As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly budget for new equipment.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a spreadsheet and create columns for item, supplier, quote date, net cost, VAT, gross cost, payment date, recurring cost and evidence source.
   2. Gather current supplier quotes, delivery and installation terms, finance offers, maintenance costs and insurance estimates, then paste the figures into the spreadsheet with the source beside each one.
   3. Add the business cash balance, expected monthly income, essential monthly costs, existing commitments and the minimum cash reserve you must retain.
   4. Paste the completed table and the prompt into an AI chat, then ask it to produce the purchase budget, 12-month cash requirement and three scenarios without inventing missing figures.
   5. Export or copy the response into the spreadsheet and compare every cost, VAT amount, payment date and formula against the original quotes, finance terms and bank records.
   6. Replace any uncertain assumption with a sourced figure, rerun the scenarios, and record the missing evidence that still prevents a reliable decision.
   7. Send the final budget and the flagged questions to your accountant before relying on VAT, capital allowances, tax treatment or finance implications.

   Prompt

   Help me prepare a UK business budget for buying new equipment. Use only the information I provide and do not invent prices, tax treatment, funding terms or savings. If a figure is missing, mark it as missing and state what evidence I need.
   
   Business context:
   - Business type: [limited company, partnership or sole trader]
   - Equipment and purpose: [describe it]
   - Required purchase date: [date or timeframe]
   - Supplier quotes or prices: [paste details]
   - Delivery, installation and training costs: [figures or unknown]
   - VAT status and VAT shown on the quotes: [details or unknown]
   - Payment method or finance terms: [details or unknown]
   - Available cash: [figure or unknown]
   - Current monthly income and essential costs: [figures or attach a table]
   - Existing borrowing or commitments: [details or unknown]
   - Minimum cash reserve to keep: [figure or unknown]
   - Expected maintenance, insurance and running costs: [figures or unknown]
   - Expected business benefit, such as capacity or revenue impact: [evidence or unknown]
   
   Create:
   1. A purchase budget showing each cost, whether it is one-off or ongoing, and whether the amount includes VAT.
   2. A cash requirement by month from the purchase date through the next 12 months, using only supplied figures.
   3. Three clearly labelled scenarios: base case, lower-cost or delayed purchase, and higher-cost case. Do not assign probabilities.
   4. A list of missing inputs and assumptions that could change the decision.
   5. A break-even or payback calculation only if the required cost and benefit figures are supplied. Otherwise explain what is missing.
   6. A short decision checklist covering cash reserve, finance terms, VAT evidence, maintenance, insurance and supplier cancellation terms.
   
   Show every formula in plain English, keep purchase costs separate from running costs, and do not tell me that the equipment is affordable. End with questions for my accountant where VAT, capital allowances, financing or tax treatment cannot be established from the information provided.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.