Know your plan is ready before you submit

The Review evaluates every major section of your business plan against funder standards — not just whether sections are complete, but whether they meet what banks and investors actually expect to see. Each section receives one of four ratings: Strong, Needs Improvement, Attention Required, or Not Started. For every section, you get specific feedback on what's working, what isn't, and numbered suggestions with copy-paste language to help you make improvements. The Review also includes a Risks & Concerns summary that surfaces the most significant issues a funder is likely to flag, and an overall conclusion on where your plan stands.

A friend reads your plan looking for clarity and enthusiasm. The Review reads it looking for what a funder will question. It evaluates each section against the specific criteria that banks and investors use — things like whether your financial projections support your operational narrative, whether your market data is quantified, and whether your funding request is clearly stated. Friends rarely catch the kinds of inconsistencies that cause funding rejections. The Review is specifically designed to find those gaps before a funder does.

Yes — cross-referencing your narrative against your financial projections is one of the core things the Review does. For example, if your plan describes a full-scale daily operation but your personnel budget only allocates enough for part-time staff, the Review flags that as a critical inconsistency. It identifies specific line items that don't support your narrative claims and tells you exactly what needs to change, including suggested language you can use to fix it.

The Funder Q&A Prep generates the specific questions a lender or investor is likely to ask based on what's actually in your plan — not generic interview tips. The questions are derived from the inconsistencies, missing information, and assumptions in your specific plan. For example, if your rent budget looks unrealistic for your market, you'll get a question like: "Your financial forecast projects $4,500 per month for rent. How did you arrive at this number?" Each question comes with a Pro-Tip on how to prepare a strong, confident answer.

The LivePlan Plan Review takes between 5 and 10 minutes to run. Unlike ChatGPT, the AI that powers Plan Review does a deep dive into your plan, comparing how your financial forecast and your plan narrative line up. It also runs your plan through 10 individual reviews to ensure that the feedback is thorough and in-depth.

Yes — the Review is designed to be run iteratively. After you make changes based on the feedback, regenerate the Review and your section ratings update to reflect the improvements. A section rated "Needs Improvement" can move to "Strong" once you've addressed the specific feedback. You can run it as many times as you need, at no additional cost, until you're confident your plan is ready to submit.

Yes. Plan Review is included in both LivePlan Standard and Premium tiers.

A consultant typically charges $500 or more, requires scheduling, and takes days to deliver feedback — then needs to be hired again if you revise the plan. The Review delivers section-by-section feedback with specific improvement suggestions and copy-paste language you can act on immediately, and you can regenerate it any time you make changes at no extra cost. The Funder Q&A Prep — which generates specific questions a lender is likely to ask based on your plan's actual content — is something most consultants don't provide at all.

No. The Review is designed to give you an honest assessment, not a polite one. If sections need work, it will say so — specifically and directly. The Risks & Concerns section is designed to surface the issues most likely to raise red flags with a funder, including inconsistencies between your narrative and your financials that you may not have noticed. A plan that isn't ready won't receive a passing verdict.

Both. The Review assesses your plan against the criteria that banks, SBA lenders, and investors use to evaluate funding applications. The Funder Q&A Prep generates questions based on the specific content and assumptions of your plan, so the questions reflect the type of funding you're seeking. Whether you're applying for an SBA loan or pitching to angel investors, the Review prepares you for the scrutiny your plan will face.