OBJECTIVES: Despite evidence on the cost-effectiveness of clinical guidelines, patients and health care providers do not adhere to guideline recommendations. Implementation strategies aim to change guideline adherence but cost money to enact. As health care resources are limited, it becomes increasingly important to determine whether investing in guideline implementation is worthwhile. METHODS: We developed a model to calculate the total net monetary benefits of guideline implementation for an eligible patient population. By combining evidence on guidelines, current practice and implementation strategies our model allows the determination of the total potential to invest in guideline implementation and the mutual comparison of implementation strategies. We illustrated the use of our model with a hypothetical example and examined the extent to which alternative modelling assumptions influence the efficient allocation of scarce resources. RESULTS: Through illustration of the use; our model, we demonstrated the influence of the threshold value ë, the baseline guideline adherence and the patient population size on the total guideline implementation investment potential and the total net monetary benefits of guideline implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Using a total net monetary benefits approach, our model overcomes problems with the use of policy cost-effectiveness ratios and allows the incorporation of uncertainty surrounding evidence on guidelines, current practice and implementation strategies. Moreover, our model provides simple and useful tool to examine the value for money of guideline implementation and inform policy decisions about efficient allocation of scarce resources.