Review by WebCPA
Feb. 12, 2007

PLANMAGIC BUSINESS ADVANCED EDITION 9.0

PlanMagic is an interesting offering. While several of the other products can use Microsoft Office (if it's available), PlanMagic requires it, as it consists of Office documents in the form of Word text and Excel spreadsheets. Even the documentation is browser-based, supplied as HTML pages, though you can navigate the documentation using a non-Microsoft Web browser. If you have PowerPoint installed, PlanMagic can even use the completed plan report to automatically construct a PowerPoint presentation for your clients to use. Rather than wizards walking you through the process, most of the work has already been done in the form of almost-completed documents and spreadsheets. Just slot in the appropriate text in the Word docs, and the desired numbers in the spreadsheets, and the plan is pretty much finished. The spreadsheet templates come complete with macros to perform detailed period-by-period analyses, charting and formatting printed reports. The software even has the ability to perform exchange rate computations if you anticipate your client operating abroad. The Advanced Edition that we reviewed comes with several templates for a service, retail or product-oriented business, and PlanMagic has a number of other templates available. You may not get the hundreds of templates that some of the other plan-writing products provide, but in the real world, you probably don't need more than several well-written templates.

PlanMagic Business provides comprehensive and largely complete template plans that, when finished, provide the professional appearance and detail that plan users expect to see.

Review by WebCPA
Nov. 1, 2006

PlanMagic Business Advanced Edition

The PlanMagic Business's planning product, works seamlessly with Microsoft Office 97 and up to produce, update, and present business plans. It differs from other planning products in its nearly completed, industry-specific business plan templates and its fully automated financials where consecutive years are pre-filled by using increase percentages or previous year averages.

PlanMagic Business produces the text in Word, the financials in Excel, and the plan presentation in PowerPoint. An included guide to business planning covers subjects such as organizational structure, financing (owners' equity, foreign capital), marketing (market analysis, business goals, marketing strategies, advertising), operations (business identity, business location), and business financials (projections, historic analysis, ratios). The 9.0 provides two generic plan templates (one for products and one for services), plus a third template selected by the user from the list of 32 plans covering such diverse businesses as a record company, a veterinary clinic, or a bowling center.

The Advanced Edition expands PlanMagic Business with a retail store plan template and extended financials. The financials in this edition include additional assumptions, detailed advertising and promotion plans, a detailed break-even analysis per product line, unlimited what-if scenarios, annual dynamic sensitivity analysis (best/worst case scenarios) for five years, and even an exchange rate multiplier.

Version 9.0 also provides incremental improvements, such as a product lines and products wizard, a personnel plan wizard, a categorized income statement, more than 45 automated charts, and macros for printing and export.

Overall, PlanMagic Business 9.0 offers an economical and functional product that accountants will find useful for its real-world orientation and flexibility. It provides stronger multinational language support than most planning systems, and offers a compelling set of financial analysis tools. Accountants will like its strong focus on financials and detailed income statement, as well as the ability to easily add products and product lines, as well as personnel as needed.

Review by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.
"PlanMagic Business contains document templates and a financial workbook to help you organize a comprehensive business plan. A walkthrough user interface is included to describe the use of each of the modules, which include plan, profit and loss, balance sheet, statistical data, investment budget, organizational structure, sales, cash flow, profit and loss forecasts, time table, and a graphical presentation. Some information is omitted and some documents are password protected to encourage registration, but this trial version offers enough formatted information to see the level of quality being provided."

Reviewed by Entrepreneur Magazine
Easy Business Plans
"Take the pain out of writing a business plan and let PlanMagic do the work. Pre-defined spreadsheets and automatic calculations make doing your financials a snap.

In ZDNet's Your Guide to the Best of the Web

What's the plan, Stan?

"Creating a business plan may be tough, but PlanMagic Business can help. It includes a series of Word for Windows documents and a financial workbook to help you build a comprehensive business plan."

"PlanMagic Business gets your business plan written using a clear HTML guide and a detailed set of Microsoft Office templates. If you've been having a tough time getting your business started, here's a good guide to thinking the process through and getting it on paper. The browser view describes each of the subjects, including the basic plan, profit and loss, balance sheet, statistical data, investment budget, organizational structure, sales, cash flow, profit and loss forecasts, time table, and a graphical presentation. Read the description organized by major document headings in your browser, then click on the links to launch Word or Excel. Enter your data in the template, add appropriate text for your business ideas, then see the OLE-linked data consistently presented throughout the formatted and organized business plan. Note: Until you register, some forms are restricted, but there's enough displayed here to convince you to register."
Reviewed on Aug 27 2000.

