Toolkit
Start with a working artefact
Templates and tools for measuring AI cost, proving value and making investment decisions. No specialist platform is needed to begin: start with a spreadsheet, establish the discipline, and automate only where scale justifies it.
Each asset is a proposal from this site, not a standard. Each has a guide with a worked example, its limitations and a change history. Figures in examples are invented and labelled as illustrative. Organised by the phases of the system.
1. Measure
What does AI fully cost, where is it consumed, and who owns it?
- Excel worksheet · v1.0AI TCO worksheet
Price an AI use case from pilot to production across seven sheets, including the costs that never reach the model invoice.
Best for: A finance analyst and a platform engineer filling it in together.
- Browser toolFully loaded inference cost estimator
Build a monthly inference estimate from the rate card up, adding output ratio, caching, uplifts and fees. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Best for: A FinOps or finance forecast for a workload moving from pilot to production.
- Excel template · v0.5AI Portfolio and Cost Register
One register of initiatives, tools and agents with owners, and one cost register in the seven layers of the AI TCO Framework.
Best for: The first month of a programme, or a tidy-up before a first portfolio review.
2. Prove
What changed because AI was used, and how strong is the evidence?
- Browser toolAttribution coverage calculator
Calculate what share of AI spend is connected to a measured outcome. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Best for: Showing a leadership team how much AI spend has evidence behind it.
- Excel template · v1.1AI Value Ledger
One record per material AI workflow, joining owner, baseline, cost, outcome, evidence level and decision. Includes a worked example.
Best for: The two or three workflows that carry the most spend.
- Excel template · v0.5AI Benefits Register
Track each benefit by type, owner and booking record, so only value that has reached an accepted record counts as realised.
Best for: A finance partner defending the realised-value figure.
3. Decide
Given the economics and the evidence, what should be scaled, held, redesigned or stopped?
- Browser toolSelf-hosting break-even calculator
Compare paying per token with running an open-weight model on dedicated GPUs, including utilisation and people. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Best for: Testing a proposal to move an inference workload onto dedicated or owned capacity.
- Browser toolCost per successful outcome calculator
Compare up to four model setups on what each successful outcome costs, including the people who fix failures. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Best for: Choosing a model or routing setup for one workload, with test results in hand.
- Browser toolAI budget stress test
Test whether an AI case still meets its hurdle if prices rise, demand grows, or both. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Best for: Checking a business case before approval or before scaling it.
- Excel template · v0.5AI Portfolio Review Pack
Put cost, claimed and realised value, evidence and risk side by side, and end the review in scale, hold, redesign or stop.
Best for: A first or second portfolio review of a handful to a few dozen initiatives.
- Word template · v0.5AI Investment Decision Memorandum
A seven-part memorandum for a material funding request, built around a proof plan and exit criteria written before the money is spent.
Best for: A business owner asking for a material, recoverable or larger commitment.
- Word template · v0.5Stopped Initiative Review
A blameless record of a stopped initiative: what it cost, why it ended, what is reusable and what would need to be true to try again.
Best for: Any material initiative that has been stopped or redesigned after underperforming.
- Excel template · v0.5AI Supplier Economics Review
Review a supplier contract on pricing risk, lock-in, consolidation exposure and governance fit, with a twelve-term checklist.
Best for: A procurement lead or finance partner preparing a material AI contract or renewal.
4. Operate
Who owns each part, how often is it reviewed, and what reaches the board?
- Word template · v0.5AI Board Reporting Pack
An eight-page board pack, one-page dashboard, audit committee supplement, decision memorandum and question bank.
Best for: A quarterly paper to a board, audit committee or executive team.
- Word template · v0.5AI Value Office Charter
Mandate, scope, roles, decision rights and a monthly and quarterly cycle for the team that keeps the system running.
Best for: Setting up the function, or extending an existing FinOps, TBM or portfolio team.
- Excel template · v0.5AI Economics Maturity Assessment
Score ten dimensions against the five maturity levels, answer twelve readiness questions and see the largest gaps to target.
Best for: Agreeing where you are and what to work on first.