Frequently Asked Questions


What types of businesses is LivePlan good for?

LivePlan can easily accommodate any industry and has over 550 sample plans built in to help you along the way. Whether you're a small or mid-sized business, freelancer, non-profit, in Public Administrations, or literally any industry sector from high-tech to real estate to salon and spa, LivePlan has you covered. What's better, is that LivePlan has industry benchmarks baked in to its software. Knowing your industry standards helps ensure that your forecast is both challenging and achievable.

Can LivePlan help me with my sales forecast?

Yes, LivePlan makes it easy to complete your sales forecast. Simply input your figures and LivePlan will automatically create your spreadsheet and associated graphs. It couldn't be easier.

Are there actual LivePlan customer reviews I can read?

Absolutely. We're extremely proud of the positive feedback we've seen from our customers. You can read LivePlan reviews on our site as well as testimonials from a third-party review site.

What are the benefits of signing up for the annual plan?

Substantial savings. Signing up for the annual plan will save almost 42% over the monthly fee. The other big advantage is that with LivePlan, your business plan becomes a living, breathing document that you can adjust as your business changes. And once you're up and running, LivePlan allows you at-a-glance to see how your revenue figures are performing against your plan's goals and actual forecasts. LivePlan's Dashboard feature is a powerful yet simple to use tool that monitors your business financial health in real-time for less than the cost of a pair of movie tickets.

Get Started Now

How many users can access?

LivePlan includes two contributors and unlimited guests. Sharing your company with colleagues, stakeholders, or an academic advisor is easy with LivePlan. Just add these people to your LivePlan account as contributors or guests, and collaborate directly inside of LivePlan. Guests can view your company and comment on your plan document. Contributors can access and edit anything in an account except the owner's profile data and the billing and payment information. If the owner grants them the additional level of access, contributors can even create new companies, add new users, and view and edit the benchmarks and Dashboard.

Can my partner and I work in the plan at the same time?

LivePlan makes it easy for you to collaborate with other users in your account, even working on the same plan at the same time. LivePlan prevents users from overwriting each others' work by allowing only one user at a time to edit a particular section. Other users will see that section of the plan as locked.

Can I work on more than one business plan?

Yes, you can create an unlimited number of business plans on an account; you can have one active plan at a time, meaning one that is open and being edited. You can open and close plans as needed, and if you need to have multiple plans being edited simultaneously you can upgrade your account for an additional charge.

Can I import financial data from Excel, QuickBooks, or other software?

Yes, if you are a QuickBooks or a Xero user, you can import your financial data into LivePlan to track your actual progress against your plan. This is a great business management feature that helps you measure your progress and grow your business. Unfortunately, we do not support importing data from Excel at this time.

Can I save the plan I'm working on to my hard drive?

LivePlan automatically backs up your data every few seconds, and every time you click “I'm Done” for a particular task. All your plan and account information is saved securely in our online servers, ready for you and your invited users to access when you need it.

You can always print a copy of your plan as a PDF file to save to your computer or download your plan as a Word document, if you know you will be without Internet access for a while and want the content handy. But there's no need to save your data offline for backups.

What file types can I export to?

The easiest way to produce your LivePlan plan document is to use the print to PDF feature, which outputs your plan content in a standard file format that can be read by Adobe Reader or other free reader programs. You can also export a copy of your plan to Microsoft Word (2007 or later). That's useful if you want to have more control over the document's look and feel or add images, custom tables, and so on. Just remember that once you export to Word, any changes you make in LivePlan will not be reflected in the Word document. The Word export is a snapshot of the plan.

Can LivePlan and Business Plan Pro work together? Can I use my business plan made in Business Plan Pro in LivePlan?

No, LivePlan is an entirely new product and is not interoperable with Business Plan Pro. The two products use fundamentally different technologies. At this point, you can copy the text of any plan created in Business Plan Pro and use your browser's paste functionality to insert it into your LivePlan, but financial data cannot be carried over.

Get Started Now

What is the best way to share my plan with my business partner or others?

That depends. Do you want the other person to be able to edit and change the plan, or just read it? And how comfortable is this person with digital technology? If you're just looking for feedback on a finished document, the easiest thing for your reader is probably to send them a PDF. If you want somebody to see changes as you make them or to check your progress regularly, you can issue them a guest pass. And if you have a business partner with his own perspective to add on the financials or strategy, you can add them as one of your included paid users, who can fully change anything in the content of the plan.

Does LivePlan support different languages and currencies?

Yes, you can add custom sections for describing local requirements. You can write the plan in Spanish, French, German, or other languages. Write the plan in the language of your choosing, and pick the appropriate Language Output option. Enter your financials and simply select the currency symbol to use.

