Business Plan guide

Business Plan writes the plan a lender, an investor, a funder or your own board asks for, starting from what your account already holds, and keeps its numbers honest with projections you can check against your real books.

1. Why use it

Most business plan software starts with a blank page and asks you to type in what you already know. Here your profile, customers or the people you serve, prices or programs, team, marketing, risks and books are already in the account, so most answers are filled in before you start, and the plan stays current as they change.

On All In One For Profit it is a business plan for a bank or SBA loan, investors, a partner or landlord, or your own use. On All In One Nonprofit it is a strategic and business plan for a funder or grant, your board, a loan, or a social enterprise or earned income venture. The questions and the words change with it: revenue or income, net profit or surplus, customers or the people you serve.

2. Your first plan

Open Business Plan and press + New plan.
Name it, choose Who it is for, and choose Full plan or One-page plan only. Who it is for decides which sections appear: a loan plan asks about collateral; a grant plan asks how the work continues after the grant.
Press Create the plan. Every answer your records can give is filled in at once.
Work down the list of sections on the left. A green dot means a section has content.

Write the Executive summary last: it is a page a reader can stop after, so it is easiest once everything else is done.

3. Fill from your records

Answers marked From your records came from another app: the legal name, structure, founding date, address and mission from My Organization; the people you serve or your customers from Contact Manager and Donor Management (Customers on All In One For Profit); prices from Invoicing; the team from your members; personas, campaigns and messaging from Marketing; milestones from Project Management; risks from Risk Management; and your income and expenses from Financial Management.

Press Fill from your records on any section to fill its empty answers again. It never overwrites an answer you wrote, and editing the plan never changes your other apps.

4. Draft with AI

Each section has a box for the text as it will read. Write it yourself, press Use my answers as the text, or press Draft with AI. The draft is written only from your answers, your records and the projections: it never invents a number, a customer or a quote. A draft is marked AI draft, review before sending until you edit it.

5. Financial projections

Open Financial projections at the bottom of the section list.

Assumptions: what you sell and for how much (or each income source), how many a month and how fast that grows, direct costs, operating expenses, hires and pay, equipment, the owner's draw, how long customers take to pay, and the income tax rate. Use my last 12 months starts the expense lines from Financial Management.
Startup costs and funding: cash on hand, money put in, an investment or start-up grant, a loan (amount, rate, term), and what is spent before the first month.
Results: profit and loss (income and expenses on the nonprofit line), cash flow, a simple balance sheet, year one month by month, break-even, the lowest cash month, sources and uses, and debt service coverage when there is a loan. If cash runs below zero, it says when.
Scenarios: Expected, Conservative and Strong, each with its own numbers. Copy Expected into Conservative and Strong gives you a starting point for both.

Three years by default; choose five for investors.

6. Plan against actual

Once the plan's first month arrives, Plan against actual shows each month's planned figures beside what Financial Management recorded, so the plan stays useful after it is sent.

7. Review before sending

A checklist of what a reader looks for: every section has content, every AI draft has been edited, cash stays above zero, and for a loan the amount, the use of funds, collateral and a debt service coverage of 1.25 or more, the level many lenders look for.

8. Export and versions

Download the plan (Word): a cover page on your letterhead, the sections in order and the projection tables. The cover says the projections are your estimates.
Download the one-page plan (Word): made from the full plan, never typed twice.
Download the projections (spreadsheet): the monthly and yearly figures, for a lender who wants to check the math.
Save this version: a copy named for who it went to, which never changes. Download any saved version again from the list.

9. Who can do what

Seat	Business Plan
Owner and Admin	Create, edit, export and delete plans.
Consultant	Reads plans; edits when the owner grants Business Plan to the seat. Writing a plan is a service a Consultant Partner can offer a client.
Specialist	Only when Business Plan is one of the seat's named tools.
Viewer	Reads plans and downloads the Word file.

10. Questions people ask

Which plans include it?

Both plans on both lines: AIONP Essentials and Complete, and AIOFP Essentials and Complete.

Is this financial advice?

No. The projections are your own estimates. Have your accountant or lender review the numbers before you rely on them.

Can I use LivePlan or Bizplan instead?

Yes. Connect QuickBooks Online in Financial Management and link the same QuickBooks account to that tool. Business Plan does the same job without leaving the platform, and it starts from your records.

Where is it kept?

With your organization, like your other apps. Everyone with access sees the same plans.