Customizing your template Follow

Business Plan Pro

This page explains the different kinds of changes you can make to the layout, appearance, and sequencing of your plan.

Begin with Plan Setup

You can customize any plan, but first you must answer the basic questions about your business located in the Plan Setup. If you skip this step, your template will automatically include the default answers to these questions. You can change your answers at any time by returning to the Plan Setup, but changes you make may affect which topics appear in your plan outline.

Make Changes to your Outline

Like any other type of nested folder and file structure, the plan Outline allows you to rearrange the order of its parts. For example, you could move your entire folder of Management Summary up one level, to come before your Strategy and Implementation Summary, as well as moving smaller portions around within each folder.

To change your plan Outline:

1. Open the plan Outline pane. 
2. Right-click on any topic, table, chart, or section. 
3. Click one of the options that appears: 
4. Change the order in which topics , tables, and charts appear in your plan by selecting Move Up, Move Down, Promote, or Demote.
5. Rename topics, tables, and charts
6. Insert a new section, topic, or table, or Insert existing sections, topics, tables, or charts
7. Delete any item or section

TIP: Click and Drag for Quick Change - To make quick changes to the order of your plan Outline, click and drag any section, topic, table, or chart to a new location.

You can also:

Add logos or other images

If you have an image file containing your company logo, inserting that picture in your template could be a great time saver. You may use any one of five different graphic types: *.bmp, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.gif, and *.wmf. To add an image:

1. Click in the text area of the topic where you would like the image to appear. 
2. On the Insert menu, click Image. 
3. Browse to, and click on, the graphic file you wish to insert. 
4. Click the Open button. 

NOTE: Image size can affect its display when printed.We recommended sizing graphics to a width of no more than 450 pixels, and a height of no more than 640 pixels, in topics that will print in Portrait format (rather than Landscape).

Add Notes to any item in the Outline:

You can add a Note to any of your topics - new/custom or pre-existing - which will not appear when the business plan is printed. These Notes will appear ONLY when you search them out. You can see or enter a note in two ways:

1. From the Outline, right-click on any topic, table, or chart, and click Notes. 
2. From inside an individual topic, table, or chart, click the Notes button on the formatting toolbar. 
3. Type and format your note in the text window. 
4. Click OK to save the Note.

Customize Tables

There are a number of ways to alter and enhance the existing tables and formulae in your template. You can:

• Insert or Delete Rows - Include any special items you want to track, and remove anything that is not relevant.
• Table Wizards: make these changes with the "Add Row" or "Remove Row" options. 
• Spreadsheets: right-click on any unlocked row, then click "Insert Rows" or "Delete Rows." 
• Edit Row Labels
  Change the row labels in your tables' data-entry rows to match your own categories.
• Change the Table Formatting
  Many of the most useful minor changes can be accomplished within the Table Formatting toolbar, which lets you move rows and format the appearance of your cells.
• Advanced Table Customizing
• Insert a New, Custom Table which affects existing tables through a custom formula: We suggest using our existing tables for most of your plan needs, as they contain appropriate relations between costs and expenses, and should meet every forecasting need an investor would expect. However, should you wish to create a new table which describes certain aspects of your plan in further detail, or addresses something unusual about your business, you do have this option. 
• Further customize your tables by changing the forecasting of data, importing formulae and cells from other programs, and tracing your formula links backwards to better understand the relations between tables. Advanced users can input custom formulae to link new rows, or change relations between tables. 

Customize Charts 

Within the Chart view, you can use the Custom Format options to easily change chart type, formatting/colors, Axes labels, and more. To customize your chart:

1. Click the Custom Format button on the chart formatting toolbar. 
2. Use the shortcut buttons which appear above the chart to make changes. 
3. Or, click the custom format Properties button to see all possible changes.