A new methodology for estimating standard business costs, developed by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, will enter into force on April 8, 2024. 

The relevant order has been registered with the Ministry of Justice. The methodology will help the authors of regulatory documents to calculate faster and more accurately the costs that companies may incur in fulfilling legal requirements. 

For the first time, reference books with ready-made data are provided to simplify the procedure for calculating standard costs. For example, the reference book of standard values indicates the standard cost of working time for performing typical operations, the standard cost of a staff working hour, and other template values. 

Developers will also be able to use a reference book of standard estimates, which are based on existing calculations of standard costs. In addition, the new methodology improves the quality of calculations: it provides for the calculation of opportunity costs, downtime costs and lost profits. 

Prior to that, only information and content costs were taken into account – the company's expenses for collecting, preparing and presenting the necessary information to the authorities in the framework of fulfilling legal requirements, for purchasing various equipment or hiring staff. 

"The assessment of business costs is carried out both for draft regulatory legal acts and for existing documents. Calculations are necessary, among other things, to adjust legislation, namely, to exclude excessive or irrelevant requirements from it, the fulfillment of which can complicate the work of many companies. The new methodology will allow developers of regulatory documents to analyze business costs even more accurately, and thereby protect the interests of entrepreneurs," said State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Alexey Khersontsev.