LivePlan Review

PROS: This is the perfect tool for beginners. I had no idea where to start in creating a business plan, but LivePlan was able to set me off in the right direction.

CONS: The initial plan that I subscribed to had been a little pricey. Although I do love that when I decided to downgrade, they allowed me to keep all of my data.

PROS: I love how it goes beyond just providing me with a financial estimate for my business. It follows through by integrating with programs such as QBO and Xero to allow me to check its reports against the actual performance of my business. It provides various possibilities and scenarios that might lead to each one.

CONS: I think it's simple enough, but I'd probably appreciate a bit more sophistication for my more complex business ideas.

PROS: I love how I can simply input my information and it automatically gives me an expense and feasibility report.

CONS: It doesn't really help with the computation of commission. It is only best for conservative business models.

PROS: I think one of LivePlan's main selling points is its usability. It hooks the user up with multiple solutions in one, including a business proposal creator.

CONS: I can't seem to export my reports in parts. If I want a particular portion, I have to download everything else. If anyone knows a workaround for this, please let me know.

PROS: I cannot stress the importance of creating a business plan before diving headfirst on any venture. LivePlan is a great tool to use for start-ups. It takes the complexity away from business planning and gives you a clear and honest projection of where you might be in the next few years.

CONS: The learning curve is a bit steep, albeit necessary. After all, you don't want to enter a business without doing a bit of research yourself.

PROS: I love how LivePlan makes it easy for me to enjoy the dreaded business planning process. It is both thorough and easy to use. It has guided me every step of the way, plus the prompts on each section give me a heads-up on what to expect next too. It automatically provides me with a business forecast based on the data that I've previously inputted. I'm glad that I discovered this program. Seeing a tabular view of my business makes the data easier to digest and understand.

CONS: I feel like LivePlan would benefit by adding more forecasting options. Right now, it only gives a limited projection of revenue and volume per month. Another thing is that I wish it would have the capacity to compute commissions of sales employees too. I've been doing this manually for some time now and it chips away on my work hours.

PROS: I instantly liked the idea of using a program such as LivePlan, and did not hesitate to sign up for it. I love how it is intuitive and easy-to-use. It offers plenty of editing options as well.

CONS: I find it a bit difficult to export documents in Word and PDF format. The comments section are difficult to find too.

PROS: Out of all the business planning programs we've used, LivePlan is probably the best. We decided to forego our previous program for this web-based solution, and we're glad that we made the jump. It has everything that we need in one, easy-to-use package. It syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks, takes into account deferred revenue, and automatically adjusts reports to fit your needs best.

CONS: We had to manually distinguish annual vs monthly deferred revenue because LivePlan can't differentiate these. It's not retroactive too. So any deferred avenue needs to be calculated as we go, and can only be computed going forward. It would be much easier for us if we can input deferred revenues from, say, a year ago.

PROS: LivePlan is more than just a tool for mapping out your business plan. It serves as a checklist for all things that I need in one too. As someone who's just starting, this has been really helpful to me.

CONS: Everything works, so far. I haven't noted anything that I don't like about it yet.

PROS: I've been dreading the whole financial planning process, and LivePlan has managed to take a load off my shoulder. I found it just as I was about to start crunching the numbers for my monthly and yearly projections, and I've been able to generate a full report (projections of up to 5 years) in just a matter of hours! It helps me come up with just about everything I need--from balance sheets to cashflow to income statements. I love how the program really pays attention to the seemingly little things just to give me an accurate projection. It asks me questions about the nature of my business, what I sell, how many units are sold per month, etc. From this information, it gives a projection and drills down to the details every month as it learns more about my business. The business plan itself is easy to understand. They're marked properly and I can customize it any way that I like. I've been able to share the plan with some of my investors without fear of them accidentally editing some cells of my presentation. I recommend this program to all start-ups.

CONS: As far as I know, LivePlan still doesn't allow business plan to be exported in Excel version. I've managed to find a workaround on this by exporting the file on Word and then simply cutting and pasting it on Excel.

PROS: Thanks to LivePlan, crunching the numbers for my business is now a no-brainer! All I have to do is to input the numbers in tables, and it automatically gives me all that I need to know. From financial forecasts to generating charts and figures for my reports--LivePlan is probably all that I need to build a feasible business plan. Not to mention, it offers some free plan templates too!

CONS: My only issue with LivePlan is that it is very US-centric. It does not take my location into account so computing taxes and other nuances can be such a pain. For example, I like in the UK and out taxed and insurances are computed differently here. I had to compute for these separately and manually.

PROS: It gives me pretty accurate financial estimations, for one. Another thing that I like about LivePlan is its straightforward reports and well-integrated dashboard.

CONS: I got a little impatient in answering some of its questions about my business and marketing strategy.