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.
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Project Management Pack
This business case calculates payback, ROI and a Year-1 net total, plus a 6-criteria Go/No-Go score - but it's a one-year view, and the strategic factors behind the decision aren't captured anywhere. The paid Project Management Pack ($24) has a SWOT & Business Case workbook that extends the same cost/benefit logic to a 3-year model (net benefit, ROI percent, payback) alongside a paired SWOT grid for the strategic side. Both build in Excel and Google Sheets, tested to the cent.
See the full versionFrequently 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.