How Much Is Bad Data Costing Your Business?
This data quality cost calculator helps organizations quantify the hidden financial impact of poor data quality. By entering your company size, data usage patterns, and estimated error rates, you'll discover the true cost of duplicate records, wasted employee time, poor decisions based on bad data, and customer impact. The calculator uses industry-standard formulas to estimate your potential savings from improved data quality, helping build the business case for data governance investments.
Try the Quiz
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export function badDataCostQuiz(form: FormTs) {
form.setTitle(() => '📊 How Much Is Bad Data Costing Your Business?');
// ============ CALCULATION STATE ============
const inputs = form.state<Record<string, number>>({
employees: 50,
avgSalary: 60000,
dataHoursWeek: 10,
errorRate: 15,
recordCount: 10000,
duplicateRate: 8,
decayRate: 25
});
const updateInput = (key: string, value: number) => {
inputs.update(current => ({ ...current, [key]: value }));
};
// ============ CALCULATIONS ============
const getEmployeesUsingData = () => Math.round((inputs().employees || 50) * 0.6);
const getHourlyCost = () => (inputs().avgSalary || 60000) / 2080;
const getWeeklyDataHours = () => inputs().dataHoursWeek || 10;
const getErrorRate = () => (inputs().errorRate || 15) / 100;
const getDuplicateRate = () => (inputs().duplicateRate || 8) / 100;
const getDecayRate = () => (inputs().decayRate || 25) / 100;
// Time wasted on bad data (hours/year per employee)
const getTimeWastedPerEmployee = () => {
const weeklyHours = getWeeklyDataHours();
const errorRate = getErrorRate();
return weeklyHours * errorRate * 52; // hours per year
};
// Total time cost
const getTotalTimeCost = () => {
const employees = getEmployeesUsingData();
const hoursWasted = getTimeWastedPerEmployee();
const hourlyRate = getHourlyCost();
return Math.round(employees * hoursWasted * hourlyRate);
};
// Duplicate record cost
const getDuplicateCost = () => {
const records = inputs().recordCount || 10000;
const duplicateRate = getDuplicateRate();
const costPerDuplicate = 10; // industry average
return Math.round(records * duplicateRate * costPerDuplicate);
};
// Decision cost (bad decisions from bad data)
const getDecisionCost = () => {
const baseCost = getTotalTimeCost();
return Math.round(baseCost * 0.3); // 30% additional cost from poor decisions
};
// Customer impact cost
const getCustomerImpactCost = () => {
const records = inputs().recordCount || 10000;
const decayRate = getDecayRate();
const impactPerRecord = 5;
return Math.round(records * decayRate * impactPerRecord);
};
// Total annual cost
const getTotalAnnualCost = () => {
return getTotalTimeCost() + getDuplicateCost() + getDecisionCost() + getCustomerImpactCost();
};
// Potential savings with clean data
const getPotentialSavings = () => Math.round(getTotalAnnualCost() * 0.7);
// Format currency
const formatCurrency = (value: number) => {
return new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', { style: 'currency', currency: 'USD', maximumFractionDigits: 0 }).format(value);
};
// ============ COMPLETION SCREEN ============
form.configureCompletionScreen({
type: 'text',
title: () => `Bad Data Costs You ${formatCurrency(getTotalAnnualCost())}/Year`,
message: () => `You could save ${formatCurrency(getPotentialSavings())} annually by improving data quality. Download your detailed cost breakdown and ROI analysis.`
});
// ============ PAGES SETUP ============
const pages = form.addPages('quiz-pages', { heightMode: 'current-page' });
// ============ PAGE 1: Company Profile ============
const page1 = pages.addPage('company-profile', { mobileBreakpoint: 500 });
page1.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('header1', {
label: 'Step 1 of 4: Company Profile',
computedValue: () => 'Tell us about your organization to calculate data quality costs',
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.9rem', color: '#6b7280', marginBottom: '1rem' }
});
});
page1.addSpacer({ height: '24px' });
page1.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('employees', {
label: 'Total number of employees',
isRequired: true,
min: 10,
max: 1000,
step: 10,
defaultValue: 50,
showValue: true,
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('employees', val || 50)
