What is a Benefits Register?
The benefits register lists every planned benefit with its measure, baseline, target, timing, owner, and current status. It's the program's scoreboard — the document that makes "are we actually getting the value?" a routine question with a factual answer.
The field that changes behavior is owner: a benefit without a named owner on the operations side is a benefit nobody will be accountable for after the program closes.
Worked example
A logistics program's register: "reduce cost per delivery from $4.10 to $3.20 by Q4 2027 — owner: VP Operations — status: $3.60 at last measure, on track." When a component project wants to descope route optimization, the register shows exactly which benefit (and whose target) that decision would injure.