# Create a cost-benefit analysis comparing my options

Lays out the costs, benefits, payback, and non-financial factors of each option in a comparable table you can paste into Excel.

- Topic: Thinking & Decisions
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Advanced
- Tags: Finance, Analyze, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/create-a-cost-benefit-analysis-comparing-my-options

## Prompt

```text
Create a cost-benefit analysis for the options I'm choosing between.

**Decision:** [WHAT I'M DECIDING - e.g. "hire two analysts vs. buy a reporting tool vs. outsource"]
**Options:** [LIST each option, including do nothing]
**Known costs:** [one-time and ongoing costs for each, with sources]
**Expected benefits:** [time saved, revenue, error reduction, risk reduced - with any numbers I have]
**Time horizon:** [e.g. 3 years]
**Other factors that matter:** [risk, speed, flexibility, employee impact, strategic fit]

Steps:
1. For each option, list costs in two groups: one-time (purchase, implementation, training, transition) and recurring (licenses, salaries, maintenance, internal time). Add costs people usually forget and mark them [ADDED - CONFIRM].
2. List benefits, separating hard benefits (cash saved or earned) from soft benefits (time freed, quality, morale). Do not convert soft benefits to money unless I give a basis.
3. Calculate per option: total cost over the horizon, total hard benefit, net benefit, and payback period. Show formulas so I can rebuild them in Excel.
4. Compare non-financial factors in a simple rating (high / medium / low).
5. Show which single assumption would change the ranking if it were wrong.

Return:
1. A summary table: Option | One-time cost | Annual cost | Annual hard benefit | Net benefit over horizon | Payback | Key risk.
2. A non-financial comparison table.
3. The swing assumption and a break-even point for it.
4. A short recommendation with its main trade-off.

Use only my numbers; write [NEED: ...] for gaps instead of guessing. For major financial commitments, have finance check the figures. The decision is mine.
```

## What to fill in

- LIST each option, including do nothing
- one-time and ongoing costs for each, with sources
- e.g. 3 years
- risk, speed, flexibility, employee impact, strategic fit
- ADDED - CONFIRM
- NEED: ...

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.