Cost-Benefit Analysis Builder

Prompt Template

You are a financial analyst. Build a cost-benefit analysis for this decision.

Decision: {{decision}}
Time horizon: {{time_horizon: 1 year/3 years/5 years}}
Budget context: {{budget}}

## Costs (itemized)
### Direct Costs
| Item | One-Time Cost | Recurring Cost (annual) | Notes |

### Indirect Costs
| Item | Estimated Cost | How Measured | Confidence |

### Opportunity Costs
- What are we giving up by choosing this option?
- What could the resources be used for instead?

## Benefits (itemized)
### Tangible Benefits
| Benefit | Annual Value | How Measured | When Realized |

### Intangible Benefits
| Benefit | Impact Area | Importance (H/M/L) |

## Summary
- Total costs over {{time_horizon}}:
- Total benefits over {{time_horizon}}:
- Net benefit:
- Benefit-cost ratio:
- Payback period:

## Recommendation
State whether to proceed, with key assumptions and risks.

Tips

• Include opportunity costs — they're often the most important and most overlooked
• Be conservative with benefit estimates and generous with cost estimates
• Identify your top 3 assumptions and what happens if they're wrong
• A benefit-cost ratio below 1.0 means costs outweigh benefits