# Capital Expenditure Request (CAR) Form Template

> Source: https://netray.co/tools/capital-expenditure-request-form-template
> Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems.
> Section: Free Tools

## Short answer

A fill-in capital appropriation request form with justification, cost summary, financial return and approval lines.

## Category

cost-finance

## Audience

- Plant manager
- Controller
- CFO

## Tool

**Kind:** template

**Output:** document

**Fields:**

#### Company

**Key:** company

**Type:** text

**Default:** Acme Precision Ltd

#### CAR number

**Key:** car_no

**Type:** text

**Default:** CAR-2026-014

#### Request date

**Key:** date

**Type:** date

**Default:** 2026-10-20

#### Requestor

**Key:** requestor

**Type:** text

**Default:** Plant manager, Line 2

#### Project category

**Key:** category

**Type:** select

**Options:**

- Growth
- Replacement
- Cost reduction
- Quality
- Safety and compliance
- IT and automation

**Default:** Cost reduction

#### Project title

**Key:** title

**Type:** text

**Default:** Replace manual deburring with robotic cell

#### Business justification

**Key:** justification

**Type:** textarea

**Default:** Manual deburring is a bottleneck and causes 3 percent rework. A robotic cell will remove one shift of manual labor and improve consistency.

#### Total capital cost

**Key:** cost

**Type:** text

**Default:** 185,000

#### Expected annual operating cost

**Key:** opex

**Type:** text

**Default:** 14,000

#### Expected annual benefit

**Key:** benefit

**Type:** text

**Default:** 62,000

#### Payback period

**Key:** payback

**Type:** text

**Default:** 3.9 years

#### Alternatives considered

**Key:** alternatives

**Type:** textarea

**Default:** 1) Add a second manual shift. 2) Outsource deburring. 3) Do nothing.

#### Risks and dependencies

**Key:** risks

**Type:** textarea

**Default:** Operator training, integration with the cell controller, five week lead time on the robot.

**Blocks:**

#### Capital Expenditure Request

**Body:** Company: {{company}}
CAR number: {{car_no}}
Date: {{date}}
Requested by: {{requestor}}
Category: {{category}}

#### Project

**Body:** {{title}}

#### Business justification

**Body:** {{justification}}

#### Financial summary

**Table:**

**Columns:**

- Item
- Amount

**Rows:**

**0:** Total capital cost

**1:** {{cost}}

**0:** Annual operating cost

**1:** {{opex}}

**0:** Annual benefit

**1:** {{benefit}}

**0:** Payback period

**1:** {{payback}}

**0:** NPV / IRR (attach calculation)

#### Cost breakdown

**Table:**

**Columns:**

- Component
- Quote ref
- Amount
- Notes

**Rows:**

**0:** Equipment

**0:** Installation and rigging

**0:** Training

**0:** Contingency

#### Alternatives considered

**Body:** {{alternatives}}

#### Risks and dependencies

**Body:** {{risks}}

#### Approvals

**Signatures:**

- Requestor
- Department head
- Plant manager
- Finance controller
- CFO or CEO

**Notes:** Approval limits differ by company: set your own thresholds for who signs at each amount. Attach supplier quotes and the NPV or payback worksheet. This is a starting form, not an accounting policy.

## Content

**Intro:** A capital expenditure request, often called a CAR or capital appropriation request, is how a plant asks for money for equipment, tooling or projects that will be capitalised. This template gives you a clean, consistent form that finance and the leadership team can review quickly.

**Sections:**

#### How to use the template

**Body:** Fill in the fields on the left and the document updates on the right. Enter the project summary, the business case, total capital cost, annual operating cost and benefit, and the payback. Add alternatives considered and key risks. Export to PDF or Word, add supplier quotes and the NPV workings as attachments, and route for the signatures listed at the bottom. Keep one request per project so approvals and spend tracking stay clean.

#### What approvers look for

**Body:** Finance reviews whether the cost is complete: equipment, freight, installation, commissioning, training, spares and a contingency. Operations reviews whether the benefit is credible and who owns it. The strongest requests tie benefits to measurable items such as scrap reduction, labor hours saved, or throughput gained, and show a baseline. Weak requests list soft benefits only and make them hard to audit after the project completes.

**Bullets:**

- State capital cost including installation and training.
- Show payback and NPV with the discount rate used.
- Name who is accountable for the benefit.
- List alternatives, including doing nothing.

#### Categories and thresholds

**Body:** Most companies sort requests into growth, replacement, cost reduction, quality and safety or compliance. Safety and compliance projects are often approved on risk rather than return, and replacement projects on the cost of failure. Set approval levels by amount, for example plant manager up to one figure, regional or corporate finance above it. Tracking the category lets you see how much of the capital budget is going to maintenance versus growth.

#### Common mistakes

**Body:** The usual problems are leaving out installation and training, using one optimistic scenario, forgetting operating costs, and never closing the loop after spend. A post-completion review six to twelve months later compares actual cost and benefit with the request. That habit improves future forecasts and makes the approval process fairer across plants.

**Cta:** If capex requests are tracked in email and spreadsheets, Netray can discuss connecting approval status and spend to your ERP project and asset records.

**Faq:**

#### What is a capital expenditure request form?

**Answer:** It is an internal document asking for approval to spend money on an asset that will be capitalised, such as machinery, tooling, buildings or software. It records the cost, the justification, the expected return and the approvers.

#### What should be included in a capex justification?

**Answer:** State the problem or opportunity, the proposed solution, total cost, annual benefit, payback or NPV, alternatives considered, risks and the owner of the benefit. Attach quotes and the financial calculation so approvers can verify the numbers.

#### Is payback enough to approve a project?

**Answer:** Payback is easy to understand but ignores the time value of money and cash flows after payback. Use NPV or IRR alongside it for larger projects, and treat safety, legal and strategic projects on their own criteria.

#### Who should sign a capital request?

**Answer:** Typically the requestor, department head, plant manager and finance, with higher amounts going to the CFO or CEO and sometimes the board. Define limits in your delegation of authority policy and follow them consistently.

## Search terms

capital expenditure request form template, capex request form, capital appropriation request template, capex approval form manufacturing, capital request form word, capital project justification template, equipment purchase request form

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