Software tool evaluation scorecard prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when you have narrowed a software choice down to two or three options and your notes from demos, vendor pages and coworkers are scattered across emails. The prompt builds a scorecard from your requirements, not from the vendors' marketing, so the tool with the longest feature list doesn't win by default. Anything about pricing, features or security that came from a sales page or the AI's memory gets marked "verify on vendor site", because AI is often out of date on exactly those details.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are an operations analyst helping a small team choose software without being swayed by marketing. Context: We need a tool for [JOB TO BE DONE]. Must-have requirements: [MUST HAVES]. Nice-to-haves: [NICE TO HAVES]. The tools we are comparing: [TOOLS]. What we learned about each, from demos, trials and vendor pages: [NOTES]. Our budget limit: [BUDGET]. Task: Build a scorecard: requirements as rows, tools as columns, each cell "yes", "no", "partly" or "unknown" from our notes only. Mark any pricing, feature, integration or security cell that comes from a vendor page, a salesperson or your general knowledge "verify on vendor site". Never fill unknowns from memory. A tool that fails a must-have is out. Then list the questions still to answer. Format: The table, must-haves first. Then one line per tool, "still in" or "out" and why, and a numbered list "Ask the vendor". Name a winner only if one tool alone has every must-have confirmed.
Fill in the blanks
[JOB TO BE DONE]- What the software must help you do, in one sentence.
[MUST HAVES]- The requirements a tool can't be missing, such as "exports to CSV" or "works with our accounting system". Keep this list short.
[NICE TO HAVES]- Things you would like but could live without.
[TOOLS]- The names of the tools you are comparing, two or three at most.
[NOTES]- What you saw in demos or trials and what the vendor told you. Say where each note came from.
[BUDGET]- The most you can spend per month or year, or "not set".
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Build an AI Agent That Categorizes Business Expenses. Maple Street Bookkeeping is the made-up bookkeeping firm from the finance agent lesson. It keeps the books for about 60 small businesses and is choosing a receipt capture tool. The tool names below are made up.
Role: You are an operations analyst helping a small team choose software without being swayed by marketing. Context: We need a tool for collecting client receipts and getting them into our expense log without retyping. Must-have requirements: clients can send receipts by email or phone photo, it exports to CSV or Google Sheets, each client's receipts stay separate, staff log in with their own accounts. Nice-to-haves: reads vendor, date and amount automatically, a monthly reminder email to clients. The tools we are comparing: ReceiptDrop and ShoeboxPro. What we learned about each, from demos, trials and vendor pages: ReceiptDrop trial, photo upload and CSV export worked, separate client folders, one shared login on the plan we tried. ShoeboxPro demo, salesperson said email forwarding and Sheets export are included, not tried with our receipts. Our budget limit: $150 a month. Task: Build a scorecard: requirements as rows, tools as columns, each cell "yes", "no", "partly" or "unknown" from our notes only. Mark any pricing, feature, integration or security cell that comes from a vendor page, a salesperson or your general knowledge "verify on vendor site". Never fill unknowns from memory. A tool that fails a must-have is out. Then list the questions still to answer. Format: The table, must-haves first. Then one line per tool, "still in" or "out" and why, and a numbered list "Ask the vendor". Name a winner only if one tool alone has every must-have confirmed.
What a good answer looks like
- ReceiptDrop gets "no" or "partly" on separate staff logins, flagged as a possible deal-breaker, with a question about higher plans.
- Every ShoeboxPro "yes" carries "verify on vendor site", because it came from the salesperson.
- The budget row says "unknown" for both, since your notes lack prices.
- No winner is named, because neither tool has every must-have confirmed.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Delete any feature or price the AI filled in that isn't in your notes. Look for confident details you never typed.
- Check every "verify on vendor site" cell on the vendor's current pricing and feature pages, and save a screenshot with the date.
- Run a trial of the finalist with a week of real, non-sensitive receipts before you sign anything.
- Ask about security and data handling in writing, and have whoever owns client data at your firm read the answers.
Practice it in the free lesson
Build an AI Agent That Categorizes Business Expenses: Build an AI agent for Maple Street Bookkeeping that sorts business expenses into categories, writes a short note for each and saves them to Google Sheets — chat trigger, AI Agent, system prompt, model, memory, and the… You do every step yourself in a practice copy of n8n, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: AI Receipt Extractor: Receipts to Google Sheets with n8n
Terms used here
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