Does your business have a written business plan?  Every business not matter the size or the number of years in business should have a written business plan. Your business plan is a good barometer for the health of your finances as well as a way to gauge whether or not you're on the right path. If you don't have a business path (or if yours is less than organized or polished), you can use QuickBooks' to create or fine-tune one. We'll show you how to use these tools to get the job done quickly and easily. 

As always, we are always here for you if you need any help using QuickBooks.  After all we are Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisors.  Now doesn’t that sound fancy.

The game plan
To get started, select Company > Planning & Budgeting > Use Business Plan Tool and you'll see what's displayed in Figure 1. (NOTE: You must be logged in as the Administrator.  Works best in QuickBooks versions 2007, 2008 and 2009)  QuickBooks' business plan tool uses a convention that other Intuit products use frequently: a lengthy wizard that walks you through the entire process. This tool supplies information and asks questions about what's needed on each screen. You fill in the answers (or select from options) and the business plan wizard works in the background to place the data in the correct place.

The first topic you'll be asked about is your company.  If you're a new business, you'll have to estimate in some areas, like the percentage of your sales that will come through credit. In other cases, you'll be better able to answer in concrete terms. For example, what will your customer payment terms be? When do you want your business plan and financial projection to start?

Figure 1: QuickBooks walks you through the process of creating a business plan with an easy-to-use interface.

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