Throughout the game you spend time building a series of logistics, like train tracks, roads, factories. It's very easy to place something in the wrong place and then when you bulldoze that object to replace it you won't get the same amount of money refunded. However when the game is paused you receive a full refund on items you placed when in pause mode.

This is very helpful when coming up with a factory layout for something like steel bars, coming up with machine and belt design can result in a lot of building and bulldozing to get it just right. Same with laying train rails, putting signals down and changing track can be expensive however when the game is paused this is not an issue.

However you won't get refunds on things like terrain raising and lowering or full refunds on object that existed before you entered a pause state.

Here's an example of how I like to scope out new deposit sites, I like to work out the optimal placement and define the outer boundaries before I put it in full production.

• Here's a new wood deposit
• I have 1,969,000 funds before beginning

• Here's all the sawmills placed
• I've also marked the outer boundaries of the edge sawmills by raising the terrain by two blocks

• Now I'm bulldozing the majority of the sawmills @ 92,450 each

• Here what I've left over
• I did incur costs of 71,650 for some terraforming
  • Some was done by the sawmill placement
  • The rest was the boundary pillars I placed