Product Update: Milestones and Financial Features

Posted By

Our latest monthly update is now live. Check out the latest additions and improvements:

Milestones
As Tim Berry says in his advice video, a milestone schedule is one of the most important parts of the planning process. Milestones are key events that need to happen on time to achieve the results in your plan. Now you can add a list of milestones with due dates in the body of your plan (in the Strategy > Milestones section), and track your progress on the new Schedule tab.

Like the Dashboard, this feature makes it easy to see when your company is on track with your plan. More importantly, it highlights any problems so you can adjust your plan as necessary. If your product launch is delayed by a month, for example, you will probably need to revise your forecast to show sales starting later, and you may need to manage your expenses more carefully in the meantime to protect your cash. This kind of adjustment is easy when you focus on the top-level schedule.

Personnel raises
Want to build annual compensation increases into your personnel plan? In the Personnel table builder, there is a new option for each employee that makes it easy to increase their pay in future years by a specified percentage.

Minor change to Sales Forecast table builder
We have reworked the first step of the forecast interface to match the other table builders.

Where is the Sharing tab?
To make room for the new Schedule tab, we moved the Sharing tab to the right side of the screen. We also renamed it to Manage Users, because some users reported confusing “sharing” with a social feature, like “share on Facebook,” rather than recognizing it as the place to share your plan with other users.

Support for preexisting loans
In the Loans and Investments table builder, you can now add preexisting loans — that is, loans that were taken out before the start of the plan, but still have a number of payments left to make during the plan period.

Better handling of preexisting major purchases with long useful lives
In the Starting Balances table builder, there is a new option when entering the Long-Term Assets starting balance to specify a custom depreciation period for those purchases. That is important for plans with preexisting major purchases, such as commercial buildings, that need to depreciate over a long period of time.

What’s next…
Among other things, we are working on a feature to add images to your plans. That is the most commonly requested feature. (It’s also trickier to implement than it sounds. Otherwise, it would already be done.) Look for that soon. Are there other features you are eager to see? Let us know at help@liveplan.com. Thanks!

Like this post? Share with a friend!

Bailey Koharchick
Bailey Koharchick
I believe three key components power the world: Creativity, dedication, and adaptation. I like to write, climb rocks, and think. In that order.
Posted in LivePlan Updates

Join over 1 million entrepreneurs who found success with LivePlan