you hit the menu you access the most supportive screens of all the programs tested. The information in Automate Your Business Plan is practical and friendly, thanks to Linda Pinson’s book Anatomy of a Business Plan, which is included in the package. Although you don’t have to read the book to use the program, you’ll want to keep it on hand.
The software offers instructions, examples, and document templates into which you simply type your own information. This made using Automate Your Business Plan the least stressful and most natural experience for creating a business plan. You also have more control of your documents. The application lets you see an entire page of the plan, not just a small, step-by-step screen. The Automate Your Business Plan program is like having a kind and wise expert at your side offering support instead of prodding you through a chute.
BUSINESS PLAN WRITER DELUXE 2003 VERSION 6
Nova Development Corporation
Nova’s program is the most attractive, with nice icons for categories such as ‘financials’ and ‘milestones’ displayed down the left side of the screen and a toolbar across the top of the screen, under the menu bar. The remaining workspace changes to accommodate questions, explanations, and samples in the area you’re working on but in the opening screen, much of that workspace is given to hawking third-party products from Nova’s partners.
Other screens settle down to your business. Near the beginning, for example, the Break-Even Chart told us our business was worth a shot. However, we were concerned that, at that particular stage in the program, most users won’t have a realistic idea of their operating expenses. Still, there’s nothing preventing users from jumping to the financials portion of the program.
Business Plan Writer Deluxe 2003 has a Next button format that can sometimes seem removed from the big picture of what you’re doing, but that is often a problem with wizards. The program also lets you see something akin to an outline or table of contents, but the quality and tone of instruction didn’t match those of the first two programs. On the plus side, there’s a second wizard to help you create a marketing plan, an electronic Gilbert’s Law Dictionary, Business Law Guide, and Kiplinger’s Working for Yourself.
ULTIMATE BUSINESS PLANNERVERSION 1.0
ABS (Atlas Business Solutions Inc.)
One product that we also tested was Ultimate Business Planner. The software package is a Version 1.0 product, so we were a bit skeptical about its ability to deliver as solid a performance as the other packages. In Ultimate Business Planner, all the basic elements are there. You’ll see a nag screen each time you open the program — unless you register — but the screen layout is logical. The first four Wizard buttons help you pull everything together, then the Plan button brings up the same type of three-pane layout as the Business Plan Pro and Business Plan Writer Deluxe packages.
But we had several problems with Ultimate Business Planner. For starters, it crashed a lot — on two different machines. It also had trouble