Step 1:  Share your plan

• You can provide either FULL access or REPORTS ONLY access. This allows you to give your team members full access to your plan so you can work together with them while developing your business plan. Bankers or investors can be restricted to seeing the REPORTS tab only.  Here they see the whole business plan in PDF format or view the various financial reports such as the income statement and balance sheet.
• You can set an expiry date if you would like, or deactivate them whenever you wish.
• Just click on the email icon and they get an invitation to your plan!

Step 2:  Work with Your Team

Your whole team can now work together to develop your plan.  There is nothing worse than trying to send documents back and forth trying to remember the last version.  This whole problem is eliminated!  In fact, your team can all be working on the plan at the same time…

For instance, one team member can be working on developing the sales forecast…

While another member is writing the history of the business…

While another member is developing the marketing plan or any other section of the plan!

Each member can see what the other member has done in real time… no delays, no checking with anyone.

The Smart Forecaster™ works the way you think.  Plus it always provides a graph of your data.

NO SPREADSHEETS
Forget everything you know about spreadsheets!  There are no formulas to fool with.  Just simple inputs.

VISUAL PLANNING
The system shows a graph of your data, so you can see what you are doing.

If you have a 3 year planning period then your graphs will show 3 years of activity.  If you change to a 5 year planning period, then the graphs will all show 5 years of data.

UNITS OR DOLLARS
Forecast in units or dollars, then see the graph in either units or dollars.  Switch back and forth easily!

METHOD 1
Got a constant value every month?  Just enter the monthly amount.  Have an annual amount?  The system will divide it out evenly over 12 months.  Also you can set the month it starts.

METHOD 2: 
Is your forecasted amount a percent of another amount somewhere?  Just set the percent and select the item from the drop down list!

METHOD 3:
Have a sales forecast that ramps up at 10% per month for 6 months, then levels off to 1% per month?  Just enter that in the grid!

Or perhaps your sales increase by $1000 per month for 6 months, then $500 for 6 months, then level off for the remainder of the plan.  Then that is exactly what you enter!

METHOD 4:
Want to just key in all the values for each month?  Then just do that!

Regardless of which method you use to forecast, the data table will fill in completely to show you all the actual numbers.

Examples
You can also mix and match the methods.  You can select Method 1 and enter an even amount for example for rent expense.  But what if your landlord is giving you half off the first two months?  You can simply change to Method 4, edit the first two months and you are finished.  No fussing.

If your employer taxes are 11% of payroll, then select Method 2, enter 11% and select Total Salaries from the drop down list.  No formulas to mess up, and no numbers to update.  If the Total Salary changes, then your employer taxes will update automatically.

Merchant fees are often 2.5% of the sales amount.  So when entering merchant fees as an expense, use Method 2 and set it to 2.5% of Total Sales using the drop down box. 

But what if merchant fees are only 2.5% of retail store sales and 4% of web sales?  Setup Merchant Fees-Store and set at 2.5% of Store Sales, and then setup Merchant Fees-Web and set at 4% of Web Sales.

Let’s say you have a restaurant and food costs are 30% of food sales.  You can setup a Cost of Sales account called Food Costs and set it at 30% of Food Sales.

 

CHANGE PLANNING PERIOD
Want to change your planning period from 3 years to 5 years?  Click on MY HOME, then select your plan and update the planning period in the setup plan header.  Open the plan again, and the Smart Forecaster will do its best to extend your forecast using the same logic as you have set previously… saving you a lot of time fooling with your forecast!  By the way, you can also change back to a 3 year planning period at any time.

CHANGE THE START DATE
You never have to worry about your plan start date.  If it changes you can simply click on MY HOME, select your plan, update the start date, and the Smart Forecaster updates all your data, charts and graphs!

The system includes a full featured text editor to write your plan.  All the features you would expect in a word processor including right and left justify, tables, bullets, cut and paste, color, highlighting, etc!  Plus the ability to LINK your financial data right into your plan.

Full Font Control
Select the default fonts for your Chapter Headings, Section Headings and body text.

Move Text Blocks
Need to move this text block to a different chapter in your plan? Just select the chapter from the drop down and it is automatically rearranged!

SMART NUMBERS™
Never have to update your numbers in the text of your plan.  Smart Number™ do the work for you.  In this example you can clearly see the Smart Number ($198,000) in the text.  When the plan is generated the number changes to the standard font style and size!

SMART GRAPHS™
Drop a Smart Graph™ anyway in your document.

SMART TABLES™
Drop a Smart Financial Table™ into your document anyway you like.  This would include your income statement, balance sheet and other tables.

Drop in Your Pictures or Logo
Put your own pictures anywhere in your plan, including the cover page.  It is critical that your plan have pictures to show key features of your products, your customers, or your location.

Once your plan is completed you can allow bankers or investors to see your plan online, or your can generate a PDF file that you can print or email out to interested people.  You can easily restrict their access to just this reports menu. 

Professional Looking Output
The PDF output the system generates includes headers, page numbers, chapter headings, and section headings, charts, tables, pictures, all in a well formatted output so your plan has a professional look and feel.  You only have one chance to impress your investor or lender!

 

PICK A TEMPLATE
The system allows you to pick a template when starting your plan.  There are several types to choice from:

• Default – this is a standard layout suitable for the average business plan.
• Loan Document – this is a very condensed document suitable only when an existing business is well known to the bank and is submitting a very basic business description along with financial projections.
• Marketing Document – outlines the sales and marketing plan without the usual business plan structure.  Suitable as an internal document. 
• Financials Only – this document includes only the financial forecasts for the business.  You can add notes or a preamble.

You can easily add or delete sections to any of these templates.  The templates are empty documents with the outline and organization that is generally accepted for each. 

Special Note:  If you are an educational institution or agency you can request that a template be developed for your program.  This is done at no cost to you.  Simply Contact Us and make a request.  We will arrange for you to email a plan outline.

 

PURCHASE A SAMPLE PLAN
We are in the process of creating a library of sample business plans at www.bizplanlibrary.com that will be available for a nominal charge.  Feel free to Contact Us and suggest a sample plan to add to the library.   You can copy the sample plan and edit it for your purposes.  It is a great way to get a fast start on your plan.

If you have a business plan that you would like to contribute to the library, please Contact Us.  We are prepared to purchase your plan, and sanitize it so your name and details are removed.

 

BUSINESS PLAN GUIDE
There is a complete guide to writing a business plan that pops up in a window so it can be visible while writing your plan.

 

SOFTWARE GUIDE
Although most of the functions and key items are noted right on the screen, there is also online help that will guide you through using the software.

 

PROFESSIONAL HELP
Sometimes it is a challenge writing a business plan.  We are available to provide professional help when you need it, or simply review and comment on your plan.  If you need help, then Contact Us.