Customer Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't pick a better software
Comment: Business Plan Pro 2003 walked me through a system that wrote my business plan for me. It took me 3 weeks to do my business plan and I can use the program over and over again in the future.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not a magic bullet
Comment: My assessment of Business Plan Pro, after using it for several months is that, in summary, it is a tool, not a magic bullet. If you don't understand business, it could render you a fool. But if you've never written a business plan before and have no idea where to start, its great for showing you what goes into a business plan and helping you organize your thoughts.A Business Plan Pro business plan is composed of text, tables and charts. The system has a book that gives you some guidance on what to discuss for each text section but it's not really much. The two books that my box included were: Hurdle - The Book on Business Planning, and the manual. Hurdle was just OK. Moreover, the software is a divided screen with panes that guide you with text describing what you should write and where you are, but they leave a lot to be desired. The sample business plan for my company, a small computer consulting firm, was a joke.
But if you don't know what a Balance Sheet or a Cash Flow are, you're just plain screwed. I had a SCORE counselor review 2 business plans that I wrote with this product and he just hated them. The numbers were all wrong and non-sensical and I didn't even know what the reports meant. Moreover the reports, which are automatically generated, include tons of stuff that is very high level and generic. For example, one line item is "Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received," which appears to be relevant in Canada and Europe and thus shouldn't be included here. Moreover, does that make sense in a business that is a service and doesn't have any employees? Also, there were many items that were there but had "0" values, such as "New Current Borrowing." The maker, Palo Alto Software, is selling a one-size fits all package. Beware!
I'm a programmer, not a businessman. And if you're not a businessman, this is the problem you'll have with this product. That's why I say its a tool, not a magic bullet. As my SCORE counselor said, "It won't magically produce a business plan for you."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cautious
Comment: I have use an older version of this softaware and found it to be awkward as will many business plan software. Most bus plan software in general tries to make a basic task, that can be time consuming, but relatively straight forward, simplier. Actually a good MS Excel and MsWord templete would do the same thing. I have reviewed several types of BP software, I don't think any of them would making my job much easier.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unable to import from Excel
Comment: I was unable to import from Excel to the locations I need to, otherwise the program was good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The worst customer support I've ever encountered
Comment: The software promises free links to various resources. When I tried the links I was asked to pay. I contacted online support, but they came back with an answer unrelated to my question which they oviously didn't read. Other attempts to contact customer support were ignored. I gave the software 3 stars because I did get a good looking plan out of it.
