continues for the full projection horizon.
• Ends after… (N periods) — the cost stops after a set number of billing periods.

Growth Model

How the cost amount changes over time:

For the Linear, Percent, and Compound models a rate field appears so you can set the exact value.

For Custom, the formula editor accepts mathematical expressions. Available variables:

• base — the base cost amount you entered
• period — the current period number (1, 2, 3 …)
• prev — the value from the previous period

Maximum Cap

An optional ceiling on the cost value. Useful when a percentage growth model would otherwise produce unrealistically large numbers over time.

Preview Chart

As you adjust settings, a live chart shows the projected cost across 36 periods. Below the chart:

• Total 12 Months and Total 36 Months summaries update in real time.
• A Monthly Breakdown table shows the first 12 periods with per-period and cumulative values.

Click Save to apply your configuration.

How Costs Flow into the Business Case

Once costs are saved, the Business Case tab automatically incorporates them:

• One-time costs appear as discrete investments in the P&L timeline (CAPEX items are amortised).
• Recurring costs are projected forward using your configured frequency and growth model.
• The combined cost projection is used to calculate Net Value, ROI, and Break-Even Month.

No manual refresh is needed — the Business Case recalculates whenever you return to that tab.