LivePlan
What Is LivePlan?
The #1 rated business planning and management software created to support the success of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Just starting your business? Easily create a polished, professional Read more business plan in a format lenders and investors expect to see. LivePlan's expert guidance, 500+ example plans, and support make writing your business plan easy. Looking to grow your business? Forecast and run multiple scenarios in LivePlan using your real accounting data to make confident decisions. Read lessWho Uses LivePlan?
LivePlan helps entrepreneurs and small-to-medium size business owners build dynamic business plans and track performance against their goals.
Not sure about LivePlan?
Compare with a popular alternative
LivePlan
Other great alternatives to LivePlan
Reviews of LivePlan
Laurie
Best Planning Software for a Small Start-Up
Comments: LivePlan helped me create a workable, realistic strategic plan. After one year in business, I revisited the plan and saw that my projections on revenue, margins and start up costs were spot on, thanks in part to this great software tool. I recommended it it to several prospective bakery owners as a well-priced tool to start turning their dream into a viable business reality.
Pros:
Live Plan was perfect for my needs - it helped me shape my strategic plan and think through my start-up capital requirements and revenue projections. I loved that it gave me some industry benchmarks and suggested budget items (like employee payroll liabilities) I hadn't thought of. The templates were also very helpful to show me what a plan should look like.
Cons:
I didn't like that the software didn't highlight at the beginning how to coordinate between my LivePlan line items and my Quick Bookls like items. It made using the review feature (to compare projections with performance) more difficult to use.
Palo Alto Software Response
3 years ago
Thank you so much for the feedback Laurie - we greatly appreciate it!
Daniel
Alternatives Considered:
Overall looked great at first, but then disappointing details.
Comments: We used the software for a couple of years but in the end decided to move to another provider.
Pros:
The visual reports and ability to write business plans within a set framework
Cons:
Lack of customization of reports and struggling with a few areas such as payroll and fixed assets.
Salvatore
Why is the truth not being told about this program??
Comments: They are trying but they are not being honest with consumers and that's a pitty. Borderline digital scam as its more about controlling their 'image' in the digital space rather then providing a good service.
Pros:
It has a great core structure and the potential to be a highly relevant tool.
Cons:
It does not function well with Xero. If you are not inside the American corporate system you should NOT be using this software. Regardless of what sales teams are saying or what is being pushed by digital teams. This software is another example of forced coercion by the American corporate machine. The site is not user friendly in Australia against our taxation and terminology. The Xero sync does not work I have logged 100s of hours in this system trying to make it work but it's just not user friendly for an every day person like it is touting.
Lucy
Good for planning and forecasting, rubbish at Actuals to compare performance against plan
Comments:
Checked my business plan was viable, helped me clarify my thought processes. Gave me something to measure performance against.
Unfortunately doesnt integrate to Zoho Books (as of March 2018), nor is there any opton to import from a CSV or other spreadsheet format.
If you are a Xero or QB user you can link to get your actuals for comparison against plan, BUT proceed with caution. You cant undo the data import - everything needs deleting manually, and you cant choose which timeframe you import data for. Its last 2 years plus current year and thats that. So if your business has changed significantly and you only want say last six months dat you cant achieve this
Pros:
Cloud based, easy step by step process for planning for novices. Once you have put in the basics of revenue streams and costs its very easy to play "what if" type questions and see the impact on your forecast. You can get into enormous detail if you want or build this up over time as you develop your thought process.
Cons:
Where the product really falls down is when you want to compare with Actuals. It only connects to Xero and Quick Books and you have no control over the data or time period that it syncs at all - current year plus last two years, which is rubbish if your business has pivoted and you only want the last six months data for example. Whats worse is you cant roll back the sync - you have to manually delete all sync'd data. Further if you dont use Xero or QBooks, there is no option to import from a spreadsheet - so again you need a data entry person to manually enter actual data unless you want to spend ages doing it yourself... Very disappointed as up to this point had liked the platform.
Jeremy
Shocking service.
Comments: It was a great experience with LivePlan. They have a clean and attractive user interface with helpful guidance. The customer service is shockingly amazing. I requested one payment refund after not using it in over a year and it was super quick and easy. Highly recommend this software.
Pros:
It's clean, attractive, and easy-to-use.
Cons:
It is subscription based and not cheap, however, I was shocked at how quickly and easily they refunded and cancelled my subscription after my request since I had not used it in over a year (Thanks Chris!)