});
});
page1.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('avgSalary', {
label: 'Average employee salary ($/year)',
isRequired: true,
min: 30000,
max: 200000,
step: 5000,
defaultValue: 60000,
showValue: true,
unit: '/year',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('avgSalary', val || 60000)
});
});
page1.addRow(row => {
row.addDropdown('industry', {
label: 'Industry',
isRequired: true,
options: [
{ id: 'finance', name: '🏦 Financial Services' },
{ id: 'healthcare', name: '🏥 Healthcare' },
{ id: 'retail', name: '🛒 Retail & E-commerce' },
{ id: 'tech', name: '💻 Technology' },
{ id: 'manufacturing', name: '🏭 Manufacturing' },
{ id: 'professional', name: '💼 Professional Services' },
{ id: 'other', name: '📦 Other' }
],
placeholder: 'Select your industry'
}, '1fr');
row.addDropdown('dataMaturity', {
label: 'Data Management Maturity',
tooltip: 'How sophisticated is your current data management?',
options: [
{ id: 'basic', name: 'Basic - spreadsheets & manual' },
{ id: 'developing', name: 'Developing - some automation' },
{ id: 'established', name: 'Established - CRM/ERP in place' },
{ id: 'advanced', name: 'Advanced - data governance' }
],
placeholder: 'Select maturity level'
}, '1fr');
});
// ============ PAGE 2: Data Usage ============
const page2 = pages.addPage('data-usage', { mobileBreakpoint: 500 });
page2.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('header2', {
label: 'Step 2 of 4: Data Usage',
computedValue: () => 'How does your team interact with data?',
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.9rem', color: '#6b7280', marginBottom: '1rem' }
});
});
page2.addSpacer({ height: '24px' });
page2.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('dataHoursWeek', {
label: 'Hours per week employees spend working with data',
isRequired: true,
min: 1,
max: 40,
step: 1,
defaultValue: 10,
showValue: true,
unit: 'hrs/week',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('dataHoursWeek', val || 10)
});
});
page2.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('recordCount', {
label: 'Approximate number of customer/contact records',
isRequired: true,
min: 1000,
max: 500000,
step: 1000,
defaultValue: 10000,
showValue: true,
unit: 'records',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('recordCount', val || 10000)
});
});
page2.addRow(row => {
row.addSuggestionChips('dataSystems', {
label: 'What systems do you use for data? (select all)',
isRequired: true,
min: 1,
suggestions: [
{ id: 'crm', name: '📊 CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)' },
{ id: 'erp', name: '🏢 ERP System' },
{ id: 'spreadsheets', name: '📑 Spreadsheets' },
{ id: 'marketing', name: '📧 Marketing Automation' },
{ id: 'analytics', name: '📈 Analytics Platform' },
{ id: 'custom', name: '🔧 Custom Database' }
]
});
});
// ============ PAGE 3: Data Quality Issues ============
const page3 = pages.addPage('data-quality', { mobileBreakpoint: 500 });
page3.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('header3', {
label: 'Step 3 of 4: Data Quality Issues',
computedValue: () => 'What data problems does your organization face?',
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.9rem', color: '#6b7280', marginBottom: '1rem' }
});
});
page3.addSpacer({ height: '24px' });
page3.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('errorRate', {
label: 'Estimated % of data that contains errors',
tooltip: 'Industry average is 10-25% for businesses without data governance',
isRequired: true,
min: 1,
max: 50,
step: 1,
defaultValue: 15,
showValue: true,
unit: '%',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('errorRate', val || 15)
});
});
page3.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('duplicateRate', {
label: 'Estimated % of duplicate records',
tooltip: 'Industry average is 5-15% for CRM databases',
isRequired: true,
min: 1,
max: 30,
step: 1,
defaultValue: 8,
showValue: true,
unit: '%',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('duplicateRate', val || 8)
});
});
page3.addRow(row => {
row.addSlider('decayRate', {
label: 'Estimated % of data that becomes outdated annually',
tooltip: 'B2B data decays at ~25-30% per year on average',
isRequired: true,
min: 10,
max: 50,
step: 5,
defaultValue: 25,
showValue: true,
unit: '%/year',
onValueChange: (val) => updateInput('decayRate', val || 25)
