The Total Economic Impact™ Of The Dayforce HCM Platform

Executive Summary

Organizations with large hourly workforces face growing complexity in managing scheduling, time, payroll, and compliance. Increasingly global and diverse workforce models add further challenges — multiple currencies, tax systems, and the need for accurate tracking and reporting. Legacy HR tools that are not integrated result in inefficiencies, data issues, employee frustration, and suboptimal reporting.

Dayforce provides critical human capital management (HCM) and workforce management (WFM) functions in a single system, enabling real-time data flow and streamlined processes. This approach can reduce operational friction, empower managers and employees, and potentially drive productivity, compliance, and a better overall employee experience.

Dayforce commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study examining the quantifiable value and potential return on investment enterprises may realize by deploying the Dayforce HCM platform. Forrester interviewed decision-makers at five organizations with experience using Dayforce, then aggregated their experiences into a single composite organization with 7,500 employees — 90% of whom are hourly workers spread across 23 work sites.

Key Statistics

• 176% — Return on investment (ROI)
• $10.7M — Total benefits present value (three-year)
• $6.8M — Net present value (NPV)
• Under 6 months — Payback period

Three-Year Quantified Benefits Summary

• $1.4M — Improved payroll efficiency
• $2.6M — Reduction in hourly worker turnover
• $4.0M — Improved scheduling efficiency
• $2.6M — Cost savings from retiring legacy systems and processes
• $160K — HR administration time savings

"Dayforce has far exceeded my expectations. The technology works, the partnership is strong, and the impact on our business — from reducing turnover and compliance risk to improving HR productivity — has been transformative."

— Chief Human Capital Officer, Properties and Property Management

Key Findings: Quantified Benefits

Improved payroll efficiency. Consolidating workforce management and payroll solutions into one platform saves the payroll team significant time and effort in reconciling data from multiple sources. The composite organization sees a significant reduction in payroll inaccuracies that previously required manual remediation. Eliminating these manual payroll-related processes allows the composite organization to reduce payroll resources by 35%, delivering $1.4 million over three years.

Reduced hourly worker turnover. Dayforce introduced a range of self-service tools accessible through its mobile app — giving employees greater control over their schedules (requesting shifts, time off, and swapping shifts) and pay (on-demand access to earned wages and tips before payday based on real-time earnings). These enhancements make the greatest impact on hourly workers, and the improved employee experience reduces turnover among hourly workers by 20%. Accounting for the cost of hiring and training new hourly workers, the reduction in turnover translates into cost savings of $2.6 million.

Improved scheduling efficiency. Mobile self-service time management makes it significantly easier for managers to create and manage employee work schedules. Frontline managers save significant time upfront with template-based scheduling, shift autofilling, and schedule updating, as hourly workers can make time-off requests and swap shifts independently. Overall, frontline managers see about 60% time savings on scheduling, translating into $4.0 million for the composite.

Reduced costs from retiring legacy systems and processes. With Dayforce, the composite organization retires several legacy HR solutions. This consolidation simplifies its HR tech portfolio, reducing the need for multiple HR information systems. Additionally, retiring these fragmented systems eliminates the headcount previously required to maintain integrations, manage system updates, and support disparate platforms — in total delivering savings of $2.6 million.

Increased HR administration time savings. Dayforce also reduces administrative workload for the composite's HR team by automating tasks such as reporting, auditing, and new employee onboarding (e.g., creating employee profiles). With Dayforce, real-time data and streamlined workflows eliminate manual reconciliations and simplify compliance checks for HR teams, enabling $160,000 in administration time savings.

