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Exl-Plan Free projects full-year income statements (profit and loss accounts), cash flow projections and statements, balance sheets and ratio analyses for two years ahead based on annual assumptions inserted by the user. It also contains an opening balance sheet along with a summary income statement for the year preceding the start of the projections. For example, if projections start in April 2006, an income statement for the year ending March 2005 could be entered for reference or comparison purposes.

In addition to comprehensive pro-forma reports, Exl-Plan Free generates the following output:

Facilities for inserting constant and varying annual assumptions.
Selective what-if, or sensitivity analysis, covering the two years.
Book-marking facility to allow a user mark a location within a worksheet and to return quickly to it.
Multiple safeguards to protect formulae etc. and help prevent accidental changes being made to worksheets.
Extensive ratio analyses for two years.
Comprehensive online help.
Comprehensive set of tailored toolbar buttons.
Error trapping to advise when data entry or calculation errors arise.
Full access to worksheets and formulae to facilitate customization and expansion.

Exl-Plan Free can be automatically switched between UK/ International and US/ Canadian accounting formats, terminologies, spellings etc.

Exl-Plan Free also includes a free Business Plan Template for Word (48 pages - click thumb opposite to enlarge view) and a complementary Guide (supplied as a 90+ topic Help file and as a 100+ page PDF file for printing).

Exl-Plan Free is very "open" and can be expanded or customized by users. The online help and manual describe almost twenty techniques or procedures for extending and tailoring Exl-Plan. As supplied, Exl-Plan Free handles the following ranges of assumptions:

2.1 Sales, Cost, Inventory & Overhead Assumptions

The range of sales, cost, inventory and overhead expenses assumptions include:

Annual sales forecasts for six product/market subgroups which can be specified as values and/or volumes/prices.

Facilities for specifying the cost of materials/goods (or goods for resale) in percentage terms and for setting material inventory targets. These can be ignored by "pure" service businesses.

Direct labor head count (and costs) and four other user-definable direct/variable cost categories.

Fourteen categories of overhead expense.

2.2 Fixed Asset, Investment & Financing Assumptions

The range of fixed asset, investment and financing assumptions include:

Fixed assets with provision for handling depreciation and additions/disposals.

Amortization of intangible assets.

Separate interest rates for cash balances, overdraft and long-term debt.

Facilities for increasing and decreasing long-term debt and assigning it between short- and long-term liabilities.

Share issues, dividends and corporation tax or, for sole traders, cash injections/ drawings and income tax.

2.3 Credit Assumptions & Input/Output Taxes

The range of credit assumptions and input/output tax - Sales Taxes, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Goods & Services Tax (GST) - facilities include:

Provision for setting credit terms for sales and related purchases (materials or goods for resale).

Facilities for delaying payment of payroll taxes/benefits, dividends, corporation tax and capital expenditure.

Sales/output tax rates can be set for sales.

Where taxes apply to inputs, there are facilities for setting different tax rates for inputs & capital expenditure and for delaying net payments.

Exl-Plan Free incorporate extensive online help (in both WinHelp and HTML formats) covering over 90 topics covering:

Very Quick Start
Welcome to Exl-Plan
Financial Modeling & Business Planning
Introducing Exl-Plan
Loading Exl-Plan for the First Time
Getting Orientated with Exl-Plan

Using Exl-Plan
Guidance on Entering Assumptions
Calculation Error Messages
Changing Exl-Plan
Support & Assistance

It also includes a printable 95-page manual and a series of Flash-based tutorials (running for 12 minutes) covering setting up Excel, getting started and the basics of using Exl-Plan. You can view the manual now as a PDF (MANUAL_EXL-PLAN_FREE.PDF - 1000k) or as a series of web pages.

Also supplied is a free Business Plan Template for Word (48 pages) and a complementary Guide (supplied as a 90+ topic Help file and as a 100+ page PDF file for printing).

This support is supplemented by regularly updated Frequently Answered Questions for Users - see also Support for Users and Frequently Asked Questions for Using Excel 2007.

Because Exl-Plan Free is extensively menu driven, minimal Excel expertise is required. At the same time, experienced spreadsheet users can use Exl-Plan's open approach to extend and modify worksheets within Exl-Plan. Only limited Excel expertise (e.g. creating simple formulae, inserting rows and similar) is needed to make some of the most powerful and useful expansions to Exl-Plan.

Intending users only need a (very) basic understanding of income statements, cash flow and balance sheets in order to get to grips with Exl-Plan Free and from there they can easily move on to more detailed and powerful versions of Exl-Plan (details).

Quick Guide to Exl-Plan Versions