How to build a business case presentation that gets a clear decision

Disclosure: NOXI publishes this guide and is one of the tools it mentions; the method works in any presentation software.

The worked example is fictional: Harbourline Supplies, a distributor deciding whether to automate supplier-invoice matching. Its figures are invented for teaching, and every calculation is shown so you can check it or rerun it with your own numbers.

What is a business case presentation?

A business case presentation is the slide version of a business case: it asks a named decision-maker to approve one investment and shows why the recommended option beats the alternatives, including carrying on as now. Its purpose is a decision, so every slide either supports the recommendation or tests it.

HM Treasury's guidance describes a business case as the information, evidence and options appraisal a decision-maker needs, and stresses that the thinking behind it matters as much as the document (HM Treasury, Guidance on Developing Business Cases, 2026). If the slides could have been written before the options were compared, the analysis is not finished. The business case is easy to confuse with its neighbors:

A business case usually competes for money inside a budget that is already set; our guide to the annual plan and budget presentation covers the deck that sets it.

The 12-slide business case presentation template

A complete business case presentation needs twelve main slides: the ask, problem, objectives, options, comparison, recommendation, assumptions, financials, sensitivity, risks, plan and decision. The financial model, the full assumptions register and the risk log go in an appendix.

Write each title as a full-sentence finding ("Automated matching beats the cheaper fix by $87,000 of NPV"), not a label ("Options analysis"). If the twelve titles make the argument on their own, the structure works; our guide to consulting-style slides covers action titles in depth.

How many slides, and how long?

Twelve slides fit a 30-minute decision slot with a pre-read: about 15 minutes of presenting, the rest for questions. For a ten-minute item, merge to six: ask, problem, options, financials with sensitivity, risks and plan, decision. For pacing, see our slides-per-minute guide.

Where the template comes from: the Five Case Model

The Five Case Model is HM Treasury's standard framework for business cases: one proposal examined from five linked perspectives, the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases. Its questions make a good checklist for any business case, public or private.

It is mandatory for significant spending in the UK and Welsh governments and is also used by devolved governments, many local authorities and some charities bidding for public funds (HM Treasury, 2026).

Two ideas travel well. Value and affordability are separate questions: the guidance keeps the economic case in real, discounted terms and the financial case in nominal budget terms, so slide 8 shows both NPV and this year's cash impact. And the case matures in stages (Strategic Outline, Outline and Full Business Case), much as companies move from concept approval to investment approval to contract.

Write the ask first, then price the status quo

The first slide states the decision you want: the option, the amount and its phasing, the conditions, the accountable owner and the date. The second shows what happens if the answer is no, because the status quo is the baseline every number in the deck is measured against.

Draft the ask before the rest of the deck, then sharpen it until an approver could minute it word for word:

The status quo is rarely "do nothing": the Treasury guidance warns that without the proposal the organization would still act, at a cost. Harbourline's keeps spending $600,000 a year and keeps the 12-day cycle; comparing option C with zero would hide both.

Compare options, including the status quo and a do-minimum

A business case should compare three to five options on one yardstick: the status quo, a do-minimum that just meets the objective, the recommended option and at least one more ambitious alternative. Without them, approvers cannot tell whether the recommendation is the best use of the money or simply the first idea.

The Treasury guidance asks for a shortlist of around five options and requires both business as usual and the do-minimum on it, attractive or not, because they anchor the comparison. Give each dropped longlist option one line of reason on slide 4, so nobody reopens it in the meeting.

Payback and IRR rank B first; NPV ranks C first. For mutually exclusive options, rank by NPV, which measures the value created in money, while IRR and payback favor small, quick projects. Check with the increment: moving from B to C costs $260,000 more up front and returns $46,000 more in year 1 and $106,000 more in each later year. That increment has an NPV of $87,278 (182,272 − 94,994) and an IRR of about 21%, above the 10% hurdle.

Show non-financial criteria beside the numbers: Harbourline's approval cycle would fall from 12 days to about 10 with B, 4 with C and 3 with D (fictional targets), and D carries the most delivery risk. The real competitor to a proposal is rarely the status quo; it is the cheap fix, so give the do-minimum an honest hearing.

