Return on Investment is calculated by comparing the cash flows of alternative decisions. More simply put, ROI is based on the analysis of differential cash flows. In the case of remote data acquisition and aggregation systems for fuel tank operators, it is based on calculating the cost of acquiring and aggregating the data manually and compared to the total cost of owning, maintaining and operating an automated data acquisition and aggregation system.

ROI is essentially the comparison of costs associated with a labor-intensive process versus the costs associated with an automated process, and determining how long it takes this cost difference to account for the investment in the automated system.