});
});
page3.addRow(row => {
row.addCheckboxList('dataIssues', {
label: 'Which data quality issues do you experience?',
orientation: 'vertical',
options: [
{ id: 'incomplete', name: '🔲 Incomplete records (missing fields)' },
{ id: 'inconsistent', name: '🔀 Inconsistent formatting' },
{ id: 'outdated', name: '📅 Outdated information' },
{ id: 'duplicates', name: '👥 Duplicate entries' },
{ id: 'inaccurate', name: '❌ Inaccurate data' },
{ id: 'siloed', name: '🏝️ Data silos (disconnected systems)' }
]
});
});
// ============ PAGE 4: Results ============
const page4 = pages.addPage('results', { mobileBreakpoint: 500 });
page4.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('header4', {
label: 'Step 4 of 4: Your Bad Data Cost Analysis',
computedValue: () => 'Here\'s what data quality issues are costing your business',
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.9rem', color: '#6b7280', marginBottom: '1rem' }
});
});
page4.addSpacer({ height: '24px' });
page4.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('totalCost', {
label: '💸 Estimated Annual Cost of Bad Data',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getTotalAnnualCost()),
customStyles: {
fontSize: '2rem',
fontWeight: '800',
textAlign: 'center',
color: '#dc2626',
padding: '20px',
background: '#fef2f2',
borderRadius: '12px',
border: '3px solid #dc2626'
}
});
});
page4.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('potentialSavings', {
label: '✅ Potential Annual Savings',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getPotentialSavings()),
customStyles: {
fontSize: '1.5rem',
fontWeight: '700',
textAlign: 'center',
color: '#059669',
padding: '15px',
background: '#ecfdf5',
borderRadius: '8px',
marginTop: '10px'
}
});
});
// Cost breakdown subform
const costBreakdown = page4.addSubform('costBreakdown', {
title: '📊 Cost Breakdown (click to expand)',
isCollapsible: true,
customStyles: { marginTop: '1rem', background: '#f9fafb', borderRadius: '8px' }
});
costBreakdown.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('timeCost', {
label: '⏱️ Wasted Time Cost',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getTotalTimeCost()),
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.95rem', padding: '10px', background: '#dbeafe', borderRadius: '6px' }
}, '1fr');
row.addTextPanel('duplicateCostDisplay', {
label: '👥 Duplicate Records Cost',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getDuplicateCost()),
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.95rem', padding: '10px', background: '#fef3c7', borderRadius: '6px' }
}, '1fr');
});
costBreakdown.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('decisionCost', {
label: '🎯 Poor Decision Cost',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getDecisionCost()),
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.95rem', padding: '10px', background: '#fee2e2', borderRadius: '6px' }
}, '1fr');
row.addTextPanel('customerCost', {
label: '👤 Customer Impact Cost',
computedValue: () => formatCurrency(getCustomerImpactCost()),
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.95rem', padding: '10px', background: '#f3e8ff', borderRadius: '6px' }
}, '1fr');
});
costBreakdown.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('keyMetrics', {
computedValue: () => {
const hoursWasted = getTimeWastedPerEmployee() * getEmployeesUsingData();
return `Key Metrics: ${Math.round(hoursWasted).toLocaleString()} hours wasted/year • ${Math.round(getDuplicateRate() * 100)}% duplicate rate • ${Math.round(getDecayRate() * 100)}% annual decay`;
},
customStyles: {
fontSize: '0.85rem',
color: '#6b7280',
textAlign: 'center',
padding: '10px',
marginTop: '8px'
}
});
});
// ============ PAGE 5: Lead Capture ============
const page5 = pages.addPage('lead-capture', { mobileBreakpoint: 500 });
page5.addRow(row => {
row.addTextPanel('header5', {
label: 'Step 5 of 5: Get Your Full Report',
computedValue: () => 'Receive your detailed data quality cost analysis and improvement roadmap',
customStyles: { fontSize: '0.9rem', color: '#6b7280', marginBottom: '1rem' }
});
});
page5.addSpacer({ height: '24px' });
page5.addRow(row => {
row.addTextbox('name', { label: 'Your Name', isRequired: true, placeholder: 'John Smith' }, '1fr');
row.addEmail('email', { label: 'Work Email', isRequired: true, placeholder: 'john@company.com' }, '1fr');
