Capital budgeting is a tool that financial analysts can use to support business decision-making by using thorough, contextual information about potential capital investments. Capital budgeting can be complex, so it can be easy to get lost in the details of the financial calculations and lose track of the bigger picture. The best capital budgeting analyses paint a simple picture of the benefits, costs, and risks associated with potential investments and expenditures, so management can make informed decisions about capital investment.

Some capital budgeting templates are inflexible and look at potential investments as if they were all alike. The benefits, costs, and risks associated with a technology investment are very different from a typical "hard" asset investment, so you need budgeting models that are flexible enough to paint an accurate picture. Using Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheets and the capital budgeting template can help you create more accurate, flexible, and supportive capital budget analysis in a snap.

Click the following links for information and tools to help you perform proper capital budgeting analysis.

• Improve your capital budgeting techniques (Article )
  Learn how to create a framework for creating strong analyses based on leading practices and avoid common pitfalls of capital budgeting.
  
• Capital budgeting — return-on-investment (ROI) analysis (Template)
  Use this Microsoft Office Excel 2003 template to analyze potential high-dollar business investments.
  
• Lists I: How to use lists in Excel 2003 (Training)
  Find out how to sort and filter data and total values in Microsoft Office Excel 2003.