Business Plan Software Review: Ultimate Business Planner?

One of the main reasons business owners and entrepreneurs use business plan software is to simplify building their financial models. Even with an explosion in business plan software packages on the market today, "doing the financial projections" is still often cited as the most difficult part of completing a business plan. Yet, software can still simplify financial forecasting.

The question is: Which software?

Ultimate Business Planner has been touted as a dynamic, interactive planning tool that takes the drudgery out of complex, time-consuming financial forecasting and business planning. It combines easy-to-use software functions with a step-by-step approach to create a business plan.

It is designed for those individuals or businesses in need of getting a business plan done fast. The Ultimate Business Planner prides itself on being the fastest and easiest way to write a winning business plan.

Atlas Business Solutions, Inc. (ABS), developer of the business planning technology in QuickBooks? Premier 2005 and the maker of Ultimate Business Planner, is a well-respected and established business software development company. Their products are top rated and are priced moderately.

So, let's check it out?

Step-by-step approach with five manageable sections

The Ultimate Business Planner breaks the business planning process into five manageable sections: Company, Income, Expenses, Interview and Plan.

The first four sections gather information to prepare and complete your financial forecast. Interactive dialogs with plain-English instructions, questions and fill-in the blanks capture information and build your company profile. Income and expense worksheets enable you to define income and expense categories and project monthly amounts with easy to use forecasting functions.

There are three methods you can use to enter your monthly income or expense data: manually or cell-by-cell, automatically - using a combination of the worksheet functions to project amounts for you based on your assumptions, or importing/copy paste - take data from your files if you are using QuickBooks Pro/Premier/Enterprise 2003 (or later) or simply copying and pasting data from an MS Excel worksheet.

The fifth section provides several tools to write a business plan including: a business plan outline to guide you step-by-step in writing your business plan, topic guides and example tabs that explain what you should include in each topic with examples of each, and a powerful, easy to use text editor for entering and editing your text.

Includes help functions, advice and how-to hints to
overcome most business plan obstacles

The package includes many help functions for advice and how-to hints to overcome the many obstacles to writing a successful business plan. For example, refer to the twenty-five industry-specific sample business plans for suggested wording, or to copy-and-paste select phrases or sections directly into your business plan to breakthrough writers block quickly. Or, there are many financial wizards available to calculate loan amounts, interest rates, monthly payments, depreciation, amortization and more.

Complete the sections and
Ultimate Business Planner does the rest

With Ultimate Business Plan, you are free to complete each section in the order you choose. Then, when the sections are complete the Ultimate Business Planner does the rest. It evaluates the financial viability of your business ideas or strategies quickly and easily; creates complete financial statement projections (for up to 36 months) to show to your bankers or other potential investors; and, produces a professional report in ever respect including graphs to highlight the potential of your business plan.

Change scenarios for
intelligent, informed decisions

Changing scenarios is easy with the Ultimate Business Planner. For example, to quickly see how hiring more employees or adding a new product affects your bottom line simply go to period and change the amount. The software will automatically update all the related financial statements, charts and tables. In short, the Ultimate Business Planner allows you to see how your bottom line is affected by unlimited business situations.

What's missing?

Three things I wish the Ultimate Business Planner would do. First, allow users the option to enter historical financial data (an important option if you are an established business). Second, either extend or allow users the option to extend the forecast period to five years (a common time horizon for venture capitalist and equity sponsors). Third, allow users to vary gross margin assumptions on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis (in version 3.0 material, labor and overhead assumptions remain fixed throughout the entire three-year forecast period).

But don't let these things hold you back from trying the Ultimate Business Planner. You can easily work around them and the time and ease of use in other areas more than offsets these shortcomings.

For example, to include historical financial data, you can export your projections to Excel and then add the needed history directly into MS Excel?. If you want a five-year projection, simply create a new file that begins with the ending balances forecasted in your original three-year plan and do the addition two-year projection in the new file. Then, you can merge the original three-year plan with the extended plan using MS Excel?. If you want to vary the gross margin assumptions over the forecast period, you can create separate product categories for the same product and vary the material, labor and overhead as a percentage of sales for each product category and related period.

Go to the demo?

All direct purchases of the Ultimate Business Planner from ABS are backed by their 90-day unconditional, money-back guarantee (excluding upgrades which are nonrefundable). To help you evaluate whether the Ultimate Business Planner is right for you, Business Plan Secrets Revealed has prepared a section-by-section demonstration that can be viewed at http://www.business-plan-secrets-revealed.com/business-plan-software.ht ml

The Ultimate Business Planner is a pretty simple business planning software to use. It's a quick and useful business planner that produces a well-written and organized business plan. At $99.00, it's worth giving it a shot.

