Capital Expenditure Request (CAR) Form Template
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.
Fill in
Capital Expenditure Request Form Template
Capital Expenditure Request
Company: Acme Precision Ltd CAR number: CAR-2026-014 Date: 2026-10-20 Requested by: Plant manager, Line 2 Category: Cost reduction
Project
Replace manual deburring with robotic cell
Business justification
Manual deburring is a bottleneck and causes 3 percent rework. A robotic cell will remove one shift of manual labor and improve consistency.
Financial summary
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total capital cost | 185,000 |
| Annual operating cost | 14,000 |
| Annual benefit | 62,000 |
| Payback period | 3.9 years |
| NPV / IRR (attach calculation) |
Cost breakdown
| Component | Quote ref | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment | |||
| Installation and rigging | |||
| Training | |||
| Contingency |
Alternatives considered
1) Add a second manual shift. 2) Outsource deburring. 3) Do nothing.
Risks and dependencies
Operator training, integration with the cell controller, five week lead time on the robot.
Approvals
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.
Track capex against ERP spend
Optional: a short walk-through of linking approved requests to project and asset spend.
Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.
How to use the template
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
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.
- 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
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
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a capital expenditure request form?
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?
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?
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?
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.
If capex requests are tracked in email and spreadsheets, Netray can discuss connecting approval status and spend to your ERP project and asset records.
Related Tools
Machine Hour Rate Build-Up Worksheet
Calculate a fully loaded machine hour rate per machine from depreciation, power, maintenance, tooling and floor space.
Costing & FinanceInventory Write-Off Approval Form Template
A signed record for scrapping or writing off damaged, obsolete or lost inventory, with value, reason and approvals.
Costing & FinanceStandard Cost Change Approval Memo Template
Record why standard costs are changing, what the inventory revaluation effect is, and who approved the roll.
Costing & FinanceGRNI Accrual Schedule Worksheet
Schedule goods received but not invoiced, value each line and support the month end GRNI accrual with an auditable listing.
More Costing & Finance tools
See all- SAP QM Inspection Effort and Cost Calculator
- SAP Standard Cost Estimate BOM Rollup Calculator
- Legacy ERP Retirement Cost and Payback Calculator
- JD Edwards World Month-End Close Procedure Template
- Distributor Customer Credit Application Template
- Distributor Customer Profitability Worksheet
- Distributor GMROI and Inventory Turns Calculator
- Vendor Early Pay Discount Worksheet
- SyteLine Cost Rollup Variance Calculator