What's New in Profit Plan v2003

Financial Software for the Business Professional

[Note: The Profit Plan v2003 Upgrade Edition will automatically update any existing Profit Plan Financial Master Plan (FMP) models to the new Profit Plan v2003 format as they are opened. When saved again, the models will contain new features and will no longer be compatible with earlier editions of Profit Plan. If using multiple copies of Profit Plan within your firm, be sure to purchase an upgrade for each installation.]

Also see: What's New in Profit Plan v2006

CONTENTS:           

A.         How to proceed
B.         What's new in v2003 -- Overview
C.         Business Valuation Analysis - Learn to talk to your Appraiser
D.         New Import Peachtree (COA) Wizard and new Paste Peachtree data transfer technique

E.         New SEND menu can Fax and can E-mail an Entire Model
F.         Many new features simplify Assumptions Sheet maintenance
G.         Variance reports Are compressed, updated, and transfer Data
H.         New Seasonal Profile features -  Paste Sales and chart Zoom
I.          Break-Even Analysis now annotated -- Go visit it again

J.          New Industrial Data Cross-Reference Listing and updated RMA import

K.         New Graphic Analyzer features -- Gradient, Grid, AutoRefresh

L.         Miscellaneous feature enhancements...

A.        How to Proceed:           (Top)

The following guide will help you most quickly discover what is new to you, based upon your current Profit Plan edition. We have been very busy over the past seven years since Profit Plan was conceived. So we have organized the upgrade information into several documents. Please review that which is most appropriate for you.  

Within each document, use the underlined topics to easily find the relevant text. Use the browser's Back button to return to the prior topic or the Table of Contents.

  B.       What's new in v2003 -- Overview:           (Top)

Our Profit Plan v2003 Edition enhancements are designed to help broaden your vision, speed your processing, facilitate new year budget roll-overs, and generally make it all just a little easier to assimilate and use.   In truth, it has proven difficult to organize the many upgrade enhancements into any kind of concise outline.  But here goes…

First, we bring you an entirely new perspective -- that of the Business Appraiser.  To be sure, we are not out to replace them.  Rather, we hope to make this whole mysterious field just a little more comprehensible.  Our interactive Business Valuation Report and associated chart can take you a long way down the road towards answering such questions as:  Shall I liquidate, sell, or go and grow?  No, you will not end up with a single value for your firm.  Rather, we will generate nine, using several commonly used techniques.  Remember, business appraisal is an art.  Use the Valuation Report to help color the results!

Second, we have finally implemented an Import Peachtree Chart of Accounts Wizard and new Paste Peachtree function.  For you Peachtree Accounting users, this will speed your work and allow you to build entirely new models in just a few minutes.  And those with other accounting packages prone to producing multi-column P&L and Balance Sheets may be able to use the new paste feature as well!

Third, you can now Send e-mail, entire models, or faxed reports directly from Profit Plan.  No more need to Save As Zip, then find and e-mail a model!  And now there is no excuse for not dashing off an e-mail to find the answer to a planning question or request research on a new possibility.  And now you can fax that Ratios report to the banker without leaving your chair.

Fourth, we've enhanced Assumptions and Data Entry Sheet manipulation and maintenance in a number of ways.  For instance, we now automatically transfer Actuals data from the Variance reports to the Assumptions Sheet when a horizon's Ending Historical Period is rolled forward.  A single click can now restrict Assumption Loan links to Forecast Periods Only.  The same holds true for links from the Amortization/Depreciation Schedules.  A new Paste Values (only) feature now eliminates cosmetics headaches when pasting from other Windows products.   The data cursor is automatically synchronized by account row when switching between horizons.  So it's much easier to keep your place, compare inserted Annual Totals, etc.  And you now have one-click access to Excel from within Profit Plan.

Fifth, in additions to providing automatic data transfer during horizon updates, we have compressed the Variance Reports.  Now only periods with actual historical data within the budget horizon are typically exposed, making these reports much easier to handle.  And we have enhanced the variance cash flow reports to handle more situations.  So be sure to check these out for data impacts after you upgrade.

Sixth, we have been busy in the Industry Data module.  A new SIC to NAICS Industry Classification Cross-reference listing now lets you convert from the old US-based SIC codes to the new North American Industrial Classification System structure.  This affects your Ratios Reports today, and most probably your ability to enter new industry data within the year.  Most publishers are now converting to this Congressionally mandated classification system.  And we have also revamped our RMA Import process to handle the new file structure produced by their CD-ROM Statement Studies export process.

