Liveplan
Tagline: Simplify business planning with Liveplan
Best For: Small and medium-sized enterprises, consultants, educators, and SBA partners.
Pricing: $40 (popular plan)
Top Features
- 4.5 Budgeting & forecasting
- 4.4 Financial reporting
- 4.3 AI Assistance
- 4.6 Collaboration
- 4.4 Support
Other Users Choose
- 4.7 Budgeting & forecasting
- 4.6 Financial reporting
- 4.6 AI Assistance
- 4.5 Collaboration
- 4.4 Support
Overview
Liveplan by Palo Alto Software is business planning and management software designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners to plan, launch, and grow their businesses.
Its step-by-step guidance, industry-specific templates, and built-in advanced forecasting features simplify business planning even for first-time planners.
The tool provides an AI-powered LivePlan assistant to help you overcome writer’s block and draft your business plan with confidence.
LivePlan also supports scenario planning that allows you to test and compare different financial scenarios and evaluate their impact on your business. It supports integrations with the leading accounting systems and offers collaboration features to work with a team.
LivePlan assists you in quickly and efficiently generating lender-worthy investor plans without compromising on the fundamentals. However, it comes with a learning curve and higher pricing for its premium plans.
Top Rated LivePlan Alternative
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Liveplan Review
Positive
- The step-by-step guidance, AI assistance, and industry-specific business plan examples simplifies the overall planning process
- Its one-page business plans quickly and efficiently validates the business idea
- Enhances market understanding by providing industry benchmarks
- AI writing assistance is truly helpful in getting rid of the blank-page syndrome
- Integrations with QuickBooks and Xero make financial planning much more easier and manageable
- Automated financials with built-in formulas to help project your cash flow.
- Easy to track business performance by comparing actuals with the set metrics
Negative
- The AI may generate superficial content requiring thorough edits
- Limited video tutorials to help you with in-depth business planning
- Restrictive formatting that won’t allow you to customize your business plan completely
- Although comprehensive, the tool’s automated forecasts can overwhelm users who have no background in accounting or finance
Liveplan Pricing
Liveplan is an ideal solution for startups, mid-sized enterprises, business consultants, educators, and SBA partners.
It offers two pricing plans to cater to its audience: standard and premium.
Let’s understand each of these plans in detail:
Standard Plan
Liveplan’s standard plan is suitable for early-stage startups who need basic features to put together their professional plans.
The business planning features in a standard plan include:
- Step-by-step guidance
- Lender-ready statements
- Financial forecasts
- One-page plan builder
- Liveplan Assistant
- Access to 500+ sample business plans
The standard plan allows up to 5 user collaborations with no limitations for guest viewers.
Premium Plan
This premium plan is more suited for entrepreneurs, mid-sized enterprises, and business consultants who need access to advanced forecasting features and AI functionality.
The premium plan includes everything a standard plan offers along with features to support:
- Industry research
- What-if scenarios
- Performance dashboards
- Real-time profit and cash forecasting
- Integrations with Quickbooks and Xero
Liveplan doesn’t offer a free trial nor does it offer a free plan. It, however, does offer a 35-day money-back guarantee for users across all plans.
Now, check out this pricing table to compare both plans and their pricing:
Standard
$15
Per Month
Professional
$30
Per Month
(When billed annually)
Price Comparison
As we recently discussed Liveplan’s subscription model and pricing plans, we can say that it’s relatively expensive compared to other tools in the market.
With tools like Upmetrics, you can get a wide range of features required for comprehensive business planning at less than half of Liveplan’s cost.
In short, Upmetrics can be an affordable, reliable, and beginner-friendly Liveplan alternative.
Standard
$15/ month
Premium
$30/ month
Money-back-guarantee
Yes
Starter
$7.00/Per Month
Premium
$14.00/Per Month
Professional
$37/ month
Money-back-guarantee
Yes
*pricing is based on annual billing.
Features
1. 550+ business plan samples
LivePlan offers access to over 550+ industry-specific business plans that can be downloaded and customized as per your preference.
These detailed samples offer a fresh perspective and fuel new ideas for your overall business, marketing, and financial strategies.
2. Liveplan Assistant
LivePlan’s AI assistant helps you get over the blank page syndrome by turning your words into exceptional drafts. Its AI assistant can effectively rewrite and improve the content in your chosen tone helping you build polished plans.
Additionally, its forecasting suggestions help in determining the revenue streams and expenses related to your business. This will make sure that your forecasts offer an accurate representation of your business.
3. Budgeting & Automatic Financials
LivePlan has a clearly defined step-by-step approach to help you build powerful financial reports for your business plan.
The tool’s robust features include built-in formulas, automated calculations, scenario testing, and visual analytics—all of which come together to build your accurate financial statements.
Besides you can seamlessly integrate your historical data from Quickbooks and Xero to further build your business plans.
4. One-page pitch builder
LivePlan’s one-page pitch builder allows you to quickly validate your business ideas by offering a macro yet high-level overview of your entire business. This can be presented as an elevator pitch to the investors convincing them for further meetings and conversations.
5. Collaboration and sharing
LivePlan allows you to invite team members and gather their input on different business aspects. You can regulate the controls, permissions, and editing access ensuring that only a few selected individuals can make modifications to the plan.
Conclusion
With growing competition in almost every industry, business planning is not an option anymore. In fact, having a comprehensive business plan is a must for any business wanting to stay relevant to the market and succeed.
And tools like Liveplan and Upmetrics help you easily create business plans so that you can spend less time planning and more time growing your business.
With that, you now have a detailed LivePlan review to make an informed choice about whether to choose it for your business planning needs or not.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Liveplan used for?
Liveplan is a tool used for business and financial planning. With Liveplan, you can create a business plan, organize & pitch your ideas, and create accurate financial reports. It’s a one-stop business plan solution for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Is it worth paying for Liveplan?
Although Liveplan offers many comprehensive business and financial planning features, its cost is relatively high compared to other tools in the market. You can easily get similar or better functionalities at much lower costs.
What is better than Liveplan?
Upmetrics is comparatively a better alternative to Liveplan. It’s an incredible business planning tool with a similar feature line. Upmetrics’ Starter and Premium plans cost $7 and $14 respectively, whereas Liveplan’s equivalent plans cost $15 and $30.
Does Liveplan have a free version?
No. Liveplan doesn’t have any free plan or trial. However, they offer a 35-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the tool and ask for a refund if you don’t find it suitable for your requirements.
How much is Liveplan monthly cost?
Liveplan has two pricing plans as a part of their subscription model: Standard plan and Premium plan. The Standard plan costs $20 a month, whereas the Premium plan costs $40 per month.