Are you looking for “business plan writing software”? You’ve come to the right place. While there are many blogs, articles and websites talking about how to write a business plan, we want to help you be efficient in your business planning journey by discussing the best “business plan software”. We’ll then review some of the best options for “business plan software free”
If you think business planning doesn’t apply to you, you’re mistaken. Becoming a small business owner is a huge step for anyone and requires careful thought about how to move forward properly, keeping in mind all the legal, financial, and practical aspects of running a company. That’s why entrepreneurs know the value of having a business plan. Business planning software (also known as business plan software) can help you organize your thoughts, manage all the different information that relates to your ideas and put your best foot forward with investors.
Enloop
Best for online collaboration and writing automatic plans ($11 per month).
Enloop provides business plan software that writes automatic business plans and evaluates their potential. It also helps you collaborate with your remote team, accountant, and business partners. Different stakeholders from multiple locations to view and edit your business plan.
Plus, it automatically syncs your financial data with your business details to create personalized business plans. You just need to enter all the relevant business information in its different sections, and Enloop automatically generates text for each section.
It’s also useful for making automatic changes whenever it identifies any business-critical issues. On top of that, you can edit the text, add tables or images, and insert financial forecasts into your business plan.
Additionally, Enloop generates pass/fail reports and certificates to analyze critical issues and resolve them before it’s too late.
Key Features:
- Real-time Performance Score – It offers a real-time score of your business plan. The better your plan is, the better it will reflect in terms of score.
- Country Currency Formatting – You can choose over 100 currency symbols and number formatting for your business plan.
- Financial Ratios – Enloop generates 16 financial ratios to analyze your performance. They also compare your ratios to your competitors to show where you stand.
Pros:
- It generates financial forecasts for your business plan.
- 7-days free trial without any credit card.
- Use financial and business plan templates to create reports quickly.
- It reflects data in colored charts for better understanding.
- Collaborate with up to 5 users from anywhere in the world.
Pricing:
Enloop provides two pricing plans:
- Detailed plan: $19.95 per month or $11 per month when paid annually
- Performance plan: $39.95 per month or $24 per month when paid annually
You also get a 7-days free trial (no credit card required).
LivePlan
Best for small businesses looking for a cost-efficient and easy-to-use business planner ($15 per month).
LivePlan (formerly business plan pro) is a business planning platform that helps you track your business progress. It comes loaded with over 500 free and full-length sample business plans for inspiration. They also help you visualize your complete project. Plus, LivePlan also offers step-by-step assistance through in-built examples.
For small and new businesses, it offers one business plan that you can use to explain business opportunities to your clients. You can also make changes and updates to the plan at any point in time to keep it accurate.
Other features include:
- Build financial forecasts and financial reports
- SBA-approved format
- Team collaboration
- Industry benchmarks to understand your competitors
Additionally, LivePlan’s automatic financials and presentation features let you convert your one-page plan into a detailed plan. Plus, these financial services provide an estimate of your economic outcomes for the five upcoming years.
Key Features:
- Business Model Canvas – It enables you to project your business model on a single page. You can get your business idea documented in around 30 minutes to share it with investors and partners.
- Cash Flow Forecasting – It automatically imports your business’ accounting data to create a forecast. You just need to follow a few bite-sized steps. You can also sync it with QuickBooks and Xero.
- Milestone Scheduling – Schedule business-critical tasks and milestones in the LivePlan dashboard. And it will send you automated reminders whenever an event is due.
Pros:
- It provides visual forecasting tools for your sales plan.
- 60-days money-back guarantee.
- Choose from 10 plan themes optimized for funding.
- The business dashboard lets you track your business with key metrics like cost and expenses, revenue breakdown, net profit, operating margin, etc.
- It enables collaboration through easy-to-manage permissions and global access.
- It allows you to work on multiple active plans simultaneously.
- Bank-level security.
Pricing:
LivePlan offers two pricing plans:
- Standard: $20 per month (paid monthly) or $15 per month (paid annually)
- Premium: $40 per month (paid monthly) or $30 per month (paid annually)
Every plan includes features like automatic financials, 500+ sample plans, forecasting tools, guided plan builder, performance dashboards, etc. While there’s no free trial, you get a 60-days money-back guarantee.
Bizplan
Best for a startup business as well as small businesses looking to access a funding platform ($20.75 per month).
Bizplan is a modern business plan software that provides tools like a guided builder, drag-and-drop templates, automatic financial projections, online fundraising tool, etc. to help you build your plan and get funded.
The guided business plan creator prompts you to answer some questions to build a ready-to-use business plan. It breaks down everything into a step-by-step process to help you write a business plan.
You can use its drag-and-drop templates to decide what you need to keep or delete from the plan.
Plus, Bizplan’s Financial Command Center lets you track all critical finances from a centralized place like salary forecasts, revenue projections, balance sheets, etc.
Bizplan also provides elements like:
- Guided courses on funding
- Direct access to live experts
- Free Access to Fundable.com – Bizplan’s online fundraising platform
- Visual layouts to add to your business plan
- Progress tracker to review your plan and check how close you are to the finish line
- Team collaboration tools and control access from anywhere you want
Key Features:
- Raise Capital Online – Sign up to Fundable.com for free if you are a startup or small business hunting for an investor. It helps you connect with hundreds of potential investors and raise funds for your startup.