Seventh, we have revised the Graphic Analyzer in several ways.  Now it is more attractive, can lie in the background and automatically update itself when your reactivate it, and tracks your preferences with enhanced precision.

Finally, we are going to stop here.  Suffice it to say, you will find Profit Plan v2003 to be our smoothest and most comprehensive release to date.  If you want further detail, we have provided the topics below with more detailed highlights about enhancements in Profit Plan V2003. Use the index to these provided in the Contents section above for easy browsing. And if you are upgrading from an edition preceding Profit Plan v2001, use the How to Proceed table for easy access to discussions of the enhancements between your last upgrade and Profit Plan v2001.

 C.       NEW -- Business Valuation Analysis:           (Top)

       Valuation Analysis -- This entirely new interactive report (and associated chart) will help you to translate your plans into the ultimate "bottom line"… the value of the business itself.   We help you explore just what "value" is:  to the Owner, the Buyer, and the Banker.  Balance Sheets are fine for depicting historical costs and communicating with the tax man.  But what is the business actually worth to you, or a potential buyer, or (when all else fails) the banker?  The Valuation Analysis report helps you value the firm as an "Asset" and as an Income stream.  Is the enterprise worth more liquidated than operated?  What "Equity" value might be left if a liquidation were forced, the assets sold, and the lenders paid off?  And what might be the impact of a 5% growth trend in net profit on value?  Truly interesting questions…

       Valuation Summary Chart --  This companion to the Valuation Analysis Report depicts nine different values for the firm, ranging from "Book Value" to "Average Earnings with Growth Value."  Obviously, there is no single answer to the question of what a business is worth.  It depends upon why the question is being asked, as well and who is asking it and what assessments of risk, utility, and reward are made.   So, use this chart's Auto-refresh feature to follow the impact on all of the values presented, as you alter underlying Valuation Analysis report variables.  (You can even monitor the impact of  Assumptions Sheet modifications by keeping this chart open in the background.)

       Move Down After Enter -- Although listed here under Business Valuation Analysis, this enhancement is actually available throughout Profit Plan…

By default, Profit Plan has always facilitated data entry by automatically moving the cursor down from unlocked cell to unlocked cell when the [Enter] key was pressed.   This is great for straight data entry.   However, in the Valuation Analysis, Break-Even Analysis, and Impact Analysis reports, to name a few, we find it much more convenient to remain in the same entry cell.  This allows one to try out multiple different values in the same cell and conveniently view the resulting impact.  New with Business Valuation Analysis, this simple concept is now a choice on the main Options menu.  Stay where you are, or Move Down After Enter automatically as appropriate for your intent at the moment.

D.         New Import Peachtree (COA) Wizard and Paste Peachtree data transfer technique:           (Top)

       At long last, Profit Plan has a Wizard capable of creating an entirely new model to match your Peachtree Financial Statements.   This Wizard imports Peachtree's chart of accounts and assigns the accounts types needed to reproduce Peachtree financial statements in Profit Plan.

       Once created, capturing data from Peachtree Complete accounting becomes a matter of copy/paste.  We developed a new Paste Peachtree function that will easily migrate the detail column from the Peachtree multiple-column style of financial statement into a Wizard-created model, and reproduce the same summary totals in Profit Plan's single column per period format.  (This same approach should work for any accounting system that formats its statements so that the account details are in the first data column, the subtotals are in the next, and perhaps grand totals in a third, if that accounting system has the ability to export that report to Excel.)

 

E.         New SEND menu can Fax and can E-mail an Entire Model:           (Top)

       Send / E-mail Message  -- How often have you been in the middle of developing a new plan or building an assumption when a great new idea flashed or a ancillary question popped into your head?  Now you can simply click Send / E-mail Message to open your e-mail and send off a question or comment.   (Functionality depends upon type of e-mail currently installed on your PC.)

       Send / Entire Model (zipped) -- Profit Plan v2001 introduced the Save As Zip menu option.  Now Profit Plan V2003 has a new feature that will automatically save and zip your current model, attach it to new e-mail message, add a subject line and wait patiently for you to address and send an e-mail message with the zipped attachment.  No need to hunt for the zip file, go open up your e-mail, etc.  Couldn't be easier.

