Benefit-to-cost Ratio:

The ratio of the benefits derived out of forecast to the costs of developing and operating it may be termed as benefit-to-cost (or simply b to c) ratio. This is one single criterion of performance for the forecast that may be usefully applied rather than so many put together. The use of this criterion will prohibit time consuming complicated forecasting methods being employed for the development of forecast while the quality of decision made with the forecast is known to remain unchanged.