Software Investment Business Case

Fillable framework for justifying custom software spend to your team or stakeholders. Print it, fill it in, and present with confidence.

Executive Summary

What problem does the current process have?

What will the software do?

Expected investment

Typical range: $10K–$50K

Expected timeline

Typical range: 2–8 weeks

Expected ROI (one sentence)

Quantify what the current manual or broken process costs you.

Metric	Current Value	Annual Cost
Hours/week on manual processes
Error rate of current process
Revenue lost to slow operations
Current tool/subscription costs
Total annual cost of status quo		$________

One-time build cost

$10K–$50K

Monthly hosting/infra

~$20–$100/mo

Annual maintenance (optional)

Hourly or retainer

Savings from automation

Hours saved × hourly cost

New revenue from capability

If applicable

Break-even timeline

Typically 3–6 months

Factor	Custom Build	SaaS Product	Manual / Status Quo
Upfront cost	$10K–$50K	$0–$500	$0
Monthly cost	$20–$100	$50–$500/user	Staff time
3-year total cost
Fits your exact workflow	Yes	Partially	N/A
You own the code	Yes	No	N/A
Vendor lock-in risk	None	High	None
Time to value	2–8 weeks	Days	Never

Fixed scope with timeline commitment. Scope changes are flagged early and priced separately.

Changes are welcome but extend the timeline. Original scope stays on budget.

Bug fix period included post-launch. Issues in the original spec are fixed at no extra cost.

You own the source code. Built on production-grade stack (Next.js, PostgreSQL, Vercel/AWS).

Recommendation (build / buy / wait)

Reason (one paragraph)

Next steps

We can help you fill in the numbers. Schedule a free consultation and we'll scope your project with real cost and timeline estimates.