Key Findings: Unquantified Benefits

Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified in this study include:

• Improved quality of hires. Real-time dashboards and standardized onboarding workflows create a consistent candidate experience and reduce early errors. Managers have better visibility and therefore make better hiring decisions.
• Enhanced employee experience. The composite's employees can use the mobile self-service app for viewing accruals, schedules, and benefits, giving frontline and hourly employees more control and transparency. On-demand pay and intuitive interfaces improve satisfaction, engagement, time to hire, and retention.
• Reduced compliance risk. Embedded audit tools and role-based access help prevent payroll errors and enforce policy adherence across sites. This strengthens readiness for regulatory audits, improves compliance, and reduces the risk of fines.
• Reduced unplanned overtime. Real-time alerts and streamlined scheduling help prevent overtime. Dayforce continuously monitors employee schedules and provides proactive recommendations for cost-effective shift coverage, reducing premium pay and overall labor costs.
• Reduced manual work and increased HR personnel redeployment. Automated payroll calculations, scheduling, and reporting replace time-intensive manual processes, allowing HR teams to redeploy effort from data entry to strategic tasks such as talent development and analytics.
• Faster M&A integration. Dayforce's platform and low-code integrations enable rapid onboarding of acquired entities without heavy IT or vendor reliance. This reduces complexity, accelerates post-close stabilization, reduces costs, and increases enterprise agility.

Costs

Three-year, risk-adjusted present value costs for the composite organization include:

• Implementation costs: $434,000 — Internal resources dedicated to setting up the Dayforce platform as well as professional service fees for data porting and integrating information systems. These costs are incurred at the start of the project.
• Dayforce license fees: $3.4 million — Access to the core platform and key modules including Payroll and On-Demand Pay, WFM, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, Benefits, People Analytics, and Time Clocks.

The financial analysis found that the composite organization experiences benefits of $10.7 million over three years versus costs of $3.9 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $6.8 million and an ROI of 176%.

The Dayforce HCM Platform Customer Journey

Interviewees

Forrester conducted interviews with decision-makers at five organizations across multiple industries and geographies:

• Senior Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) Manager — Financial Services, North America, 15,000 employees (8,500 in Dayforce)
• Senior Manager, HR Technology — Agriculture and Manufacturing, United States, 5,000 employees (8,000 during peak season)
• Chief Human Capital Officer — Properties and Property Management, United States, 5,500 employees
• HRIS Manager — Airline, United States, 5,000 employees
• Payroll Manager and Benefits and Communication Manager — Retail, United States, 4,700 employees

Key Challenges Before Implementing Dayforce

Before implementing Dayforce, interviewees' organizations relied on a patchwork of HR systems and manual processes. Common setups included a mix of HR and payroll platforms, separate timekeeping tools, and multiple point solutions for application tracking, learning management, and benefits management — sometimes on-premises and sometimes cloud-based. Common challenges included:

Inefficiencies and additional manual work because of fragmented systems. Siloed systems lacked integration, requiring HR teams to manage data manually across platforms — increasing complexity, risk of error, and inefficiency.

Error-prone and time-consuming payroll and compliance processes. Manual data entry and batch payroll processing consumed hundreds of hours each month. Complex pay rules and poor system responsiveness required frequent payroll corrections — sometimes more than 100 per cycle — and compliance issues that could require back pay.

Poor employee experience. Lack of employee self-service, complex benefits enrollment, and the absence of on-demand pay frustrated employees and reduced engagement. HR teams also struggled to provide timely support because of inaccessible data.

Slow and unreliable reporting and analytics. Generating reports required long lead times, limiting visibility and delaying decision-making. Limited user-defined fields and poor system scalability made it difficult to adapt to changing business needs or legislative updates.

"Previously, we never had employee self-service. If an employee wanted to know what their address was in HR, they had to call or email and ask. We had to hire people to do data entry into a system to continue to keep things updated. And because our systems were siloed, the same data had to be entered multiple times into different systems."

— HRIS Manager, Airline

"Reporting was very limited in our previous solution. Just getting a simple headcount report was challenging. Now we have 1,200 reports, but before, it was extremely difficult to get any meaningful data."

— Senior Manager, HR Technology, Agriculture and Manufacturing

Solution Requirements

The interviewees' organizations searched for a solution that could:

• Streamline processes by consolidating HR, payroll, talent, and WFM into one platform.
• Enable employee self-service (e.g., swapping shifts, changing personal information), simplify benefits enrollment, and support workforce needs with features such as on-demand pay.
• Improve payroll accuracy and automate processes to handle complex pay rules and seasonal workforce requirements efficiently.

