If you like slickly designed browser-based user interfaces, then iPlanner.NET from NetEkspert LLC probably isn't for you. Still, once you get past the old-style graphics and UI design, you'll find the interface is actually fairly simple and straightforward. Even better, it lets you build a business plan in multiple languages. NetEkspert iPlanner.NET begins at $24 (for a three-month subscription and one project) for the Professional version, which is aimed at start-ups and small businesses. It's also available for $59 (for a six-month subscription and up to 12 projects) for the Corporate version. While NetEkspert iPlanner.NET is a serviceable app, in contrast to the broader feature sets of Editors' Choice winners Tarkenton GoSmallBiz and Palo Alto Software LivePlan, this web-based application seems a bit anemic, initially providing just a handful of fields. iPlanner.NET organizes its business plan writing process into what it calls the Startup Frtamework. This isn't really intended to help those building business plans for themselves, however. It's actually aimed at consultants and advisors looking to help build business plans for their clients. Because of this focus, you'll find a lot of planning and guidance tools for consultants helping third-parties, but relatively few advanced features when it comes to actually building the business plan. But for those who don't need a plethora of features, the template-driven UI includes an executive summary, a company overview, products and services, marketing strategy, management and staffing, implementation, and financials. However, you can change the template from the default to develop a more complex plan. Template-Driven You can choose from a variety of templates for different types of business plans, including a startup, a growth business, a restaurant, a proposal for seed or venture capital (VC), a marketing plan, elevator pitch, and even a strategic plan. NetEkspert iPlanner.NET provides an solid explanation of what each type of plan is used for and the various elements that go into them. Once you select the type of template, NetEkspert iPlanner.NET will automatically fill in the information, which can be edited and customized with the text editor. The text editor offers some of the basic formatting and font tools you would find in a word processor, though not as many as you'd find in a dedicated word processor such as Microsoft Word. You can also add graphics such as tables to a document, specifying properties such as the number of rows and columns, the width and height, and how the cells should be spaced. You get some samples of the kinds of documents you can produce when you take a tour of the application, including a marketing strategy for your company, and how it will be managed and staffed. However, these provide just a basic starting point, leaving plenty of room for you to expand the descriptions further – plenty of room for which you'd best have your own ideas, too, because while it does help somewhat, iPlanner isn't as generous with the advice or hand-holding as other contenders such as Palo Alto Software LivePlan or even EquityNet. The financials section of the software shows sales revenue and other metrics in both table and bar chart format. Beyond revenue, you can also plan out your business's expenses, assets, funding and projections. For the most part they also use the rudimentary spreadsheet-like table and chart formats. You can configure settings such as the start date and planning horizon, and select different currencies. The default is the U.S. dollar, but NetEkspert iPlanner.NET gives you lots of other currency choices. A Tabular Business Model The business model is also laid out in a basic-looking tabular format. It has columns where you can plot out your business's key partners, key activities, value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, key resources, and distribution channels. However, when you click on the various areas, little other information appears. Navigation is fairly straightforward. Clicking on My Team brings up a list of team members, also laid out in tabular format, with columns for the username, e-mail address, role, along with flags indicating their country. That's useful if you have employees in different countries who need to be coordinated across time zones. You can set up a team member as a project owner, consultant, or viewer. You can export reports in HTML, Word, or Microsoft Excel formats. I exported a projection in Word format of operating expenses, listing startup expenses, marketing, travel, office expenses, insurance and other fixed expenses, and had no trouble with formatting or compatibility. NetEkspert iPlanner.NET can provide projections showing three years side by side of key figures such as cash, sales revenue, net profit, operating margin, owners' equity, and return on equity per year. That can be useful for demonstrating to potential investors where you see the business going and giving you targets to aim for as you try to build the company. Similarly, you can produce an income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, funding needs analysis, labor costs, capital structure, all with side-by-side comparisons over three years across three columns of the table. That can help you make better decisions about how the company is doing and where money needs to be spent or cut. The application includes some sample business plans and projects. You can send notification emails to other members of the project from within the application. A Dashboard for Planning From a dashboard, you can open one of your recent projects and business plans. For any given project, you can fill in a template with information such as the business name, registration date, email address, phone, legal address, office address, website, field of activity, and incubator membership time in case the startup came from a business incubator. NetEkspert iPlanner.NET does seem to be more internationally oriented than Tarkenton GoSmallBiz, PlanGuru or OnePlace. The multinational currency support is one indicator but so was the support person who responded from Estonia. The software also provides a wide choice of languages to use for the interface, including English, Estonian, Italian, Latvian, Russian, and Swedish. However, even with this international sophistication, the overall application looks somewhat primitive compared to Tarkenton GoSmallBiz and Palo Alto Software LivePlan as well as most of our other competitors. While it's easy to use and may be a good way to get your feet wet with a business planner, it lacks the options and flexibility of most of our other contenders so beginners will eventually outgrow it. Bottom Line: iPlanner.NET from NetEkspert is a fairly easy way to build a quick business plan, but the company seems more focused on helping consultants build plans for clients rather than on folks building business plans for their own use. On the other hand, fewer features mean a simple process and it's even got a fairly nice price.

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