A Tour of Business Plan Writer
This is a gallery of various on-screen views of the software. Click on the small pictures and they will expand to a bigger view (65% of actual size).
The 'Words' Section
Enter text, view helpful content and control the structure of your business plan.
All your data is saved for you and will be there when you return to continue working
on your business plan.
When you first open Business Plan Writer the table of contents on the left shows
the default structure of your business plan. You can amend, add to, or delete this
structure to make one that is exactly right for you. Use the buttons on the table
of contents' bottom and left to delete, edit, undelete, add, move up, move down,
promote or demote business plan sections.
As you move through the business plan via the table of contents, the contents of
the central box (where you enter text) moves too. This allows you to navigate rapidly
around your plan, and also (very importantly) encourages you to keep sections focused
and to the point.
You will also notice as you move through the business plan that the contents of
the boxes on the right of the screen change as well. The top-right box gives explanatory
notes on each section of the default business plan structure. The bottom-right box
shows what three sample social enterprise business plans wrote on each section of
the default business plan structure (you can copy and paste from these samples into
the main text box and edit to suit your needs).
The 'Products' Section
Enter details on up to 20 products - we are using the word 'product' to encompass
goods and services. So try to break down your services in offerings (or products)
which a customer might buy.
For each product you want to add you need an name, a description (optional), and
its unit-based costs. These are materials costs and labour costs which together
make up the 'cost of sales'.
For each product you also need to decide what percentage mark-up to charge in order
to cover overhead costs and also (perhaps) an allowance for net profit.
Once you have these you can then enter the month-by-month sales volume in the singly
row of cells - and in the summary grid below - you can view just for that one product,
the gross profit, the cashflow, and if registered for VAT, a VAT report. Once you
have moved to a new cell in the row the summary grid below will be updated.
Move between products by selecting different ones in the 'Products List' box on
the left of the screen.
Create new products by selecting a blank row in the 'Products List' box on the left
of the screen.
The 'Premises' Section
Enter up to 14 premises-related overheads. You can use the five pre-named
rows as they are, change them, or create new ones.
For each overhead you want to
add you need an name, a description (optional), and in the single month-labelled
row of cells, enter the costs for that overhead. Once you have moved to a new cell
in the row the summary grid below will be updated.
Move between premises-related overheads by selecting different ones in the 'Premises
List' box on the left of the screen.
Create new premises-related overheads by selecting a blank row in the 'Premises
List' box on the left of the screen.
The
'Transport' Section
Enter up to 14 transport-related overheads. You can use the three pre-named rows
as they are, change them, or create new ones.
This screen is controlled in the same way that the 'Premises' screen is used (see
above)
The 'Marketing' Section
Enter up to 14 transport-related overheads. You can use
the four pre-named rows as they are, change them, or create new ones.
This screen is controlled in the same way that the 'Premises' screen is used (see
above)
The
'Personnel' Section
Enter up to 25 personnel records (by name, role, or type). For each person/role/type
you must enter a name, salary, which month they start in, in which month they leave,
whether employer National Insurance Contributions are to be made and whether they
get a pension (you can control the percentages of both NIC and pension payments).
Once you have moved to a new personnel record the summary grid below will be updated.
Move between personnel records by selecting different ones in the 'Personnel List'
box on the left of the screen.
Create new personnel record by selecting a blank row in the 'Personnel List' box
on the left of the screen.
The
'Miscellaneous' Section
Enter up
to 14 miscellaneous overheads. You can use the four pre-named rows as they are,
change them, or create new ones.
This screen is controlled in the same way that the 'Premises' screen is used (see
above)
The
'Total Overheads' Section
View and compare all overheads
grouped by premises, transport, marketing, personnel, and miscellaneous.
And of
course go back and change whatever needs amending ...
The
'Funding Profile' Section
For start-ups,
to ensure that things are accounted for properly you can detail the monetary value
of things like premises and equipment donated or invested before start-up - as well
as cash donated or invested prior to start up.
You can also enter donations or investments
made during the year.
The
'Assets & Depreciation' Section
This is where you enter estimated
capital expenditure and make allowance for depreciation - depreciation charges and
balance sheet values are then calculated for you.
The
'Loans' Section
Should you need a loan this
page allows you to enter details of up to two loans.
It will calculate interest
charges etc and gives you flexibility to draw down the loan at any time.
The
'Sales Forecast' Section
Combining all the products information (cost of sales, percentage mark-up, price,
sales volume by month), this is an overall sales forecast for a full year of your
business which also shows cost of sales and gross profit.
The
'Cash Flow' Section
Pulling together
all cash movements influenced by products, overheads, funding profile, assets and
loans, this is an overall cash flow forecast showing how much (if any) money you
will have during a full year of your business.
The
'Profit & Loss' Section
Taking into account
all trading activities, overheads and special charges such as depreciation and loan
interest, this is an forecast profit and loss account showing the net profit (or
loss) covering a full year of your business's operations.
The
'Balance Sheet' Section
A forecast
balance sheet showing the estimated net worth of your business after one year's
trading.
The
'Sales Tax Report' Section
If you indicated the business was registered for Sales Tax in the User Settings
dialog box, you can view a report showing Sales Tax on inputs and outputs
as well as calculating quarterly and annual balances.
The 'View Business Plan' Section
This section
pulls everything together to create your business plan document.
It can be printed
directly, exported as a PDF file for distribution, exported as a RTF file for further
editing in Microsoft Word, or even saved as an HTML document for publishing on the
Internet.
After viewing your business plan you can go back to any of the other sections
and change stuff and then return to the 'View Business Plan' section - to see the
changes reflected in your plan click the 'Refresh' button.
Items such as your business
plan's title, author(s) and publication date are entered in the User Settings dialog
box (see below).
The
'Mini Plan' Section
A good way to get started - just 10 questions - the resulting
report can usually be printed on a single piece of paper ...
'User Settings'
Found
under the 'Tools' menu, here you can name your social enterprise, give details of
the business plan, deal with VAT and create backups.
This dialog box is where you
give your business plan a title and sub-title, set its publication date and indicate
who the author(s) are.
You can also decide whether your enterprise will be registered for Sales Tax (which will populate the Sales Tax report).
Finally, there is a 'Backup Database'
button which if clicked will create a backup of all your data. Your data has been
saved properly and should be in do dangers - however as with everything to do with
computers, it is always a good idea to backup one's data.
'Sample Business Plans'
One of the three sample business plans that can be viewed section-by-section in
the 'Words' page - or as complete documents under the 'Information' menu.
The three
(fictitious) sample social enterprises are:
- Toddle Community Nursery
- Shop &
Clean Community Interest Company
- Griddleworth Community Centre
'The Help System'
There
is help in not only how to use the software, but in business planning concepts and
techniques.