Capital budgeting and NPV calculator

1. Define the project, baseline, viewpoint and horizon. Use incremental cash changes versus that baseline—not all accounting income or sunk costs.
2. Collect the source records listed below. Date your assumptions and distinguish measured figures, signed terms, quotes and forecasts. If an essential input is unknown, investigate it rather than silently entering zero.
3. Enter base assumptions and your own downside/upside changes. Use a coherent USD price basis: nominal flows with nominal discount rates, or real flows with real rates. Do not mix them.
4. Calculate. Review the period table, zero/undefined metrics, cash deficits, scenario graph and model-specific notes. A positive NPV does not satisfy operational, legal, safety, market or financing requirements.
5. Print/save the result or download the cash-flow CSV. Result JSON preserves inputs and results; CSV carries the period table. For an equal-period model, use the optional Decision Feasibility handoff only after reviewing the numbers.

Project cash flow is before financing: exclude loan proceeds, principal and interest. Equity cash flow is after financing: equity contribution at time zero, then cash after debt service and final payoff. Do not discount one viewpoint with a rate intended for the other. Different discount rates can change the comparison.

NPV discounts all modeled net cash flows. Conventional IRR/XIRR is reported only for an initial outflow followed by nonnegative net inflows and a root in the stated range. Multiple sign changes can create ambiguous IRRs; the tool does not label one root as the answer. MIRR uses the specified finance/reinvestment rates. Payback is the first period-end recovery—not an interpolation or proof that cash stays positive afterward.

Scenario changes combine within a scenario; separate scenarios are alternatives, not cumulative events or probabilities. Longer lives and terminal values are assumptions that often dominate results. Check the source evidence before relying on them.

The explicit handoff button places the base unlevered equal-period cash flows into a temporary handoff on this device and opens the complete study. On that page, choose Load the reviewed financial cash flows to replace the current unsaved study inputs. Save an existing study first if needed. There is no automatic merge.

Only initial project outlay, period benefits/costs and the matching discount rate transfer. Financing/equity returns, matrix scores, requirements, scenario probabilities and lender permissions do not. Your funding amount, requirements, ratings and additional uncertainty remain unverified and must be entered. The handoff never grants GO status. SaaS uses monthly periods and a monthly-equivalent rate; the other transferable models use years. Dated capital flows do not transfer because the complete study expects equal periods.

There is no online project save or account created by this handoff. It uses browser session storage, which can be cleared or blocked. JSON result downloads and explicit editable complete-study files are separate features.

• Initial outlay: supplier/installation quotes, implementation costs and incremental working-capital cash committed at time zero. Exclude sunk costs and debt proceeds. Recover working capital only as an explicit future receipt.
• Annual cash rows: one line per year, benefit,cost. Example: 6000,1000 means USD 6,000 received/avoided cost and USD 1,000 spent at that year end. Do not paste headers, currency signs or thousands separators. Costs are positive; the calculator subtracts them.
• Dated rows: enter YYYY-MM-DD,benefit,cost, for example 2027-07-01,6000,1000. The investment date is time zero. Dates must increase strictly, with at most 60 rows and 100 elapsed years. Time is actual elapsed days / 365, so leap-year timing matters.
• Discount/hurdle rate: use a documented required return appropriate to this project and cash-flow viewpoint, such as a validated project WACC for unlevered flows. This tool does not infer a market rate or derive tax-adjusted WACC.
• MIRR rates: supply the annual cash-financing and reinvestment assumptions. They do not create debt in the cash flows.
• Alternative B: prepare its own initial outlay and annual rows on the same baseline. Same-horizon NPV is directly comparable on the stated assumptions. Unequal-horizon EAV comparison needs a defensible repeating-service/replacement assumption; the tool does not assume it.
• Sensitivity rows: up to three comma-separated rows of initial-cost %, benefit %, future-cost % changes. 20,-15,10 adds 20% initial cost, reduces benefits 15% and increases future costs 10% together. Main A metrics remain the unadjusted baseline.

Results include NPV, conventional IRR/XIRR, MIRR, net-flow profitability index, EAV, first simple/discounted recovery, period-end funding deficit and zero-NPV outlay/benefit thresholds. The profitability index here is net future PV divided by initial outlay, not a gross benefit-cost ratio. The table and CSV show the actual cash basis used.