Mike Elia is a chief financial officer and an advisor to venture capitalists and leverage buyout specialists. His business plan ebook http://www.business-plan-secrets-revealed.com/business-plan-software.ht ml shows how to make your business the most appealing investment choice to venture capitalists, bankers, and other business investors. For his free business plan guide http://www.business-plan-secrets-revealed.com/business-plan-software.ht ml

Bradley bmw rental chicago .. Lockport Chicago limo O’Hare
In The News:

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says a new autonomous AI is a game changer that also raises privacy risks. Is your data safe?
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says robots and drones are revolutionizing fruit farming with faster picking and smarter handling.
Landmark Admin revises May 2024 cyberattack scope to show twice as many people were affected. Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson gives tips to help stay safe from an insurance data breach.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about how Yamaha’s hydrogen outboard motor could revolutionize boating with zero emissions.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson reveals how to memorialize or remove a deceased loved one’s Facebook account and protect their digital legacy from misuse or scams.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says an Apple Watch saved psychiatrist Amanda Faulkner by detecting deadly leukemia early.
Scammers and fraudsters are increasingly targeting the most vulnerable, especially nursing homes and the personal data of their residents. Kurt the CyberGuy has safety tips.
Infected USB flash drives can spread malware among multiple organizations in ways that can easily bypass traditional security systems.
With a fully automated warehouse system and AI-powered robots, Ocado's Hive picks, packs and delivers grocery store orders in just a few minutes.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
Recycling robots are using artificial intelligence to learn how to sort recyclables by recognizing patterns in colors, textures, shapes and logos.
The Reachy 2 robot is designed to be friendly and approachable, inviting natural interaction and is perfect for research, education and experimenting with embodied AI.
Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson shares several easy ways to keep your credit cards safe from digital thieves while you're traveling this summer.
Arcturus sets up cameras around the edges of baseball stadiums to capture real-time action and generate a 3D digital clone of the game.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.
The CyberGuy explains why healthcare organizations are vulnerable to hackers after there have been a half dozen data breaches this year.
Developed at two California universities, the innovative technology combines brain-computer interfaces with advanced AI to decode neural activity into audible speech.
Microsoft patches 12 critical flaws, but six have already been exploited by criminals. Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says updating your system is only a short-term fix.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson discusses how robots can milk, feed and clean cows on dairy farms, boosting efficiency and comfort.
Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says quantum internet ensures unhackable security and redefines online privacy and speed.
Kawasaki's CORLEO is a hydrogen-powered, AI-driven rideable robot. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson reports on this new way of thinking about off-road transportation.
The CyberGuy breaks down five mobile privacy terms that could make a difference when it comes to keeping your personal information safe.
A groundbreaking robot that's like a real-life Wall-E uses advanced artificial intelligence to replicate natural gestures and deliberate actions with striking accuracy.
If not properly managed, Windows Defender Application Control, a security feature with Windows, could be a potential security vulnerability.

Why Java RDBMS?

It is a well known fact that Java as a... Read More

5 Easy File Management Tips in Microsoft Word

How many steps does it take you to locate and... Read More

Reduce Pop-ups and Annoying Ads

There is many things more frustrating than surfing a website... Read More

The Religion And Philosophy Of Small Internet Business

I have always had a tendency to focus on the... Read More

Quick Summary of Basic and Common Linux Commands

There are many commands that are used in linux on... Read More

You Can Write Microsoft Office Program in About 60 Minutes

Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic... Read More

Microsoft CRM Integration With Microsoft Office Documents ? Overview For System Integrator

Microsoft CRM is CRM application, maintained and supported by Microsoft... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Manufacturing or Bill of Materials - Overview for IT Specialist

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions product, targeted... Read More

An Easy Way to Develop JAVA Enterprise Applications

Research bears that less than 70 percent of development projects... Read More

Microsoft CRM ? Typical Customizations

Microsoft CRM was designed to be easily customizable. Microsoft CRM... Read More

Unwanted Files

A LOT OF UNWANTED FILES.When you uninstall an item of... Read More

5 Mac Security Tips You Can?t Live Without

So, you've bought a new Macintosh, and now you may... Read More

What is a Document Manager without Version History?

Document Manager and Version HistoryIn previous articles I have discussed... Read More

Screenplay and Script Writing Software

When it comes to screenplay software each screenwriter needs to... Read More

Pros and Cons of Using FREE Software in Your Business

It???s easy to understand why you might be drawn to... Read More

What is Fleet Maintenance Management?

Fleet Maintenance Management is a critical position in any company... Read More

OSI Layers Model

IntroductionDuring the early years of our modern computer era, very... Read More

It?s Back!! WordPerfect?s Amazing Comeback

Have you noticed WordPerfect is gearing up for a comeback... Read More

Lotus Notes Domino and Web: Application Development ? Tips for Programmers

Beginning with Domino version R4 it has integration with the... Read More

How to Make Attractive and Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic... Read More

Selecting Corporate ERP: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ? Estimation Parameters

As we could imagine, if you are reading this article... Read More

C++ Tutorial 2, Input and Variables

This is the tutorial where we really get into programming.... Read More

How a Bug Challenges to a Software Professional

It is really interesting that a bug can create problem... Read More

Make or Break Factors - When Considering Estimating Software

Make-or-Break Factors in Success and ProfitabilityFor quick printers, estimating can... Read More

Instant Messaging is a Sweet Way to Communicate

MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More

prom limo McHenry ..