LivePlan vs Spotlight Reporting

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.

Spotlight Reporting is a web platform for management reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation. Reporting includes visual reports, KPIs, consolidations, and chart galleries. Forecasting covers budgets, cash flow, what-if analysis, and consolidated forecasts, with monthly, quarterly, or annual views and a 60-month horizon. The service supports scenario modeling, variance analysis, and forecast-versus-actual comparisons. Spotlight Reporting can consolidate up to 75 entities; Spotlight Multi supports up to 500 and is designed for franchises and not-for-profit associations, including benchmarking and ranking. Connections include leading accounting systems such as Xero and QuickBooks, plus Google Analytics and other non-financial sources. Spotlight AI can generate or reformat commentary for an Executive Summary or Action Plan. Business costs $35 a month excluding sales tax for one organization. Business 10 and Franchise & Not for Profit cost $329 a month excluding sales tax. A 14-day trial is offered, with no permanent free plan.