Import custom worksheets from Excel
Successful business plans are focused on implementation, not just ideas. Users with the Premier version have an additional tracking tool in the Sales Forecast table for Plan vs. Actual comparison.
Import custom worksheets from
Excel
Anyone with strong knowledge of business
and spreadsheets can probably build the set
of linked, financially and mathematically correct tables required to
produce an effective business plan — but is that the best use of your time?
With Business Plan Pro, all of the standard pieces are already built and
ready to use. And if you already have financial data in Microsoft Excel,
you can easily import it and link it to your forecast. You can name, format
and include these tables as part of your plan, or use them behind the
scenes for advanced financial analysis.
By importing tables from Excel, you can enhance and personalize your
business plan while saving substantial time over starting from scratch.
Manage your business better with an integrated dashboard
If you need a bird’s eye view of your business, your plan, and if you are
meeting your goals, Business Plan Pro’s integrated dashboard gives you
the tools you need. Check your
actual sales compared to your
goals and ensure that spending is in line with your budget. Quickly
manage your company goals and objectives and easily export everything
to PowerPoint for an executive presentation.
Quarterly and 24-month financial reports
The default presentation of the reports in
the appendix of business plans shows
monthly details in landscape format for in-depth review. If you or your
investors prefer quarterly or longer-range reports, the Premier Edition
offers support for those formats.
Business valuation tools
Impress sophisticated investors with an investment analysis and valuation.
Calculate valuation based on sales or earnings and calculate IRR and
NPV.
This table deals with two types of
investment analysis, the Internal Rate View More Detail
of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV). Investment analysis views
the company from the investor's point of view. For the investor, there is
only one flow into the company that matters--the investment--and there
are only two flows back out as returns — dividends and equity valuation.
This table deals with this issue in detail.
Visual cash planning with Cash Pilot
Create what-if scenarios by testing the key
variables that affect your cash flow. View More Detail
Planning your cash flow is not intuitive, yet it is one of the most important
aspects of managing a business.
Cash Pilot™ is a graphical tool which provides a visual representation to
help you better manage three key components in your balance sheet that
affect your cash flow: accounts receivable, accounts payable, and stock
management.
What happens if your customers start paying you net-60 instead of net-30?
How will keeping more inventory on hand impact your cash flow?
Business Plan Pro’s Cash Pilot tool allows you to quickly run different
scenarios and immediately see the impact on your cash flow so you can
manage your business better.
Create your own business plan templates
Customize the Business
Plan Pro Premier outline,
add custom financial tables, and insert standardized text, then save as a
template to share with other Business Plan Pro users.
Ideal for franchisors, larger companies, and consultants, the Save as
Template feature in the Premier Edition allows you to customize and
distribute a unique business plan template to your users.
Once you have completed building your template, use the "save as
template" feature and send it to the people who need to complete a plan in
your custom format. When your users start Business Plan Pro, they will
see your custom template as an option.
Case study: ABC Company wants to standardize the planning process for
its division. A senior manager uses Business Plan Pro Premier and
customizes the plan outline and Profit and Loss Statement to meet the
specific needs of ABC Company. She enters custom expense lines and
new text topics in the outline that division managers will need to complete
their business plans.
Once the plan is saved as a template, the manager emails the template to
all of her division. They open the template in Business Plan Pro Premier
or Standard Edition and create plans in the standard format required by
ABC Company.
Advanced financial spreadsheets
The Premier Edition of Business Plan Pro includes more advanced
financial forecasting options. Divide your expenses and payroll into
functional categories such as General
& Administrative, Production,
Marketing, etc., forecast personnel salaries in more detail and forecast two
years in a monthly format. In addition, you can add an unlimited number
of custom spreadsheets or import directly from Microsoft Excel.
Speed up your annual planning process
Business Plan Pro now makes it easier than ever to plan each fiscal year.
When you reach the end of your current year, you can easily archive your
old plan and start work on your new
plan based on last year’s data. Business Plan Pro makes the planning
process easier and you’ll produce your annual plan in record time.
Investment offering table
Business planners seeking multiple rounds of investment can use this
table to plan for outside investment and
track investment amounts, ownership, View More Detail
shares, share prices, and stock dilution. Your prospective investors will
want to see this information.
Plan vs. actual charts
The Premier Edition Plan vs. Actual feature includes 12 additional charts
to help you visually track your actual numbers and your variance analysis.
Quickly analyze where your real
results vary from your original
plan.
The Actual and Variance charts draw their data from the corresponding
Actual and Variance tables.
Profit and loss: plan vs. actual
Are you meeting your goals and keeping expenses under control?
Successful entrepreneurs don't just plan, they follow through, and then
track how well their actual business results match their original plan.
Users with the Premier version have an additional tracking tool in the
Profit and Loss table for plan
vs. actual comparison.
Understand how your actual sales compare with what you thought your
sales would be. The Profit and Loss Plan vs. Actual feature lets you
quantify the areas where you are succeeding, and identify parts of the
business that may need more attention.
Sales forecast: plan vs. actual
Successful business plans are focused on implementation, not just ideas.
Users with the Premier version have an additional tracking tool in the
Sales Forecast table for Plan vs. Actual comparison.
Paying attention to the variance
between your planned sales and costs and your actual results can help you
get a better picture of your organization's financial situation. Watching
these issues closely can help you correct your course as you go.