How LivePlan is different from installed software?

LivePlan is a web-based application, like Gmail. That means it works differently than CD-based software that you install on a particular computer and has multiple advantages. First, you can access and update your plan from any computer (Mac and PC) or tablet. Second, LivePlan's online platform also allows our development team to update the software anytime without requiring you to install — or pay separately for — an upgrade. These updates typically come monthly without any effort on your part. Lastly, being cloud-based, the system is optimized to have others collaborate with you on the plan.

I'm looking for Business Plan Pro for Mac. Should I use LivePlan?

Yes. LivePlan is made by Palo Alto Software - the same people who make Business Plan Pro. We built LivePlan to help provide a great business planning solution for Mac users who were not able to use Business Plan Pro. While the two products are not exactly the same, they both help you create winning business plans quickly and easily. If you would like to compare Business Plan Pro to LivePlan, we have a quick comparison chart available.

Get Started Now

What browsers does LivePlan work on?

We support the current version of each of these browsers:

Desktop

  • Chrome (Windows and Mac)
  • Firefox (Windows and Mac)
  • Edge (Windows)
  • Safari (Mac)

Mobile

  • Mobile Safari (iOS)

These are the platforms we test. If you encounter a problem on a different browser, please let us know.

Can I use LivePlan on a browser that's not on your supported list?

Sure, feel free to give it a try. Other current browsers like Opera should be fine, though you may find minor issues since we do not test the app in those browsers.

If you are using an older version of Internet Explorer, we strongly encourage you to upgrade your browser. It's free to upgrade and you'll have a much better experience with LivePlan and the Internet in general.

Can I use LivePlan without an Internet connection?

No, sorry. Because LivePlan is a web application, you need to be connected to the Internet to use it. The good news is that you can use it from any computer or device with Internet access, so your software isn't stuck on a single PC. But currently we do not support offline access.

Can I use LivePlan on my tablet or phone?

We officially support the latest version of the Safari browser on iOS devices (iPad, iPhone). Android devices generally work well too, though we do limited testing on them due to their relatively low usage among our customers. And remember, you are covered under our 35-day, money-back guarantee.

We do recommend that your mobile device be connected via WiFi or LTE. As with any web application, LivePlan requires a reliable broadband Internet connection. Spotty or low-speed connections may cause trouble.

Where can I view the full LivePlan.com sitemap?

Click here to view the full LivePlan.com sitemap.

Is there a free trial?

LivePlan offers a 35-Day Money-Back Guarantee (yes, we do require a credit card to get started). Run our software through its paces for up to 35 days, and simply contact us for a 100% refund. We've served over a quarter-of-a-million entrepreneurs the last few years and think you'll love LivePlan, but in the event you don't, you're not on the hook for any charges if you cancel within the first 35 days.

Get Started Now

How does the 35-day money-back guarantee work?

If you find LivePlan doesn't work for you for whatever reason, just contact us via email, phone or even within the app within the first 35 days and we'll gladly refund your money.

Can I change or cancel my plan after signing up?

Yes, LivePlan has no long-term contracts of any kind. You can easily also change from a monthly to an annual plan at anytime.

What happens to my plan if I cancel my account?

Your plan is 100% yours at any time. You can take your plan with you when you go. If you decide to end your LivePlan subscription, just export your plan before you sign out for the last time.

What payment methods do you accept?

We happily accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover credit cards as well as PayPal. You're protected with our 35-Day Money-Back Guarantee regardless of payment choice.

Get Started Now

Will my data be safe and private?

Yes, all your personal and business data are safe with us. All account and plan data are written to multiple disks instantly, saved every few seconds, and stored in multiple locations. All credit card transactions are processed using bank-level, PCI-compliant SSL encryption. Our products run on a dedicated network that is locked down with firewalls and carefully monitored 24/7. Your business plan will remain completely confidential. The content of your plan is entirely private unless you choose to share it via exporting, or inviting guests to your account. The plan data are stored securely on our servers and nobody from our company can view your plan unless you choose to allow us access for tech-support purposes. For more information, please read our security and privacy policy page.

What's LivePlan's privacy policy?

Palo Alto Software, Inc. collects standard customer information (name, email address, company name, credit card company, credit card number, expiration date, and credit card billing address) during the LivePlan signup process and in other customer communications with us by email or phone. We understand how important this information is to you. We are committed to keeping it strictly confidential. Your privacy is not for sale. We will never sell, rent, or otherwise abuse the private information you have trusted us with. Read our complete privacy policy.

Get Started Now