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We
have a new 8th edition of the Anatomy
of a Business Plan book ·
Financing Your Business. Learn about the latest debt and equity
financing, types of loans, and up-to date sources of government and private
financing ·
Updated marketing Information. We have revised the marketing chapter
to better reflect current trends in the use of the Internet and social media. ·
Business Plan for a Nonprofit. Over the years, we have been asked for
an example of a nonprofit business plan. We now have one for Road Runners,
Inc. (servicing disadvantaged youth). The combination of our nonprofit guide
and the example plan will make it much easier to create a great plan for your
own nonprofit. |
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New Marketing
Worksheets and Information in the Software Marketing practices have been rapidly changing
with increased access to and use of the Internet. We have lots of new
information and worksheets to insure that you are following the current
trends. Some of the new and revised materials included are: ·
Using Social Media to Build Your Business ·
Summary of the Business Worksheet and Swot
Analysis ·
Target Market Analysis Guide ·
Revised Competition Evaluation Worksheet ·
Revised Target Market Worksheet |
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3. |
You can rest assured that you will not have any
conflicts if you are using a computer with Windows® XP, Vista, 7 or 8 or
if you have upgraded your to Windows® 10. |
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4. |
We Use the Latest
Install Shield Version We have always used InstallShield to make
installing our software easy. We have had minor installation problems with
the newer Windows versions, but have always been able to find a solution.
However, with the new Install Shield, installation of the software should
work seamlessly with the latest Windows operating systems. |
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5. |
With our Save Plan to PDF feature, you have the option to choose any or
all parts of your business plan that you wish to include in the PDF file.
This will enable you to tailor information that you wish to share with
business associates or potential lenders or investors. |
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6. |
Develop a PowerPoint
Presentation
By clicking on the icon, you will be
offered instruction, example, and template menus. You can view two finished
examples of presentations. Then you can open one of our two presentation
template sets and use it to develop your own presentation. |
Other Notable Software Features
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1. |
Menu Tree for Easy
Access to Plan Files In previous versions of
Automate Your Business Plan, the only access to plan files (instructions,
examples, and working plan templates) was via dropdown menus, which could
prove to be cumbersome. To get to lower level menus, the user was required to
mouse down through the menu maze to get to the menu for each individual
task. The dropdown menus are
still available, but there is now a menu tree that is always visible on the
left-hand side of the screen. This means that you can always see the entire
list of business planning tasks. A click on the selected menu tree item will
open the file. If you choose to, you can
have multiple files open at the same time and can go to the Window on the
menu bar to tile them vertically or horizontally. The menu tree will appear
mostly expanded. However, you can expand or contract higher levels of the
tree by clicking a plus (+) or minus (-). |
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2. |
Main Menu Icon Bar With Descriptions for Faster Access Our Icon Bar gives you one click access to 0pening new or existing plans, printing, saving text to PDF, using our word processor or spreadsheet applications as stand alone tools, accessing your plan checklist, going to our Internet research site, and using out amortizing tool. The icons now also have visible descriptions so you will know what they are without hovering over them with your mouse cursor in order to see balloon descriptions. |
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3. |
Guide for Business Planning for
Nonprofit Organizations We have a chapter in the book and
the same information in the software that provides a basic understanding
about nonprofits and then guides the business plan writer through the
development of a plan specific to nonprofits by highlighting the differences that
need to be addressed in each of the major areas of a business plan. Note. To access the nonprofit guide in the software, go to the Before You
Begin menu à Business Planning for Your Nonprofit under Create/Edit
Plan on the Menu Tree or on the Main Menu bar. |
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4. |
Chart
of Accounts Wizard: Our New "Save & Exit" Feature We
have an up-to-date loan calculator that will enable you to input anticipated
loan information and even extra payments that you wish to make. It will then calculate
the required monthly payments, and provide you with a printable amortizing
schedule for the entire term of the loan, complete with a detailed list of
monthly and annual principal and interest payments. |
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Loan Calculator (Amortizing)