Composite Organization

Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite organization, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the interviewees' organizations and is used to present the aggregate financial analysis.

Description of composite. The organization is a large enterprise based in the United States. It has approximately 7,500 employees, of which 90% (6,750) are hourly/frontline workers and 750 are salaried professionals. The hourly workers are spread across 23 sites consisting of a mix of stores and warehouses. The company has a dedicated HR department of 75 people.

Deployment characteristics. The rollout of Dayforce covers the entire workforce, with a primary focus on core HCM capabilities such as payroll. The composite gradually introduces additional modules in subsequent months and makes self-service capabilities available including Hub and the mobile app. The implementation encompasses the core platform, Payroll and On-Demand Pay, WFM, Talent Management (Compensation, Performance, Engagement and Succession Planning), Talent Acquisition (Onboarding and Recruiting), Talent Development (Learning and Career Explorer), Benefits, People Analytics, and Time Clocks.

Key assumptions:

• 7,500 employees total
• 6,750 hourly workers across 23 sites
• 75 FTEs on HR team
• 65% turnover rate for hourly workers prior to Dayforce

Analysis of Benefits

Improved Payroll Efficiency

Evidence and data. Prior to Dayforce, interviewees described how HR staff spent considerable time and effort transferring and reconciling data across multiple HR systems. A common bottleneck was the payroll process. Typically, interviewees used separate systems for time and attendance management and payroll. Although the two data systems were linked, there was usually a time lag that led to data inaccuracies. Payroll teams often had to check reports manually and correct payroll errors for each payroll cycle.

Interviewees shared that with time and attendance and payroll operating seamlessly within a single platform, they saw a 75% to 90% decrease in the number of payroll errors requiring manual correction.

"Dayforce has always been highly reliable and flexible from a payroll standpoint. We've been successful in paying employees accurately and quickly, even with complex pay structures like piece rate, daily rate, and case rate."

— Senior Manager, HR Technology, Agriculture and Manufacturing

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The HR team makes up about 1% of the overall workforce of 7,500 employees.
• The payroll team comprises about 25% of the overall HR team (19 out of 75 FTEs).
• With Dayforce, the composite organization saves significant time reconciling payroll data and remediating payroll errors. Overall, it reduces the amount of time spent on payroll processes by 35% — equivalent to approximately seven payroll staff, which it can redeploy to other HR processes.
• Fully burdened annual salary for HR staff: $87,750.

Risks. Factors that can impact savings from improved payroll efficiency include: how current payroll processes and systems are set up; complexity of payroll requirements (range of worker types and regional requirements); and the organizational structure of the HR team.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $1.4 million.

35% time savings on payroll processes.

"We cut the amount of processing time down significantly; it used to take three times as long for a lot of the payroll processing. And our accuracy in pay greatly improved as well; if we had five errors in a month, now it's less than one."

— Senior Manager, HR Technology, Agriculture and Manufacturing

Reduction in Hourly Worker Turnover

Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that with the introduction of Dayforce, many hourly workers gained access to self-service tools for the first time. This gave them greater control over their schedules (time off requests, shift requests, and shift swapping) and their pay (including on-demand access to earned wages before payday). These changes had the highest impact on hourly workers. Interviewees shared that employees widely adopted on-demand pay, and it was a key factor in improving turnover since adopting Dayforce.

"I definitely think [on-demand pay] helps with retention. We even see people that, in their first week of employment, enroll and get the money they need, like gas in the car to get here. I think that's really a testament to how amazing the benefit is."

— Payroll Manager, Retail

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:

• Frontline employee turnover prior to Dayforce is 65%. With Dayforce, this improves by 20% to 52%.
• The cost of hiring each new hourly worker is about $1,490. This includes recruitment fees, hiring manager and HR screening and interview time, and new hire ramp-up time.

Risks. Factors that can impact savings from reduced hourly worker turnover include: macroeconomic conditions that influence baseline turnover; recruitment costs, which may depend on the industry; and the benefits and features enabled for employees, for instance on-demand pay.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $2.6 million.