Count costs and benefits against the baseline

Count only the costs and benefits that change because of the decision, measured against the status quo. Only cash-releasing benefits go into the NPV; other benefits are reported beside it; every cost is included, internal time and contingency too; sunk costs stay out.

The Treasury guidance sorts benefits into four categories that work as well in a company:

Saved hours are not saved cash

The most common inflation in a business case is turning hours into dollars. Hours become cash only when a budget line falls: a contract ends, a vacancy stays empty, a planned hire is avoided. Show the arithmetic from hours to roles, then say which roles leave and how.

The model assumes 65% touchless matching and 12 minutes per remaining exception, since only the hard cases are left. Releasing four roles needs 6,400 freed hours, reached only if touchless matching hits 50%: that becomes the pilot gate.

Every cost, and none already spent

Harbourline's $300,000 one-time cost is $160,000 for configuration and ERP integration, $60,000 to backfill the project team, $30,000 for training, and a $50,000 contingency (20% of the $250,000 base). Running costs are $84,000 a year: a $72,000 subscription ($0.75 × 96,000 invoices) and $12,000 for a fifth of an administrator. The $35,000 already spent on a proof of concept stays out: the Green Book says costs already incurred must not be included in an appraisal (HM Treasury, The Green Book, 2026).

Size the contingency with evidence, not habit. The Green Book requires explicit adjustments for optimism bias, the tendency to underestimate costs and durations and overestimate benefits; its supplementary guidance puts the capital-cost upper bound for equipment and development projects, ICT included, at 200% (lower bound 10%) (HM Treasury, optimism bias guidance). A 20% contingency on a software integration is a judgment the sensitivity slide must test.

The assumptions register

An assumptions register lists every input the answer depends on, with its evidence, owner and the range tested. It lives in the appendix; slide 7 shows the few that move the answer most.

NPV, payback and IRR: calculate them correctly, say them plainly

Net present value is the value today of a project's future net cash flows, discounted at the required rate, minus the investment; payback is the time until cumulative cash flows recover the investment; IRR is the discount rate at which NPV is zero. Show all three, with the discount rate and horizon on the slide and one plain sentence for each.

Finance reviewers expect all three. In Graham and Harvey's survey of 392 chief financial officers, 74.9% always or almost always used NPV and 75.7% IRR; payback came next at 56.7%, despite its known weaknesses (Graham and Harvey, 2002). Here is option C, step by step:

1. Discount factor = 1 ÷ 1.10 to the power of the year. Year 2: 1 ÷ 1.21 = 0.8264.
2. Present value = net cash flow × discount factor. Year 2: 156,000 × 0.8264 = 128,926.
3. NPV = present values of years 1 to 5 minus the investment: 32,727 + 128,926 + 117,205 + 106,550 + 96,864 = 482,272; 482,272 − 300,000 = $182,272.
4. Payback: $108,000 is unrecovered after year 2 and year 3 brings $156,000, so 108,000 ÷ 156,000 = 0.69. Payback = 2.7 years, about 2 years and 8 months.
5. Discounted payback: $21,142 is unrecovered after year 3 and year 4 brings $106,550, so 21,142 ÷ 106,550 = 0.20. Discounted payback = 3.2 years.
6. IRR: the rate that makes NPV zero, from a spreadsheet's IRR function or by trial: 28.2%, against a 10% hurdle.

The Excel trap that shrinks your NPV

Excel's NPV function treats every value as falling at the end of a period; Microsoft's documentation says a cash flow at the start of the first period must be added to the result, not included in the range (Microsoft Support, NPV function). "=NPV(10%, year 1 to year 5) + year 0" returns $182,272. Putting year 0 inside the range discounts everything one extra year and returns 182,272 ÷ 1.1 = $165,702, an error of $16,570 a careful reviewer will spot.

Harbourline holds salaries and the subscription at today's prices and discounts at a 10% nominal rate, which slightly understates the savings if wages rise faster than the subscription; the register says so.

