Capital Budgeting

Capital budgeting in corporate finance, corporate planning and accounting is an area of capital management that concerns the planning process used to determine whether an organization's long term capital investments such as acquisition or replacement of machinery, construction of new plants, development of new products, or research and development initiatives are worth financing through the firm's capitalization structures, which may include debt, equity, or retained earnings. It is the process of allocating resources for major capital, or investment, expenditures. An underlying goal, consistent with the overall approach in corporate finance, is to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders.