Business Plan Tool vs LivePlan

Business Plan Tool is a free web tool for evaluating a business idea, setting goals for the year ahead, and keeping an existing business on track. It asks questions about the business, then lets users email or download a simple plan. Completion is estimated at 30–60 minutes. The listed plan includes financial projections, section guidance, a template library, and DOCX export. Information is retained during the session and deleted after three hours of inactivity; ending a session before downloading means starting again. Cookies and JavaScript are required, and unsupported browsers do not work. The responsive site supports smartphones, tablets, and desktops, with listed browser versions across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. The tool gives general guidance rather than tailored advice. For finance applications, business.gov.au recommends its detailed plan template because some lenders request more detail. The site says it follows the Australian Privacy Principles and offers weekday technical support from 8am to 6pm across Australia.

LivePlan is a web-based service for creating business plans and monitoring financial performance. Its income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet forecasts are connected, so changing an assumption updates them together. The service includes AI-based idea validation and geography-specific market research that LivePlan says draws on more than 50 verified sources. Users can turn plans into presentations, edit them in LivePlan, and export them as PDF or PowerPoint files. QuickBooks Online and Xero connections bring accounting data into forecasts and dashboards, and the service includes more than 550 sample plans. Standard and Premium each list one active company, five contributors, and unlimited guests; only one company may be active at a time. LivePlan works on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows, but requires an internet connection for all functions and has no mobile app. It lists chat and weekday email support. There is no free trial; LivePlan advertises a 35-day money-back guarantee. Standard is $20 a month and Premium is $40 a month, both billed monthly.