Say each number in one plain sentence

Sensitivity: show what would change the decision

A sensitivity slide tests each uncertain assumption across a realistic range, shows how far the NPV moves, and names the switching value: the level at which the recommendation stops being the best choice. Approvers do not need certainty; they need to know which assumption the decision rests on.

The Green Book asks, at a minimum, for sensitivity analysis and switching values on the preferred option, with two example questions: what would make it less attractive than another shortlisted option, and what would make its net present value negative (HM Treasury, The Green Book, 2026). Answer both on the slide.

Each row changes one input; B's NPV is $94,994 at 10%, $86,667 at 12% and $104,080 at 8%. One role is worth $200,174 of NPV ($60,000 a year, half in year 1, discounted); a six-month slip removes the year-1 saving, 120,000 × 0.9091 = $109,091. The switching values:

• Roles released: NPV reaches zero at 3.09 roles (a full-rate saving of $185,366, 23% below plan), and C falls behind B at 3.56 roles; in touchless terms, about 42% and 46%.
• One-time cost: NPV reaches zero at $482,272, 61% over budget; C falls behind B at $387,278, 29% over.
• Running cost: NPV reaches zero if running costs rise by $48,083 a year, 57% above plan.

Give cost a realistic stress test, not a token +10%. In Flyvbjerg and Budzier's analysis of 1,471 IT projects, the average cost overrun was 27%, and one project in six overran by about 200% on average (Flyvbjerg and Budzier, 2011). At a 27% overrun ($381,000), option C's NPV is $101,272, only $6,278 ahead of B, which is why the ask pairs a fixed-price integration contract with a pilot gate.

Title the chart with the finding ("Only the number of roles released can turn the NPV negative") and put the switching values in one line beneath it. For ranges and scenario wording, see our guide to presenting forecasts and uncertainty.

Risks and mitigations: tie each risk to the numbers

The risk slide lists the four to six risks that could change the outcome, each with an early signal, a mitigation and an owner, linked to the sensitivity results. A risk that cannot move the numbers or the plan belongs in the appendix log.

Say who holds the contingency. In Green Book terms it covers the optimism-bias allowance left after mitigation plus unprevented risk, so it shrinks as risks are designed out.

Implementation, governance and benefits tracking

The plan slide shows how the money is released, what is measured and when the decision is revisited. Stage gates, named benefit owners and dated reviews make an approval safe to give, because they limit how much is spent before the key assumption is proven.

Tranche 1 includes the rule tuning that is option B, so if the pilot misses the gate, Harbourline stops with B's benefits in hand, having spent $80,000 more up front than B plus three months of subscription: a known, bounded downside. Give each benefit an owner, baseline, target and review date; for sequencing several workstreams, see our roadmap presentation guide.

Worked example: the Harbourline deck in 12 titles

A strong business case deck makes its whole argument in its titles, and every number in them traces back to the model. Here is the finished Harbourline storyline.

Slide 5's $200,000 is C's NPV minus D's: 182,272 − (−17,571) = 199,843. The appendix holds the model, the register, the sensitivity workings and the risk log.

To see the method as finished slides, we generated the Harbourline example as a deck in NOXI from these titles and their numbers and exported it to PDF without edits. Two of its slides:

The finance reviewer's questions: a pre-meeting checklist

Before a business case reaches the committee, a finance business partner will usually test it with questions like these. Answer them in the deck or appendix and the meeting can spend its time on the decision, not the arithmetic.

Presenting the business case in the room

Send the deck and model as a pre-read, present for no more than half the slot, and spend the rest on questions and the decision. Answer challenges with the switching value: "that changes the answer only if fewer than 3.1 roles are released" persuades more than defending the base case.

For approvers outside finance, explain mechanisms as cause and effect (see explaining a technical project to executives); at board level the case becomes one agenda item with a resolution (see our board meeting presentation guide). Minute the decision exactly as slide 12 states it, conditions included.

3 AI prompts for the business case deck

Use them in NOXI after attaching your approved model and assumptions register, or in any AI tool that has them. Replace the brackets.

How to build the business case deck in NOXI

NOXI drafts the deck from your approved model in the style of your own template. It is free, with no card and no watermark; uploading files needs a free account, and a full deck uses about 25 of the 1,000 monthly credits.