Review by Accounting Technology Magazine
January 2005

 
 
"PlanMagic Finance Pro  is a specialized financial analysis and planning tool from a company oriented toward business and financial planning, particularly for small to medium sized enterprises. Its value to financial planning professionals lies in its ability to quickly and easily generate financial models related to business performance and providing dynamic analysis tools for each year of the planning period.

The software itself is straightforward - it uses a browser-based HTML guide, and its financial workbook is in MS Excel.  Data is entered based on a detailed core set of assumptions, and the software allows creation of up to 10 product lines with an unlimited number of products per line.  A Windows and MS Office-based product, PlanMagic Finance Pro provides an array of tools such as detailed investment budget, personnel plan, sales estimates, cash flow projection and automated balance sheets. The workbook further comprises of many automated charts, automatic completion of business financials in sequence, operations in various currencies, and includes automatic calculation of US sales tax, EU VAT, and GST type sales tax systems. For financial analysis, tools such as DuPont ROA/ROE dynamic analysis tree, dynamic sensitivity analysis, and break-even analysis per product line are included. The standard version can be used for up to 5 years of detailed financial planning and analysis.

A specialized tool such as this normally would have a stronger following among accountants working on building a business or assessing its financial health than on meeting the needs of a wealth management client.  But such analyses are also critical and often overlooked parts of the financial planning process for small to medium sized business owners in the mass affluent and emerging affluent segments of the market.  PlanMagic Finance Pro 8.0 meets this need with a minimum of fuss or bother, with data that can be easily integrated into the client's financial plans."

The SimplytheBest Gold Award for Excellent software.

Review by ZD-Net
"PlanMagic Marketing 5.0 guides you through a detailed market analysis and creation of a model marketing plan. You'll work your way through a well designed browser interface that explains the entire process, step by step. At each point you can click on a document template and jump immediately to MS Word or MS Excel to edit the actual documents in your marketing plan. All the documents are OLE-connected so the entire work remains current and consistent. You modify the model templates to create the exact plan you need. PlanMagic is clear and well organized, you will have to have some knowledge of MS Office to handle the editing.

Program Pros:
* Clear browser layout explains the details
* Transparent links between browser descriptions and Word/Excel templates
* Thorough !
Program Cons:
* Editing of document templates requires familiarity with Word/Excel.
NOTE: PlanMagic Corporation does not see that as a con but as a pro, since most people are known with basic MS Office functions. And the basic functions are all that are needed."

Review by ZD-Net
"PlanMagic Marketing 4.5 is a well-organized program (which can be run with MS Office 2000/97) that forces you to gather the necessary information and answer the tough questions to define a marketing strategy. You walk through the model, filling the blanks and following the instructions in the attractive guide. You then get detailed conclusions on products, marketing, distribution, pricing, customer service, competition, and more. Recommendations tell you how to optimize your business and increase your probability of success. You'll have no problems to using it productively. You'll have to register to get a lot of the information, though.
Program Pros:
* Step-by-step process forces you to gather the data and answer the tough questions.
* Works in Word and Excel.
* Easy install/uninstall."

APPRECIATED CHANNELS

IBM Solutions Provider: You can find our software in the PCWares online catalog of IBM Corporation.

Demo versions are also available on the following CD-ROMs:

- Computer Renaissance Gold CDROM available at: Computer Renaissance Computer Stores.
- SuperWare CD available at: BestBuy, CompUSA, Computer Renaissance, etc..
- Software Club of the Month Shareware CD available worldwide.
- The Windows 98 Bible by IDG Books worldwide.
- The Office2000, Word2000, Excel2000, Powerpoint2000 Bibles by IDG Books worldwide.
- The Office XP, Word XP, Excel XP, Powerpoint XP Bibles by IDG Books worldwide.
- And in 2003 we'll be available on the accompanying CD-ROM of the "Business Plan Kit for Dummies" edition of Hungry Minds Inc. (formerly IDG Books) published worldwide.

PlanMagicians worldwide

 See a short list of our clients

Com(pli)ments on the PlanMagic products

"I'd like to thank you for Resort 2.0 that my company used for planning a 5-star resort near Moscow - your software is outstanding!"
AM, Russia (PlanMagic Resort 2.0)

"Thank you for creating this software!!  It is absolutely amazing."
JM, USA (PlanMagic Business 8.0)

"Excellent Product - my only suggestion would be to offer options for businesses starting mid year or mid month as far as sales projections and labor projections ("this is possible!"). Beyond that - What a great program!"
JY, USA (PlanMagic Restaurant 2.005)

"Congratulations for the best solution I've found on the market."
AL, Argentina

"After two weeks of using PlanMagic Finance, allow me to start by congratulating you on the quality of the product. As an Excel wizard, I found your sheets well planned and well laid out. Having read "the guide" as well, I must say your documentation is pretty complete."
K.L., France