- Expert Help – It offers help through 650 expert masterclass videos, self-guided courses, and a pool of over 1,000 how-to guides.
- Control Access – It allows you to control who can view or comment on your sensitive business information. You can also control the access from anywhere since it’s a cloud-based platform.
Pros:
- Use visual layouts to make your business plan more engaging.
- Keep track of your tasks through a progress tracker.
- It provides multiple reports like income statements, balance sheets, break-even analysis, customer churn, and more.
- Collaborate by tracking feedbacks in threaded comments.
- Instantly share your business plan with a simple link.
Pricing:
Bizplan offers three pricing plans, including:
- Monthly: $29 per month
- Annual: $20.75 per month (Billed at $249 per year.)
- Lifetime Access: $349 one-time payment
All the plans include every Bizplan feature, self-guided courses, 650 masterclass videos, 1,000+ how-to guides, etc.
GoSmallBiz
GoSmallBiz is an ideal solution for businesses just getting started. The software makes building your plan an easy one. In addition, it provides other services that new business will find valuable. It is because of this, and more, that GoSmallBiz is our choice as the best business plan software for startups. GoSmallBiz is a cloud-based service. The software has everything new ventures need to adapt from an idea to the real world. It offers industry-specific templates, a step-by-step wizard that makes creating a detailed business plan an easy one, and expert video tutorials to ensure you are building a plan that is accurate and makes sense.
Additionally, the software offers all of the tools you need from a financial standpoint. The software easily lets you create multiyear financial projections and statements; perform sales and profit analyses; and review income, cash flow, and balance sheets. What really makes GoSmallBiz standout for startups is all of the added services available. While you can purchase access to only the business plan software for $14.95 per month, for $39 per month, you can tap into the business plan software, as well as a litany of other helpful services. This includes unlimited business consultation, a website builder, customer relationship manager, digital marketing dashboard, website analysis and an HR document builder.
iPlanner – $49 to $55/year
Easily the least expensive of all the major business planning software tools, iPlanner allows you to build a professional business plan for just a few dollars a month. They still have some quality features as well:
Features:
- Unlimited Team Members & Collaboration
- A La Carte Pricing Model vs Packages
- Discounts for Serial Entrepreneurs & Business Coaches
Pros:
- Experience: iPlanner has been in the business planning game since 2007, so they’ve got a solid amount of industry knowledge and experience.
- Options: They’ve got two trademarked business planning services, Startup Framework™ and Strategy Designer™. This can be confusing when you’re navigating their site – to be honest, I got a bit lost myself – but it’s good to have options, right?
- Unlimited Users: All of their business planning packages allow you to have unlimited collaborators and assign people three different roles: Project Owners, Advisors, and Viewers.
- Cost: iPlanner’s rates start at only $49/year, which is much cheaper than many comparable services on the market.
- Modeling Capability: Their Startup Framework software has a business modeling section where you can design a business model canvas and strategize as much as you need before diving into your business plan.
Cons:
- Commitment: iPlanner doesn’t have a month-to-month option for either of their services. Their Strategy Designer is payable only annually, while their Startup
- Framework is available for 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month payments. They also don’t offer refunds, which is a bummer since you’re locked into committing to a minimum of 3 months of their services.
- Clunky: Their website is pretty old school and tough to navigate. For example, initially, we found it difficult to find the checkout page for the Startup Framework software. Their Strategic Designer page is a bit better, but still not super sophisticated.
- Trial: Unlike other business planning software, iPlanner doesn’t offer a free version or trial. However, you can take a tour of their Startup Framework software or view a demo of the Strategy Designer to get a feel for them.
- No refunds
iPlanner’s Business Planning Software
If a simple framework is all you’re looking for, iPlanner can help you out. They don’t have many bells and whistles, but at these price points, they offer a good value.
MasterPlan Lean
Best for business plan creation in a fraction of the usual time
Key Features:
- Follow step by step wizards to go through the whole process of creating a business plan
- Output simple, enjoyable and effective business plans
- Generate monthly reviews sessions with your clients to setup recurring revenue
- Create forecasts (up to 5 years) in minutes
Pros:
- Avoid overwhelm and confusion that comes from not knowing what the next step is
- Know which budget is needed based on the forecasts created within the system
- Keep track of clients in the easiest way possible
- Generate reports that clients will understand and be onboard with
Pricing:
With various features available for both startup and already established businesses, MasterpPlan Lean offers pricing plans with different modules available, as follows:
- MasterPlan Lean: $199/ month
- 3 Modules Bundle: $299/ month
- 5 Modules Bundle: $499/ month
Conclusion:
I’m going to help you learn about one of the most important elements of running a business. This might sound like it’s completely unrelated to starting your own business. But don’t worry, I’m not going to teach you how to read financial statements or how to make a spreadsheet. We all know that finance is just as important as any other part of running a company or growing your business. However, it’s NOT the way most people want to start their day.