Tool We have always had an amortising program, but it was an old DOS application. We have now added an up-to-date loan calculator that will enable you to input anticipated loan information and even extra payments that you wish to make. We will then calculate the required monthly payments, and provide you with a printable amortizing schedule for the entire term of the loan, complete with a detailed list of monthly and annual principal and interest payments. |
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"Window"
Menu on the Main Screen Menu Bar We
added a Window Menu on the Main Screen Toolbar. When more than one file is
open, the menus will give you the following choices: Tile Horizontally, Tile
Vertically, Cascade, Arrange Icons, or Choose the file to bring to the screen
front. A notable example of the benefit to the user can be found in the spreadsheet workbook. When you are working in a spreadsheet, you can choose "Help for the Current Worksheet" from the spreadsheet Help menus. The screen is automatically split with the scrollable spreadsheet occupying the top half of the window and scrollable instructions occupying the bottom half - neatly guiding you through financial input throughout the spreadsheet. |
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Worksheets
with Timeline (Milestone) Tables for Managing Projects We added a Timeline-Milestones Worksheet for managing milestones in various types of projects. There are four tables that you can choose from to plan and track milestones for different purposes - marketing campaigns, web site development, launch of new products or services, and opening of a retail or service operation. The various tables can also be altered to work for other projects, such as completion of contracts, planning expansion, launching of industry publications, etc. As always, there is a menu that leads to examples that will give the writer ideas as to how these tables might have been filled-in and utilized by other companies. |
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Add/Delete/Edit Chart of Accounts Our Chart of Accounts Wizard
enables you to input revenue, expense, and balance sheet categories, as well
as other information. The software generates an integrated (linked) spreadsheet workbook that is completely customized
to your business (see 12 below). Starting in Version 12.0, we added the
capability for you to return to our Wizard to make changes.
If you discover, after your spreadsheet workbook has been generated and you have spent hours inputting numbers, that you want to make changes to the workbook accounts (delete categories, add new categories, or edit the names of categories), we now have a financial spreadsheet menu (Edit/Add/Delete Chart of Accounts) that will take you back to our Chart of Accounts Wizard to make your changes. The neat thing is that none of your previous work will be lost or disrupted. After you have made your changes, a revised spreadsheet workbook will be generated for you and you can continue with your input. |
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Cash and Invoice Sales
Calculations Depending on your business, you may have to deal with invoiced sales. This means that for each type of product sold or each type of service rendered, a portion (percentage) of the cash is received at the time of the sales and the remainder at times determined by established invoice terms (30, 60, or 90 days). Accounting for the terms related to each product/service category can be a daunting task. We have automated that process by enabling you to enter the portion (percentage) of cash sale, percentage of invoiced sales, and the invoice terms for each product or service in our Chart of Accounts Wizard. The software then utilizes the information to calculate and apportion the inflow of cash into the appropriate months. This will ensure a realistic cash flow projection for your company. |
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10. |
Importing and Exporting
of Your Plan Project We realize
that our users may wish to work on their business plans on more than one
computer. We added Import and Export menus to the main File menu in Automate
Your Business Plan. You "Export" your plan project and save it to a
CD or other transportable media device.
When you are working in Automate Your
Business Plan on one of your other computers, you can then "Import"
the plan project to that computer and continue your work. To transport it
back to the original computer, you reverse the process. |
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11. |
Revert
to an Archived Version of a Plan File On occasion, a user will make changes to plan files and then decide that a previously-saved version of that file is more desirable. In Automate Your Business Plan, we added a "Revert" menu to the File menus of the word processor and spreadsheet tools. If you wish to revert to an earlier version of your plan file, selecting this menu will allow you to choose from previously-saved files and replace your current plan file. |
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Integrated
(Linked) Spreadsheet Workbook Users
can create a linked set of financial spreadsheets that is completely
customized to their own charts of accounts. In the past, the spreadsheets
have been separate files that had to be customized by the user. Now our Chart
of Accounts Wizard will take you through the setup process and your workbook
of linked spreadsheets will instantly be completely customized to your
business. Numbers input in one spreadsheet will automatically be input in all
related spreadsheets. When you update information, it will be updated
throughout the workbook.
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