20% reduction in hourly worker turnover.

"We've seen turnover on our healthcare side go down. The healthcare side has on average 97% turnover annually and it's gone down to about 60%."

— Chief Human Capital Officer, Properties and Property Management

Improved Scheduling Efficiency

Evidence and data. With Dayforce's template-based scheduling and automatic shift filling, interviewees noted that their frontline managers significantly reduced the time and effort required to create employee work schedules. As hourly workers could now put in time-off requests and swap shifts directly through the mobile app, managers had far fewer requests to address. This freed up significant time for them to focus on serving customers, improving store operations, and other higher-value activities. In addition, frontline leaders could manage tasks from their mobile devices while on the floor, enabling greater efficiency and multitasking.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:

• Managers create and manage shifts on a weekly basis.
• Each manager oversees 20 hourly workers.
• Managers used to spend about 8 hours weekly creating and then updating schedules. With Dayforce, they see a 60% reduction in overall time spent on schedule management.
• Fully burdened hourly rate for site managers: $30.
• Productivity recaptured: 70%.
• 338 frontline managers in the composite organization.

Risks. Factors that can impact savings from improved scheduling efficiency include: different workforce policies around shift changes; and varying scheduling frequencies.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $4.0 million.

60% reduction in time spent on schedule management.

"The scheduling is used on the healthcare side, and that has been really helpful because we have 72 different sites that operate 24/7. The ability to switch shifts and change shifts when people call in sick has helped from an operational perspective."

— Chief Human Capital Officer, Properties and Property Management

Cost Savings from Retiring Legacy Systems and Processes

Evidence and data. By consolidating different HR solutions into the Dayforce suite, interviewees' organizations gained savings from their overall HRIS spend. Interviewees shared that they could now retire separate solutions related to timekeeping, workforce management, benefits management, compliance solutions, and more. As a result of this simplification, two interviewees also shared it significantly lowered their dependence on IT resources to keep the different solutions operating, given reduced need for technical maintenance.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:

• It achieves direct cost savings of $1.125 million per year on license fees toward other HR solutions.
• It reduces IT dependence by two FTEs.
• Fully burdened annual salary for HR staff: $87,750.

Risks. Factors that can impact cost savings on legacy systems and processes include: the range of legacy HR systems in place; and contractual agreements with previous vendors.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $2.6 million.

"If we had stayed with our prior vendor, we would have had to add two or three headcounts just to handle the volume. With Dayforce, even as we open a new store, we're not adding HR staff because the system automates so much."

— Payroll Manager, Retail

HR Administration Time Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that introducing Dayforce streamlined several HR processes. Two examples they provided involved reporting and audits and new employee onboarding.

With HR data consolidated into a single platform, creating and updating reports and dashboards became faster and more accurate. Real-time insights replaced manual data transfers, and the platform enabled automatic scheduling of recurring reports. This significantly improved audit efficiency, cutting preparation time and reducing errors. One organization reduced payroll audit time by more than 30 days through continuous auditing during the pay cycle, while another cut off-cycle corrections by about 75% thanks to embedded audit checks.

Onboarding also became smoother. Candidate information flowed directly into the system, eliminating manual entry and automating compliance steps such as document collection and eligibility verification. One interviewee stated that onboarding administration time dropped by 50%.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:

• Two dedicated staff members out of a 75-person HR team (approximately 3%) handle audit responsibilities, and each saves 7.5 hours per week on auditing tasks.
• The fully burdened hourly rate for HR employees is $42, and there is a 75% productivity recapture rate.
• The composite previously onboarded 4,388 employees annually. After implementing Dayforce and reducing employee turnover by 20%, this drops to 3,510. Onboarding time per employee decreases by 0.3 hours (18 minutes).

Risks. Factors that can impact HR administration time savings include: existing systems that automate and integrate onboarding processes, reducing incremental benefits; and audit functionality already embedded within current HR platforms, limiting additional efficiency gains.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $160,000.

0.3 hours time savings per new onboarded employee.

"Onboarding time dropped from 20 to 30 minutes per employee to 10 to 15 minutes. HR coordinators save significant time."

