How to Build a Business Case for Outlined

Build a business case for Outlined around a specific operational improvement, its measurable baseline, the full cost of change, and an explicit evaluation plan. Separate cash savings, released capacity, and speculative revenue. They are different benefits and should not be added together casually.

A credible proposal can include uncertainty. The purpose is to help a decision-maker choose, not to make every scenario produce a positive return.

State the problem and alternatives

Describe the failing task: agents reconstruct context across several systems, managers manually prepare a feedback report, or product requests never reach merchandising. Identify the people affected and the evidence that the problem recurs.

Compare at least three options: improve the current process, introduce Outlined, or choose another suitable solution. Include what each option leaves unresolved. Keeping the current tool can be the best decision if the benefit of switching is weak.

Build a baseline

Measure a representative set of tasks using an agreed method. Record time spent, frequency, participants, and output quality. Note campaigns or unusual incidents that affect the period.

For a reporting task, time the actual preparation and review rather than ask for a rough memory. For a handoff problem, review concrete examples of missing context. Keep the baseline small enough to collect properly and honest about its representativeness.

Use this business-case sheet

Model released capacity carefully

In a fictional scenario, a weekly report takes four hours before a tested workflow change and two hours afterward. Across four weeks, that releases eight hours. At an assumed loaded labour value of $25 per hour, the capacity value is $200 for that period.

That is not necessarily $200 of cash saved. If payroll stays the same, the benefit is time available for other useful work. Document what the team will do with it and verify that the time difference persists.

Do not count the same two hours as both reporting savings and agent-productivity savings in a second calculation.

Add the full cost

As of 30 October 2026, Outlined Standard is $279 per month plus applicable tax, with defined allowances and owner-controlled extra usage. WhatsApp messaging is separately charged. Use current pricing and the total-cost worksheet rather than assume the base subscription is the final cost.

Include staff setup time, any migration or archive arrangement, training, and retained tools. Align benefit and cost periods. Comparing one month's benefit with an annual cost, or vice versa, produces an unusable return calculation.

Keep revenue claims in a separate scenario

Customer messages may reveal buying friction, but a later purchase does not prove the software caused it. Use contribution profit rather than gross revenue when modelling an attributable incremental sale, and explain the causal evidence or assumption.

If attribution is weak, leave revenue out of the base case. You can still describe it as a hypothesis to test. Avoid borrowing another vendor's percentage improvement and applying it to your store.

Peopleware's business-case guide discusses implementation effort and the need for a clear executive case. The worksheet and fictional arithmetic here are our own operating proposal.

Set a decision date

Write conservative, expected, and optimistic scenarios. Identify the assumption that would change the choice. Assign an owner to measure it during the trial and first month.

The final page should explain what the team expects to improve, what it costs, what has been demonstrated, and what remains uncertain. Use the first-month value review to test the proposal after adoption rather than leave the original forecast unchallenged.