LivePlan
Business planning and financial forecasting tool.
About LivePlan
LivePlan builds business plans and multi-year financial models, primarily for client advisory work rather than daily bookkeeping. Practitioners use it to produce investor-ready projections, run scenario comparisons across three to five years, and benchmark a client's financials against industry peers using built-in comparative data. The forecasting module lets you set revenue drivers, headcount assumptions, and cost structures without writing formulas from scratch. It fits solo advisors and small CPA firms that offer CFO advisory or startup consulting services. If you run monthly close work for established businesses, this tool adds little to your stack. The real use case is onboarding a new business client, walking them through a plan structure, and producing a bank or investor package quickly. The integration story is thin. LivePlan connects to QuickBooks and Xero to pull actuals against your forecast, but the sync is basic — expect to export and reformat rather than rely on live data flows. There is no free tier, so you are committing $20 a month before you know whether it fits your practice. Competitors like Jirav and Fathom offer deeper accounting integrations for firms that need ongoing client reporting, not just a one-time plan deliverable.
Best for
Startups and small businesses creating business plans and financial projections
Key Features
- Professional business plan templates and creation
- Multi-year financial forecasting and scenario planning
- Performance tracking dashboards with KPI monitoring
- Industry benchmark comparisons
- Pitch-ready financial presentations
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Industry benchmark database lets you compare a client's projected margins against real sector averages, which strengthens advisory conversations and loan applications.
- Guided business plan builder produces a structured document with financial narratives, suitable for SBA loans or investor pitches without heavy formatting work.
- Multi-year forecasting handles separate revenue streams, headcount schedules, and COGS assumptions across up to five years from a single interface.
- QuickBooks and Xero sync pulls actuals into the platform so clients can track performance against the original forecast on a running basis.
- Scenario planning allows side-by-side comparison of conservative, base, and aggressive projections, which is useful for presenting risk ranges to lenders.
- Pitch-ready presentation export formats financial projections and charts into a slide-style report without requiring a separate design tool.
Cons
- No free trial or free tier — you pay before evaluating whether the forecast structure matches your client's needs.
- QuickBooks and Xero integration is read-only and surface-level; complex chart-of-accounts structures often require manual cleanup after import.
- Not built for ongoing monthly reporting — firms doing recurring client dashboards will outgrow it quickly and move to Fathom or Jirav.
- Forecast methodology is fixed around LivePlan's own driver structure; clients with unconventional revenue models face workarounds.
- Smaller user community means fewer accountant-specific templates, third-party guides, and peer troubleshooting resources compared to category leaders.
- Per-seat or per-plan pricing can add up for firms managing multiple startup clients simultaneously, making it expensive relative to more scalable advisory platforms.
Ledger Brief Take
This is fundamentally a business planning platform with financial modeling capabilities rather than an accounting tool, making it more valuable for client advisory services than day-to-day bookkeeping workflows. The industry benchmarking feature gives practitioners a legitimate edge when building financial projections for clients, though the limited integration ecosystem means you'll likely be exporting data rather than creating seamless workflows with your core accounting stack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions accountants ask about LivePlan.
How much does LivePlan cost and what does the base plan include?
LivePlan starts at $20 per month on an annual plan. The entry tier includes business plan creation, financial forecasting, and performance dashboards. There is no free plan or trial period, so you are committing paid dollars before testing it against a real client engagement.
How does LivePlan integrate with QuickBooks and Xero?
LivePlan connects to QuickBooks Online and Xero to import actuals, which then display alongside your forecast for variance tracking. The sync is one-directional and basic — it pulls top-level figures but does not map complex account structures cleanly. Expect manual reconciliation if your client's books use detailed sub-accounts.
Is LivePlan suitable for accounting firms doing ongoing client reporting?
No. LivePlan is built around producing a business plan and initial projections, not monthly recurring reporting packages. Firms running regular client performance reviews are better served by Fathom, Jirav, or Spotlight Reporting, all of which have deeper accounting integrations and rolling dashboard capabilities.
How does LivePlan compare to Fathom or Jirav for advisory work?
LivePlan is stronger for one-time plan creation and startup engagements. Fathom and Jirav are stronger for ongoing advisory clients where you need live syncing, consolidated reporting across entities, and recurring KPI dashboards. If your advisory practice runs monthly check-ins rather than annual plan reviews, skip LivePlan.
What is the industry benchmarking feature and how reliable is it?
LivePlan includes benchmark data drawn from industry databases, letting you compare a client's projected or actual financials against sector averages for margins, expenses, and growth rates. It is useful for framing advisory conversations and supporting loan applications, though benchmark categories are broad and may not match niche business models precisely.
Who owns the data created in LivePlan and how is it stored?
LivePlan stores plan and financial data on its cloud platform. Users retain ownership of their content. If you cancel your subscription, you should export all plans before the account closes, as access to stored data is tied to an active paid subscription.