Template · Finance
Cost-Benefit Analysis template
For putting every cost and benefit of a proposal into today's money and comparing the totals. Leave it alone when what matters most cannot be priced, such as reputation or safety; forcing it produces confident nonsense. Instead A Decision Matrix, where reputation and safety can stay in their own units instead of being forced into pounds.
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Or work it through here
Enter the cost and benefit for each year against the do-nothing counterfactual, year zero being now (undiscounted). Set a discount rate and the present values, net present value and benefit-cost ratio compute below. The central NPV is the least interesting number; watch how few years of shortfall it takes to turn the sign.
| Year | Cost (£) | Benefit (£) | Present value |
|---|---|---|---|
0 | £0 | ||
1 | £0 | ||
2 | £0 |
- Net present value
- £0
- Benefit-cost ratio
- –
A benefit-cost ratio near 1 means the case rests on the precision of the estimates. Flex the fragile years and see how few points of shortfall turn the net present value negative.
What you may do with it
This sheet, meaning our drawing and layout of it, is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Use it commercially, put it in a client deck, print it for a workshop, adapt it. Keep the attribution line that is printed on the sheet and you have met the licence.
Originator: Jules Dupuit (theoretical foundations); developed by many hands. The framework itself is not ours to license, and the written entry behind this page, its worked example, critiques and sources, stays all rights reserved. The full licence position is set out in plain English.
Before you fill it in
A blank template is the easy part. The entry behind it covers how to run Cost-Benefit Analysis properly, a worked example, the pitfalls real teams hit, and the situations where it is the wrong tool and something else would serve better.