— Senior HRIS Manager, Financial Services

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

Improved quality of hires. Real-time dashboards and standardized onboarding workflows created a more consistent candidate experience and reduced early errors. Managers had better visibility and therefore made better hiring decisions. One interviewee noted that Dayforce helped attract talent in a highly competitive market. Another highlighted the advantage of having a single system that integrated the applicant tracking system with onboarding and core HR — allowing candidate information to be pulled from a single source and used for onboarding, streamlining processes and improving efficiency.

Enhanced employee experience. Mobile access to real-time earned pay before the end of the pay period, scheduling, and benefits gave frontline and hourly employees more control and transparency, which reduced the frustration associated with having to call HR for basic information such as address and pay details. On-demand pay and intuitive interfaces improved employee satisfaction, engagement, time to hire, and retention. All interviewees agreed that their organizations had experienced a significant improvement in employee experience.

Reduced compliance risk. Embedded audit tools and role-based access helped prevent payroll errors and enforced policy adherence across sites. This strengthened readiness for regulatory audits and reduced exposure to fines. One interviewee stated that they were making more than 100 corrections per pay period before Dayforce, which created noncompliance issues and required additional effort to fix. However, with Dayforce, payroll cycles were clean, audits were faster, and external audit time was cut by 30 days.

Reduced unplanned overtime. Real-time visibility and streamlined scheduling helped prevent costly overtime. Interviewees highlighted how Dayforce's single-database architecture used continuous calculation to alert managers the moment employees approached their hourly limits. By linking time tracking with scheduling, the system identified potential overages early and recommended cost-effective shift coverage options that avoided premium pay. This proactive approach reduced unnecessary labor costs and ensured compliance with organizational policies. One interviewee shared that they now have clear visibility and control over their overtime — something that was nearly impossible with previous manual processes.

Reduced manual work and increased HR personnel redeployment. Automated payroll calculations, scheduling, and reporting replaced time-intensive manual processes, allowing interviewees' HR teams to redeploy effort from data entry to strategic tasks such as talent development and analytics. All interviewees agreed they had seen significant decreases in manual work. One interviewee reported a reduction in manual data entry time from 200 hours per month to just 40 hours. This improvement was largely due to consolidating multiple systems into a single platform, which eliminated the need to enter data repeatedly across separate systems.

Faster M&A integration. Dayforce's platform and low-code integrations enabled rapid onboarding of acquired entities without heavy IT or vendor reliance, which reduced complexity and accelerated post-close stabilization. Two interviewees highlighted this as a benefit. One specifically noted that their organization's strategy was to move acquisitions into Dayforce immediately, emphasizing that scalability was not an issue — it could treat acquisitions as if it were onboarding new hires, streamlining integration, reducing disruption, and increasing overall organizational agility.

"We don't have to hand-key all of the schedules anymore. Managers can add and update schedules themselves, swap people, and we don't have to be involved at all. In prior systems, payroll had to do all of that manually."

— Payroll Manager, Retail

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are a number of scenarios in which a customer might implement the Dayforce HCM platform and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

Scaling without large HR headcount increases. Interviewees reported that they could easily open new sites or absorb acquisitions without adding proportional HR staff with Dayforce.

Customizable for unique needs. Interviewees' organizations were able to configure pay structures (e.g., hourly, daily, piece rate) and tailor user interface tiles within the Dayforce Hub for seasonal priorities without needing vendor intervention.

"If we had stayed with our prior vendor, we would have had to add two or three headcounts just to handle the volume. With Dayforce, even as we open a new store, we're not adding HR staff because the system automates so much."

