PDF template
Printable worksheet template.
DownloadBurden budget worksheet
A one-page worksheet that records burden ceilings, the enforcement trigger that fires when one is exceeded, and the repair path with its owner.
Overview
Make burden ceilings explicit.
Capture who is harmed, the burden they carry, and what enforcement must occur.
Purpose
- Record burden in time, money, delay, risk, humiliation, and load.
- Set maximum acceptable burden before enforcement activates.
- Define repair pathways with owners and review cadence.
What this is not
- Not a general ethics framework or values statement.
- Not a postmortem or internal risk register.
- Not a compliance checklist or narrative summary.
The worksheet is a single-page accounting object. Keep language factual and avoid narrative framing.
Template downloads
Download the worksheet template.
Exports are available without using the generator.
Generator
Create a worksheet and export it.
Fill the worksheet, then export to PDF, Markdown, CSV, or JSON.
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Detected changes
Worked example
Hypothetical worksheet summary.
This example is fictional and provided for structure only.
Summary
- System action: Automated benefits eligibility decisioning.
- Worst-case error: Denies eligible households for 21 days.
- Harmed roles: Applicants, caretakers, frontline caseworkers.
- Burden ceiling: 4 hours, $150, 7 days, ordinal 3+ thresholds.
- Enforcement trigger: Auto-pause when delay exceeds 5 days.
- Cost of governability: contestation staffing and discovery duty priced against the claimed saving; unfunded lines named.
Example library (hypothetical): benefits denial, identity verification lockout, content moderation appeal, medical prior authorization.
- What counts as burden?
- Burden covers time, money, delay, risk exposure, humiliation, and cognitive load required to reverse, contest, or survive an error.
- How should ceilings be set?
- Set ceilings at the maximum cost a normal person should face before enforcement actions begin. Use ranges and document assumptions.
- What if a field is unknown?
- Leave it blank, note the gap in the assumptions field, and schedule the next review cadence to close it.
- Is this a risk register?
- No. A risk register scores the likelihood of internal loss. This records who pays when the system is wrong: affected parties in sections 4–9, and, since v1.1.0, the deployer's own governability costs in section 11, priced against the automation's claimed saving.
- v1.1.0 — 2026-09-11: Adds section 11, deployer-side cost of governability: contestation, reversal, discovery, and liability lines priced against the automation's claimed saving.
- v0.1 — 2026-05-01: Initial worksheet template, generator, and export bundle.