When there is a job to do there are hard cost that can be measured and then there can be soft costs that are harder to identify and give to your accountant. One cost that we have noticed is when we use the proper equipment for a job it can prevent an injury. I do cost accounting for a large city municipal works department. When we switched to equipment that lessens the potential for injuries the number of paid sick days goes down. When we started using air excavation equipment to dig holes and clean up pot holes we saw a significant decline in sick days taken. As an accountant we are able to finally account for this improvement.