Capital Allocation & Capex Appraisal Model — 20 Projects, WACC Builder, Risk-Adjusted Hurdles & Portfolio Rationing

Description
Built for the moment twenty capital submissions arrive and the budget covers seven of them. The model takes each project's drivers — capex, revenue, growth, cost ratios, depreciation method, salvage, working capital — and produces after-tax free cash flow over twenty-five years, the full appraisal suite against each project's own risk-adjusted hurdle, and then the allocation: the funded list, the deferral list, and what the deferrals cost in forgone NPV.

Why this one
The cost of capital is built, not typed: CAPM cost of equity, unlevered beta relevered to the target structure, after-tax cost of debt, target weights. Hurdles differ by risk class, because a replacement compressor and an unproven product line are not the same bet and discounting both at WACC systematically over-funds the speculative one. Tax depreciation is real — straight line, declining balance and MACRS GDS half-year with Section 179 and bonus, and salvage taxed on the gain over written-down book value rather than added untaxed. Ranking under a budget is by NPV per unit of capital, which is the correct order when capital is the binding constraint; mutually exclusive options are grouped so a larger budget cannot fund two answers to the same question.

The deferral list is the part most models do not produce. In the shipped worked cycle, ten projects that clear their hurdle receive nothing and are worth $2,678,754 against $2,820,520 actually funded — the number that changes a budget conversation.

Fifteen integrity checks are built in. 12,042 formula cells were recomputed in a live Excel engine with zero errors, and 6,203 of them were independently rebuilt from raw drivers in a separate Python engine with zero mismatches. Every figure in this description is recomputed from the shipped file.

What is included
Twenty-six tabs, nine charts including an NPV waterfall and a value frontier, a methodology manual of eighteen sections with four worked cases, a Capital Cycle Book presenting a complete fictional capital cycle with a mapping table to every workbook cell, and a Python toolkit of four command-line tools - Monte Carlo risk analysis, an exact 0/1 knapsack optimiser, batch CSV appraisal and an independent self-check - plus the two-module shared engine they import.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Built by Hoda Elmorshidy — Financial Controller & Fractional CFO, in senior finance since 2017: IFRS reporting, FP&A, finance automation, Quantitative Analysis, Financial Modeling, and UAE VAT & Corporate Tax. Practitioner-grade tools, not generic templates.

DISCLAIMER
This template is an analytical and educational tool, not professional accounting, tax, financial or legal advice, and its use creates no professional relationship. Verify all figures before use in any decision. Appraisal outputs depend entirely on the cash-flow, tax-rate and cost-of-capital estimates you enter. Discounted cash flow measures incremental cash created; it is not the right authority on mandatory or compliance spend. Real-option values are a transparent two-state decision tree, not an option-pricing model. Section 179, bonus depreciation and MACRS are US federal concepts — verify against current IRS rules and set them to zero outside the US. The MACRS tables in the workbook are derived from the documented GDS half-year method and reconcile to IRS Publication 946, Appendix A, Table A-1 to within 0.01 of a percentage point (the IRS publishes rounded percentages; the workbook carries the unrounded method values), checked as of August 2026 - for a filing, use the IRS table verbatim and confirm the current position. The sample company "Meridale Industries" and all twenty project submissions are fictional. Liability is limited as set out in the licence terms below.

LICENSE & LIABILITY
LICENSE GRANT: Single-user licence. One person may use the file for their own or their employer's internal decisions. No resale, redistribution, sublicensing, or repackaging of the file or its templates.
AS IS: Provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: To the maximum extent permitted by law, total liability for any claim arising from this product is limited to the amount you paid for it. Not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential losses.
NON-WAIVABLE RIGHTS: Nothing here limits rights that cannot be excluded under the consumer-protection law of your jurisdiction.
GOVERNING LAW: This purchase is governed by the terms of the platform you bought it on (e.g. Etsy, Gumroad) and by the consumer-protection law of your own country of residence. Where those permit, the limitations above apply to the maximum extent allowed.
Past or sample results are not indicative.

REFUNDS & FIXES:
This is an instant digital download, sold on a fix-first basis rather than a returns basis. If something is genuinely wrong with the file — it will not open, a formula returns an error, a tab or feature described on this page is missing, or a stated calculation is wrong — contact me through the platform you bought on, or email [email protected], with your order number and a screenshot. I will correct it and send you the updated workbook, free, for 12 months from purchase. If something genuinely cannot be fixed, I will tell you so plainly rather than leave it open. Change-of-mind refunds are not offered: the file is delivered in full and immediately, and the scope is set out before you buy — see "What it does" and "What it does not do" — so you can check the fit first. Outputs that depend on your own assumptions, and anything listed as out of scope, are not defects. Nothing here limits rights that cannot be excluded under the consumer-protection law of your country, and the terms of the platform you bought on also apply.



TRADEMARKS & NON-AFFILIATION:
Microsoft Excel is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation and Google Sheets is a trademark of Google LLC; this product is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either. Python is a trademark of the Python Software Foundation. MACRS, Section 179 and bonus depreciation are provisions of the US Internal Revenue Code, referenced for methodological attribution only; this product is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IRS.