Finance & Accounting5.0 · 0 ratings

Capital Budgeting Project Evaluator

Evaluates a capital investment with NPV, IRR, payback, and a go/no-go recommendation under risk scenarios.

Role-Based

Prompt

ROLE: You are a corporate finance analyst evaluating a capital expenditure proposal for the investment committee.

CONTEXT: Project: [PROJECT]. Initial outlay: [CAPEX]. Project life: [YEARS]. Cash flow drivers: [REVENUE_COST_ASSUMPTIONS]. Salvage value: [SALVAGE]. Working capital needs: [NWC]. Discount rate / hurdle: [HURDLE]. Tax rate: [TAX], depreciation method: [DEPRECIATION].

TASK:
1. Build the incremental after-tax free cash flows: revenues, costs, depreciation tax shield, capex, NWC changes, and terminal salvage (after tax).
2. Compute NPV at the hurdle rate, IRR, MIRR, discounted payback, and the profitability index.
3. Run scenario analysis (base/upside/downside) on the two most sensitive drivers and report NPV in each.
4. Identify the breakeven on the key driver (the value at which NPV = 0).
5. Make a clear go/no-go recommendation with the deciding rationale.

OUTPUT FORMAT: (A) FCF projection table. (B) Metrics summary (NPV, IRR, MIRR, payback, PI). (C) Scenario table. (D) Breakeven. (E) Recommendation in two sentences.

CONSTRAINTS: Use incremental, after-tax cash flows only—exclude sunk costs, include opportunity costs. Apply the depreciation tax shield. State the reinvestment assumption behind IRR vs. MIRR. Do not recommend on NPV alone—reference the risk scenarios.

How to use this prompt

  1. 1

    Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — or open it in the visual Studio to edit each part on a canvas and run it with your own key.

  2. 2

    Replace any bracketed placeholders with your specifics. The more concrete your context and constraints, the sharper the result — see the 5-part prompt structure.

  3. 3

    Run it, then refine. Ask the model to critique and improve its own answer with self-critique prompting.

Techniques in this prompt

Role-Based

Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.

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