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First Steps
Step 1 - Enter Your Data
From the main menu select Plan, or double click Plan in the Task Wizard. Follow the steps below:
- Select General from the Plan menu/General data, (or use the Navigator/General data), to load the General Data window. This window enables you to enter general information about your plans, such as the name of your business and the period of the plan. The screen is displayed using a card file type arrangement and you can click the tabs on the top of the cards to display and access the information that they contain.
- Under General Data, enter the requested data items, such as the name of the plan, the name of the business, etc. Under Periods enter data about the period for your plan.
- Select Tables in the Plan menu and enter each of the tables that appear in the sub-menu. Select Product & Cost and enter names and direct costs of the products or services that you plan to sell. The costs are categorized by Labor costs, Material costs and Other costs. If you chose to enter sales in terms of cash and not units (in General Data window), then enter the profit margins for each product or service. Enter your data in the Market table, the Department table and the Currency table. The data you enter in these tables is used in the succeeding data screens to match the data entry to the business specifications, e.g. The Sales Plan screen will be organized according to the markets entered in the Market Table.
- Select Sales Plan from the Plan menu to enter prices and quantities or amount of sales that you plan for each product in each market in each period.
- Select Operating Expenses from the Plan menu to enter specific expenses and salaries for the departments or expense groups that you have previously defined in the Department Table.
- Select Plant & Equipment from the Plan menu to enter capital investment information, such as equipment purchases and plant investments. Then enter the period for each item over which depreciation will be calculated.
- Select Financial Parameters to enter financial information such as payable days, interest rates, tax rates, and price trends.
- Select Capital Sources to enter details about the financing of the business, such as how much equity will be invested and how much funding will be borrowed and under what terms of repayment.
- If your business is an existing business, select Previous Periods to enter the company's opening balance, the influences of opening liabilities or assets on the forecast period, and data about historical Income Statement and Balance Sheet. (This option is displayed only if you have defined a Previous Period in the General Data screen).
Step 2 - View and analyze your plan
From the Main menu select Analysis to view the business results of your plan.
Note: The software is always aware if projected data has been changed and will perform a calculation before displaying any analysis, screen, report or graph.
- Select Highlights to view the main highlights of your business plan.
- Select the projected pro-forma reports that you want to view: the Profit & Loss report, the Cash Flow, and the Balance Sheet.
- Select Break-even to run the Break-even analysis of the plan and to evaluate its risks.
- Select the What-If analysis to analyze how your plan withstands changes to basic parameters and assumptions that you made, such as prices, cost, etc.
- Select Financial Ratios to evaluate the plan's profitability, liquidity, and stability.
- Review other Analysis screens and use them according to your needs: the Valuation module, the Indicators screen, the ROA/ROE Analysis and the Survival Ratio analysis.
Step 3 - Generate reports
When you have completed the business plan and reached satisfying results, you can generate various financial reports that include your analysis, data, and assumptions.
Choose Reports from the Tools menu in the main menu. From here you can view, print, and export the reports to Excel spreadsheets or to HTML documents.
In the Reports Table select the reports you want to generate and click the OK button. The reports will be generated and presented in the Preview screen. Please refer to the Reports chapter in this User’s Manual for more details on how to customize the reports according to your requirements.
Step 4 - Generate graphs
The Graph generator enables you to produce high quality graphs that present the results of your business planning better than a thousand words… Graphs demonstrate financial figures and trends more clearly than tables or text.
You can view the graphs on-screen, print them, save to file or export to another application.
Select the graphs that you want to view or print from the Graph Table and then click the OK button. Each graph will be generated on a separate window. Double-clicking a graph will bring up the Graph Setup form.
Please refer to the Graphs chapter in this User’s Manual for more details on how to customize the graph according to your requirements. |