— Payroll Manager, Retail

Analysis of Costs

Implementation Costs

Evidence and data. Interviewees stated that the initial deployment of Dayforce's HCM platform included discussions with business managers on requirements, data integrations, technical deployments, and change management. The internal implementation team typically included key stakeholders such as HR leaders, rewards directors, the payroll team, the benefits team, and HRIS specialists. Depending on the size of the organization and the nature of the configuration, deployment usually took 12 months or more, including setup, data migration, and initial training. Four out of five interviewees stated they used third-party services specifically for data migration from existing platforms to the Dayforce format. Prices for these services may vary; contact Dayforce for additional details.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• It incurs a one-time implementation cost of $153,000, primarily associated with transitioning legacy files to Dayforce's HCM platform.
• A team of 11 employees dedicates approximately 25% of their time over a 12-month period to support the implementation of the new solution.
• The average fully burdened annual salary for HR personnel is $87,750.

Risks. The following risks can potentially impact the cost of deploying Dayforce's HCM platform:

• Complexity of the legacy environment, which may lengthen the implementation period and/or professional service fees.
• Differences in internal skills, technical knowledge, and capabilities.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $434,000.

"We used a third party for implementation because of our size and complexity, and I am glad we went that route. The implementation took about nine months, and the third party was recommended by Dayforce. They helped us manage the transition and build integrations that would have taken much longer otherwise."

— HRIS Manager, Airline

Dayforce License Fees

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that their organizations' Dayforce licensing costs were based primarily on the number of employees, the tiered pricing structure, and the number of timekeeping clocks deployed.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite requires a license for 7,500 employees.
• License fees include the core platform, Payroll and On-Demand Pay, Talent Management (Compensation, Performance, Engagement and Succession Planning), Talent Acquisition (Onboarding and Recruiting), Talent Development (Learning and Career Explorer), Benefits, People Analytics, and Time Clocks.
• It uses 113 clocks across its 23 sites.

Risks. The following risks can potentially impact licensing costs:

• Potential add-on modules and new features could increase the solution cost.
• Volume discounts and pricing changes over time.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (discounted at 10%) of $3.4 million.

Financial Summary

The composite organization experiences the following consolidated three-year, risk-adjusted financial outcomes:

• Total benefits (three-year present value): $10.7 million
• Total costs (three-year present value): $3.9 million
• Net present value (NPV): $6.8 million
• Return on investment (ROI): 176%
• Payback period: Under 6 months

Cash flow analysis (risk-adjusted) by year:

• Initial year: Total costs ($433,744); Total benefits $0; Net benefits ($433,744)
• Year 1: Total costs ($1,381,619); Total benefits $4,298,711; Net benefits $2,917,092
• Year 2: Total costs ($1,381,619); Total benefits $4,298,711; Net benefits $2,917,092
• Year 3: Total costs ($1,381,619); Total benefits $4,298,711; Net benefits $2,917,092
• Three-year total: Total costs ($4,578,600); Total benefits $12,896,132; Net benefits $8,317,532

Note: Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis. The initial investment column contains costs incurred at time 0, or at the beginning of Year 1, that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year.

TEI Framework and Methodology

From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for organizations considering an investment in the Dayforce HCM platform. The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that the HCM platform can have on an organization:

• Due Diligence: Interviewed Dayforce stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to the HCM platform.
• Interviews: Interviewed six decision-makers across five organizations using the HCM platform to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
• Composite Organization: Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees' organizations.
• Financial Model Framework: Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
• Case Study: Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks.

Glossary

Total Economic Impact Approach

Benefits represent the value the solution delivers to the business. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and costs, allowing for a full examination of the solution's effect on the entire organization.

Costs comprise all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the solution. The methodology captures implementation and ongoing costs associated with the solution.

Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. The ability to capture that benefit has a present value that can be estimated.

Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: (1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections; and (2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on "triangular distribution."

Financial Terminology

Present value (PV) is the present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The present values of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.

Net present value (NPV) is the present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made, unless other projects have higher NPVs.

Return on investment (ROI) is a project's expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.

Discount rate is the interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.

Payback is the breakeven point for an investment — the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.

About This Study

This study is commissioned by Dayforce and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis. Published February 2026. Consulting team: Josephine Phua.

Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in the HCM platform. Forrester believes that this analysis is representative of what companies may achieve with the HCM platform based on the inputs provided and any assumptions made. Forrester does not endorse Dayforce or its offerings.

Dayforce reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester's findings or obscure the meaning of the study. Dayforce provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.

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