Free Business Case Excel Template
What Is a Business Case (and When You Need One)
A business case is the document that justifies spending money or time on something before you commit to it: what it costs, what it returns, and why it's worth doing over the alternatives. Most get written before a project is approved, whether that's a new tool, a hire, or a process change.
The two things a business case almost always needs are a financial case - will this pay for itself, and how fast - and a decision framework, so the people approving it aren't just trusting a gut feeling. This template builds both into one file instead of leaving the math to a separate spreadsheet or none at all.
Free Business Case Excel Template: What's Inside
Two sheets. Business Case takes your total investment and annual net benefit and calculates payback period, ROI, and breakeven in months - then lets you add one-time costs, ongoing costs, and other annual benefits for a full Year-1 cost/benefit summary.
Go-No-Go Scoring is a separate weighted-criteria sheet: six pre-filled criteria (strategic fit, financial return, risk, resource availability, market timing, stakeholder support) with weights that sum to 100%, plus a 1-5 score column. The weighted total calculates automatically as you score.
Building the Financial Case: Costs, Benefits, ROI and Payback
Payback period is simply your total investment divided by the annual net benefit - how many years until the project pays for itself. ROI divides annual benefit by investment, expressed as a percentage. Breakeven in months takes the same math down to a monthly view, useful when a year feels like too coarse a unit for a shorter project.
Below those three figures, the Cost & Benefit Summary adds one-time costs and ongoing annual costs to your initial investment, and other annual benefits to your core benefit figure, then nets them into a single Year-1 number - useful when the clean payback/ROI math above doesn't capture every cost or upside in play.
Go / No-Go Decision Framework
Rather than a single up-or-down gut call, the Go-No-Go sheet scores the project 1-5 against six weighted criteria and multiplies each score by its weight, using SUMPRODUCT to total a single weighted score. A higher score signals a stronger case; a low score on a heavily weighted criterion (like financial return) drags the total down even if other scores look fine.
The weights are pre-filled as a reasonable starting point, but they're yours to change - if strategic fit matters more than short-term financial return for your organization, raise its weight and lower another's, as long as they still sum to 100%.
How to use it
- Enter your total investment and expected annual net benefit - payback period, ROI and breakeven calculate automatically.
- Add one-time and ongoing costs plus any other annual benefits to see the full Year-1 cost/benefit summary.
- On the Go-No-Go Scoring sheet, score the project 1-5 against each weighted criterion.
- Read the weighted total - a low score on a heavily weighted criterion should carry real weight in your decision.
Download the free Free Business Case Excel Template
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Frequently asked questions
How is the payback period calculated?
Payback period = total investment / annual net benefit, in years. It assumes a flat annual benefit rather than a ramp-up, so treat it as a first-pass estimate for an even benefit stream.
Can I use this in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the downloaded file to Google Drive, then open it and choose File > Save as Google Sheets. The payback, ROI, breakeven and weighted-scoring formulas keep working.
Can I change the Go/No-Go criteria or weights?
Yes. The six criteria and their weights (which sum to 100%) are a starting point - rename any criterion or adjust the weights to match what matters most for your organization, as long as they still total 100%.
Does this replace a full financial model?
No. It's a first-pass business case for a go/no-go decision, using simple payback, ROI and breakeven arithmetic - not a discounted cash flow model or a substitute for your finance team's detailed review.
What's the usage license?
Personal use or use within one business. It's not meant to be resold or redistributed as a template product.