Liveplan
Palo Alto Software · Business
LivePlan is business plan software that helps founders and small business owners turn an idea into a funder-ready plan. It combines AI-assisted writing, market research with cited sources, and connected financial forecasting so your income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet move together when you change one number. Over 1.5 million businesses have used it to plan, forecast, and track performance against real accounting data. That's a lot of founders. It's also a signal the tooling survived contact with real lenders.
About Liveplan
What Is LivePlan
LivePlan is a web-based business planning tool built by Palo Alto Software. It walks you through writing a business plan, building a financial forecast, and preparing the numbers lenders and investors expect to see. The pitch is simple. One workspace for the plan, the model, and the pitch. It works as business plan software, financial forecasting software, and an AI business plan generator in one place.
Is that worth paying for over a free template? It depends on whether you need a funder-ready model. The part that separates it from a blank document is the financial engine. Your projections are linked, so if you cut revenue by 20% in a scenario, the cash flow and balance sheet update with it. That's the test a real lender applies, and it's the thing a general-purpose chatbot, which can write prose but can't wire assumptions into a live model, simply can't do.
Two limits are worth knowing up front. Pricing sits above free planning templates, and the AI research and forecasting tools are strongest for early-stage and small businesses rather than complex multi-entity companies, so very large finance teams may find the model less capable than a dedicated enterprise planning suite built for consolidated reporting. For a solo founder chasing a first startup business plan, that tradeoff rarely matters. For a finance department juggling several entities, it might.
Getting Started
- Create a LivePlan account and pick a starting point, either a blank plan or one of the 550+ sample business plans.
- Answer a guided set of questions about your idea, market, and goals; the AI drafts sections you can rewrite or refine.
- Fill in your revenue, cost, and funding assumptions in the forecast; the model builds the linked statements from them.
- Review the plan with Plan Review, which flags where your narrative and your numbers disagree.
- Export the plan and pitch presentation, or connect QuickBooks or Xero to compare plan against actual results.
Product Information
A quick look at Liveplan's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- First-time founders
- Small business owners seeking funding
- Consultants and advisors
- Solo founders on a budget
Tasks
- Writing a business plan
- Building a financial forecast
- Preparing a pitch
- Tracking plan vs. actual
Scenarios
- Applying for a small business loan
- Testing an idea's viability
- Running monthly performance reviews
Key features
Linked Financial Forecasting
Your income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet stay connected, so changing a single assumption ripples through every statement. You can build what-if scenarios, like revenue coming in below plan, and see how it hits your cash across every month of the projection. That's the core of a working financial model. It's also what makes the output credible to lenders. No spreadsheet gymnastics required.
AI-Assisted Plan Writing
The plan builder drafts sections grounded in your actual business details instead of generic filler, and you can rewrite or refine any part. Plan Review then reads the draft the way a lender would, catching spots where your narrative says one thing and your financials say another. It's a check on consistency before anyone else sees the plan. Not glamorous. Useful.
Market Research With Cited Sources
LivePlan's market research pulls from 50+ verified sources and includes a named source you can cite, along with industry benchmarks sourced from a professional research firm. When a lender asks where a number came from, you have an answer rather than a guess. That matters. Sources build trust.
Pitch Deck Creator
The pitch presentation builder turns your plan into a polished deck using investor-tested templates. Data and financials stay in sync with the plan automatically, and Plan Review surfaces questions your plan is likely to face from funders. The goal is fewer surprises in the room. Fewer surprises. Faster funding.
Plan vs. Actual Tracking
You can connect QuickBooks Online or Xero and compare real numbers against your forecast every month, which turns a static plan into a living check on whether the business is actually matching the assumptions you committed to on paper. The performance dashboard shows whether revenue is tracking, expenses are drifting, and whether a planned hire is affordable. It turns the plan from a one-time document into a running check. Real data. Clear answers.
Idea Canvas and Validation
Idea Canvas is an AI-guided starting point that pressure-tests your concept with research and risk assessments before you commit money. It's aimed at the earliest stage, when the question isn't how to write the plan but whether the idea holds up at all. Test first. Spend later.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Linked financial statements make scenario testing and lender-ready reporting genuinely useful, which is the whole reason to pay for planning software in the first place.
- Market research includes named, citable sources, which helps in funding conversations.
- 550+ sample business plans and a guided process lower the barrier for first-timers.
- QuickBooks and Xero integrations connect the plan to real accounting data.
- Setup is quick. Minutes, not hours.
- A 35-day money-back guarantee reduces the risk of trying it.
Cons
- There's no free plan, so you can't test the core forecasting before paying.
- Complex or multi-entity businesses may find the financial model less flexible than enterprise tools.
- The AI features work best with detailed input, so a thin plan produces a thin draft.
- Pricing has changed over time, and the number you see in older reviews may be out of date.
Frequently asked questions
ChatGPT can help with wording, but it can't build interconnected financial forecasts or turn assumptions into a reliable model. LivePlan's AI is trained specifically for business planning and links the plan to the financials, which is the part funders care about. Big difference.
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