Rating: 
Summary: Unable to import from Excel
Review: I was unable to import from Excel to the locations I need to, otherwise the program was good.
Rating: 
Summary: Worked Perfectly on XP for me
Review: I've had some various problems with software products on XP before, so with every new product I buy I like to check it out thoroughly. Business Plan Pro passed my initial tests with flying colors, and I've since written two different complex business plans without a single problem.The best thing about Business Plan Pro for me is the financials. I was a business minor in college, so I have some business accounting background, but the financial help and pre-defined tables in Business Plan Pro blew me away. What would've taken me days only took me an hour or two. Talk about saving time! And for me, time is money. I highly recommend this product to XP users, and anyone else looking to write their business plan.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a magic bullet
Review: My assessment of Business Plan Pro, after using it for several months is that, in summary, it is a tool, not a magic bullet. If you don't understand business, it could render you a fool. But if you've never written a business plan before and have no idea where to start, its great for showing you what goes into a business plan and helping you organize your thoughts. A Business Plan Pro business plan is composed of text, tables and charts. The system has a book that gives you some guidance on what to discuss for each text section but it's not really much. The two books that my box included were: Hurdle - The Book on Business Planning, and the manual. Hurdle was just OK. Moreover, the software is a divided screen with panes that guide you with text describing what you should write and where you are, but they leave a lot to be desired. The sample business plan for my company, a small computer consulting firm, was a joke. But if you don't know what a Balance Sheet or a Cash Flow are, you're just plain screwed. I had a SCORE counselor review 2 business plans that I wrote with this product and he just hated them. The numbers were all wrong and non-sensical and I didn't even know what the reports meant. Moreover the reports, which are automatically generated, include tons of stuff that is very high level and generic. For example, one line item is "Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received," which appears to be relevant in Canada and Europe and thus shouldn't be included here. Moreover, does that make sense in a business that is a service and doesn't have any employees? Also, there were many items that were there but had "0" values, such as "New Current Borrowing." The maker, Palo Alto Software, is selling a one-size fits all package. Beware! I'm a programmer, not a businessman. And if you're not a businessman, this is the problem you'll have with this product. That's why I say its a tool, not a magic bullet. As my SCORE counselor said, "It won't magically produce a business plan for you."
Rating:
Summary: The worst customer support I've ever encountered
Review: The software promises free links to various resources. When I tried the links I was asked to pay. I contacted online support, but they came back with an answer unrelated to my question which they oviously didn't read. Other attempts to contact customer support were ignored. I gave the software 3 stars because I did get a good looking plan out of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Customer support is in denial that product is flawed...
Review: There are too many non-intuitive things about this software program. You are better off creating a template in Word, and using excel for forecasting, especially if you offer more than 5 products in services-since you are going to have to export them to excel anyway. Sales forecasting does not take into consideration real world data such as maximum output, or a high low analysis, so you are literally pulling numbers out of your .... Not only that but if you spend 45 minutes tweaking your chart, and you don't have sales in the first month, and you hit the project buttion, it resets itself...sorry there is no 'undo' button, you have to cancel and start again. Chart displays are [messed] up if you have more than a couple of products and services, even though there are custom formatting properties, they are designed with the premise that you have knowledge and a whole vocablulary full of chart words, and terms, and descriptions, otherwise yo have guess the format that works best, then hit 'apply'. Note that there are hundreds of possible settings. I am no idiot when comes to software programs since I myself have developed programs, and have been developing them for years. Although to the Palo Alto software support, this one will be classified as a "user error", rather than a features suggestion. The program lockups up in xp pro and ... of course they blame this on microsoft. With the elimination of any 'feature suggestions' from customers and blaming the flawed product design on the user, Palo Alto software offers no room for improving their Business Plan Pro Software...what a pity. Start your Business plan using Word, and Excel. Then just get a book of business formula's and business plan layouts, both books are less than Busines Plan Pro 2003. You will have a lot more control over what your charts look like, you'll have more control over how accurate your sales forecasting is, and more control over what your text displays, a lot more features, and reliability.
At first business planning seems like an overwhelming taks, and one might think that you can go through the plan easier with this software, and this may seem true at first, but to do accurate sales forecasting you have to actually go out of the business plan (which defeats the purpose of it in the first place) and use a normal spreadsheet like excel, or quattro pro. I would not have written this software review if Palo Alto Software would not have pointed all the software flaws at me, and just admitted their software has bugs and flaws.
Rating:
Summary: Great program!
Review: This is a great program. I have used it, and earlier versions, to improve business plans I have written in the past. In every way it succeeds. From the sample/template business plans you can follow to the easy to use question answer format. I would recommend it to anyone just starting out in a new business.
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