});
page5.addRow(row => {
row.addTextbox('company', { label: 'Company Name', placeholder: 'Acme Inc.' }, '1fr');
row.addDropdown('role', {
label: 'Your Role',
options: [
{ id: 'data', name: 'Data Manager / Analyst' },
{ id: 'it', name: 'IT / Technical' },
{ id: 'operations', name: 'Operations' },
{ id: 'sales', name: 'Sales / Marketing' },
{ id: 'executive', name: 'Executive / Owner' },
{ id: 'other', name: 'Other' }
],
placeholder: 'Select your role'
}, '1fr');
});
page5.addRow(row => {
row.addCheckboxList('consent', {
options: [
{ id: 'report', name: '📄 Send me the detailed PDF cost analysis', isRequired: true },
{ id: 'tips', name: '💡 Send me data quality best practices' },
{ id: 'demo', name: '📞 I want a demo of data quality solutions' }
],
defaultValue: ['report'],
orientation: 'vertical'
});
});
// ============ PDF REPORT ============
form.configurePdf('data-cost-report', pdf => {
pdf.configure({
filename: 'bad-data-cost-analysis.pdf',
pageSize: 'A4',
allowUserDownload: true,
downloadButtonLabel: '📄 Download Cost Analysis',
header: { title: 'Bad Data Cost Analysis Report', subtitle: 'Data Quality ROI Assessment' },
footer: { text: 'Generated by FormTs Data Quality Calculator', showPageNumbers: true }
});
pdf.addSection('Executive Summary', section => {
section.addRow(row => {
row.addField('Total Annual Cost', formatCurrency(getTotalAnnualCost()));
row.addField('Potential Savings', formatCurrency(getPotentialSavings()));
});
section.addRow(row => {
row.addField('Employees Using Data', `${getEmployeesUsingData()}`);
row.addField('Assessment Date', new Date().toLocaleDateString());
});
});
pdf.addSection('Cost Breakdown', section => {
section.addTable(
['Cost Category', 'Annual Cost', '% of Total'],
[
['Time Wasted on Bad Data', formatCurrency(getTotalTimeCost()), `${Math.round(getTotalTimeCost() / getTotalAnnualCost() * 100)}%`],
['Duplicate Records', formatCurrency(getDuplicateCost()), `${Math.round(getDuplicateCost() / getTotalAnnualCost() * 100)}%`],
['Poor Decision Cost', formatCurrency(getDecisionCost()), `${Math.round(getDecisionCost() / getTotalAnnualCost() * 100)}%`],
['Customer Impact', formatCurrency(getCustomerImpactCost()), `${Math.round(getCustomerImpactCost() / getTotalAnnualCost() * 100)}%`],
['TOTAL', formatCurrency(getTotalAnnualCost()), '100%']
]
);
});
pdf.addSection('Input Assumptions', section => {
const i = inputs();
section.addRow(row => {
row.addField('Employees', `${i.employees}`);
row.addField('Avg Salary', formatCurrency(i.avgSalary));
});
section.addRow(row => {
row.addField('Data Hours/Week', `${i.dataHoursWeek}`);
row.addField('Error Rate', `${i.errorRate}%`);
});
section.addRow(row => {
row.addField('Duplicate Rate', `${i.duplicateRate}%`);
row.addField('Decay Rate', `${i.decayRate}%/year`);
});
});
pdf.addPageBreak();
pdf.addSection('Recommended Actions', section => {
section.addText('1. Implement data validation rules at point of entry');
section.addText('2. Run regular duplicate detection and merge processes');
section.addText('3. Establish data decay monitoring and refresh procedures');
section.addText('4. Create data quality KPIs and dashboards');
section.addText('5. Train staff on data entry best practices');
section.addText('6. Consider automated data quality tools for continuous monitoring');
});
});
// ============ SUBMIT BUTTON ============
form.configureSubmitButton({
label: () => `📊 Get My Cost Analysis (${formatCurrency(getTotalAnnualCost())})`
});
form.configureSubmitBehavior({ sendToServer: true });
}
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the bad data cost calculated?
The calculator uses industry-standard formulas that account for wasted employee time, duplicate record costs, poor decision impact, and customer attrition from outdated data. It's based on research from Gartner and MIT Sloan.
What's a typical error rate for business data?
Research shows that 10-25% of critical data in CRM and ERP systems contains errors in organizations without formal data governance. B2B data decays at about 25-30% annually.
How can I reduce my bad data costs?
Key strategies include implementing data validation at entry, regular duplicate detection, data decay monitoring, staff training, and automated data quality tools. The report includes specific recommendations.