Frequently asked questions

What should a business case presentation include?

It should include the decision you are asking for, the cost of the status quo, the options considered (including the status quo and a do-minimum), costs and benefits with stated assumptions, NPV, payback and IRR, a sensitivity analysis showing what would change the decision, risks with mitigations, a delivery plan with benefit owners, and the exact ask. Twelve slides plus an appendix with the model and assumptions register cover most investment decisions.

How many slides should a business case presentation have?

Ten to twelve main slides suit a 30-minute decision slot, with the financial model, the full assumptions register and the risk log in an appendix. For a short steering-committee item, six slides work: the ask, the problem, the options, the numbers with sensitivity, risks and plan, and the decision. Count slides by the questions the approver must settle, not by the amount of analysis you did.

How do you present NPV and payback to non-finance executives?

Give each number one plain sentence. NPV: "after repaying the investment and earning the 10% we require, the project adds about $182,000 in today's money." Payback: "the cash comes back in about two years and eight months." State the discount rate and horizon on the slide, keep the cash-flow table in the appendix, and show which assumption would turn the NPV negative.

Why include a do-nothing option in a business case?

Because every cost and benefit is measured against what happens without the proposal. HM Treasury guidance requires business as usual on every shortlist as the benchmark, and notes that it is rarely "do nothing": the current process keeps costing money and carrying risk. Leaving it out lets a deck compare its proposal with zero. Add a do-minimum option too, because the cheap fix is often the real competitor.

What is the Five Case Model?

It is HM Treasury's standard framework for business cases. A proposal is examined from five linked perspectives: strategic (the case for change), economic (best value for money across a shortlist of options), commercial (a viable deal with suppliers), financial (affordability and funding) and management (arrangements for successful delivery). It is mandatory for significant spending in the UK and Welsh governments and widely used beyond them.

Can AI help build a business case presentation?

Yes, for structuring and drafting slides from an approved model and assumptions register, not for producing the numbers. Give the tool the finished model, tell it to keep every figure, label and range unchanged and to invent no benefits, then check each number against the model, confirm that non-cash benefits have not crept into the NPV, and review the exported file before it circulates.

Sources & methodology

How this guide was made: it applies HM Treasury's business case and appraisal guidance and standard capital-budgeting practice to presentation work; the twelve-slide structure, meeting timings and checklists are editorial recommendations, not a standard. Harbourline Supplies and all its figures are fictional; every calculation was checked in a spreadsheet model. All sources were checked on 9 October 2026.

• [1] Business case definition; the Five Case Model and what each case must show; business as usual and do-minimum on a shortlist of around five options; benefit categories; Strategic Outline, Outline and Full Business Case stages; economic versus financial case — HM Treasury, Guidance on Developing Business Cases for Projects and Programmes (2026; page updated 30 June 2026).
• [2] Sunk costs excluded from appraisal; optimism bias adjustments; contingency; the 3.5% real discount rate; sensitivity analysis and switching values for the preferred option — HM Treasury, The Green Book (2026; page updated 5 February 2026).
• [3] Optimism bias bounds by project type, including 200% upper and 10% lower on capital expenditure for equipment and development projects — HM Treasury, Green Book supplementary guidance: optimism bias (published 21 April 2013).
• [4] Excel's NPV function assumes end-of-period values; a cash flow at the start of the first period is added to the result — Microsoft Support, NPV function.
• [5] Survey of 392 CFOs: 74.9% always or almost always use NPV, 75.7% IRR, 56.7% payback — John Graham and Campbell Harvey, How Do CFOs Make Capital Budgeting and Capital Structure Decisions?, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 15(1), Spring 2002.
• [6] Analysis of 1,471 IT projects: average cost overrun 27%; one in six with an average overrun of about 200% — Bent Flyvbjerg and Alexander Budzier, Why Your IT Project Might Be Riskier Than You Think, Harvard Business Review 89(9), 2011 (author preprint, arXiv).

Build your next business case deck in NOXI, free: attach the approved model and assumptions register, match your company template, review the outline in Plan mode, and export an editable PowerPoint or PDF for the pre-read.