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How CapEx justifications are drafted
Every capitalised project needs a written justification — the document an auditor reads to see why its cost meets your accounting standard. Flowstate drafts it from the project's own evidence, asks the project owner only what the evidence can't answer, and never overwrites what someone has written.
If you own a project, see Write and submit a justification. If you approve them, see Review and approve a justification.
When a justification starts
Flowstate starts a justification for a project on a CapEx cost centre once the project is under way — in progress, done, past its end date, or with recent effort. It also starts one for each project when you capitalise a whole initiative.
Your organisation needs a CapEx framework first. See Set up capitalisation.
What the draft is built from
- Tickets from your project tool, with their history.
- Pull requests, commits and reviews, if GitHub is connected.
- The people who worked on it, and their effort.
- Project updates, and the initiative and objective it belongs to.
- Its cost centre, owner and cost.
The owner is never asked for anything Flowstate already has, such as timesheets, tickets or cost. The better the project's links and effort, the better the draft. See Projects.
If there isn't enough evidence yet
The writer shows Data readiness check, with what's missing and a link to fix each thing — such as Link a PMS project or Assign a cost centre. Flowstate checks again every day and drafts once there's enough. To draft with what's there, select Generate draft anyway.
How drafting works
- One paragraph per section, following your framework.
- Your edits always win. Once someone has typed in a section, Flowstate never rewrites it.
- Drafting stops once the justification is submitted.
- Out-of-date drafts are flagged, not replaced. If the project changes after drafting, the writer shows "Draft outdated — project data has changed since last generation". Select it to redraft the sections nobody has edited.
Each section shows where it's up to:
| Section shows | What to do |
|---|---|
| No draft yet. | Select Draft with AI, or write it yourself |
| Queued — drafting will start shortly | Wait a moment |
| Not enough project data to draft this section yet | Add the missing evidence, or select Draft with AI anyway |
| AI drafting failed | Select Retry |
Questions
When the evidence leaves a gap, Flowstate asks rather than guesses. Questions are under AI Interview in the writer.
- Answering a question updates the draft.
- A question you skip isn't asked again.
- Questions never stop you submitting.
- Questions can only be answered before the justification is submitted. After that, edit the text.
When the project owner is asked
The owner is asked as soon as the project reaches Done — while the draft is still being written, if it isn't ready yet — and the task updates once the draft is ready. A project past its end date counts as finished too. They get a task in their Inbox and an email, and a Slack message if your organisation has turned that on. Every Monday, owners with justifications still to review also get a reminder.
A project that's never marked Done and has no end date never reaches this step. See After a project ends.
If the owner doesn't have a Flowstate account, their manager or team lead is asked instead, and the With column on the Rationales tab says so.
The Rationales tab
Finance → Capitalisation → Rationales lists every CapEx project and where its justification is up to.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not eligible | The project isn't under way yet |
| Waiting for evidence | There isn't enough evidence to draft yet. Flowstate checks again daily |
| Drafting | A draft is being written |
| Ready for input | The draft is ready for the owner to review and submit |
| In review | Submitted and waiting on approvers |
| Changes requested | An approver sent it back to the owner |
| Rejected | It was rejected. The owner can revise and resubmit it |
| Approved | Approved and waiting to be completed |
| Completed | Capitalised, with an amount and amortisation recorded |
The With column shows who has the next step, and Notified when they were asked. Draft shows when the draft last finished, and Questions how many are open.
To export justifications from this tab, see Export your capitalisation figures.
R&D claim narratives are drafted the same way. See Build an R&D claim.