       Send / Report via Fax -- This new menu option teaches you how to fax a Profit Plan report (with optional cover sheet.)   Access to an installed fax modem, or ability to print to a network fax machine, is required for this feature.

 

F.         Many new features simplify Assumptions Sheet maintenance:           (Top)  

 

       Paste Values -- This new Edit option is great for pasting values from other Windows applications, including Excel.  Allows transfer of entire blocks of data and handles cosmetics automatically.  Highly likely that either this approach, or Paste Peachtree technique, will be adaptable for transferring data from almost any accounting system that provides copy or export capability.

       Paste Peachtree  --  This new copy/paste feature is designed explicitly to paste a single period (month or year) from Peachtree's multi-column (detail/totals) Financial Statements into Profit Plan.  Only the period's detail column need be copied.  The totals are automatically generated within the Profit Plan model created by the Import Peachtree COA wizard.  All cosmetics, numeric conversions, locking, etc. are handled automatically, to allow quick transfer of entire columns of data into Profit Plan from Peachtree's export to Excel. 

       Change Sign -- This new button on the Numbers toolbar automatically changes the sign of all numbers within a highlighted selection.  Use this feature to conveniently change the sign of data copied in from trial balance sheets or other reports where the data is displayed with the sign reversed.  For example, almost all accounting systems display Accumulated Amortization as a negative value and Profit Plan expects this.  If your system currently displays this as positive numbers, simply paste them in as they are.  Then click the "+/-" button to convert all the numbers to negative values.

       Synchronized Assumptions Horizons  -- Tired of having to scroll to find the same account line when switching between Assumption Sheet horizons?  Now the horizon views automatically align.  For example, if you select a value on any line in the Monthly Assumptions Sheet,  the same account line is automatically selected and visible when switching to the Annual Assumptions and Data Entry sheet.  Very handy when comparing Monthly, Quarterly, Semiannual and/or Annual totals!

       Excel button -- Open or activate Excel from the Profit Plan toolbar.  Very handy for transferring data from Excel into Profit Plan.

       Link Only Forecast Portion of Loan Schedules --  Prior editions of Profit Plan fed both the historical and forecast portions of each Assumptions Sheet if they matched any portion of a loan's life.  This was done with the expectation that the Loan Variance schedules would be maintained so that the Assumptions sheet historical data would be automatically corrected month by month.   Now, for those users who prefer to enter historical loan data directly into the Assumptions Sheets, rather than through the Loan module, you can easily do so without fear of inadvertently double-counting data coming in from the Loans module.  Simply use the new check box on an loan's Base Input  sheet to limit the loan link to forecast periods only.  This will prove particularly handy when "rolling" a budget horizon forward and preparing to update the newly exposed historical periods directly in the associated Assumptions Sheet.

       Link Only Forecast Portion of Amortization/Depreciation Schedules -- As with the Loan schedules, it can often prove convenient to limit the linkage from one of these asset schedules to the Assumptions Sheets.   A new Link Forecast Horizons Only option makes it easy to include all data or limit the link to forecast periods only.

       View / Horizon simplified -- Now each horizon appears directly on the View menu.  No more need to negotiate that horizon swing-out menu to find the horizon you want.

       Grey-scale Annual Totals -- Now Annual Totals columns are automatically shown in contrasting grey-scale when inserted into the Assumptions Sheets or reports..  This makes them stand out within the report spread for easy selection and review.

       Custom Formatting -- Until Profit Plan v2003, all financial account values were always redisplayed in a common numeric format whenever an Assumptions Sheet was refreshed.  For most of us, this is truly convenient and appropriate.  But for those of you who wanted a more formal approach, try the new Custom Formatting feature.  Do you want "$" signs on the first row of each section but not elsewhere?  Fine.  Turn on Custom Formatting and customize to your heart's content.  Profit Plan will not reset them again unless asked.

       Font Color Pick List -- This toolbar drop-down list has been expanded to include Gold (olive) and Brown (maroon), to provide more color coding options.  Use these to highlight critical values and/or major constraints beyond your control. 

 

G.        New Variance Reports Features:           (Top)  

 

       Compress --  The Variance reports are now automatically compressed by hiding budget periods without Actual data entry.  This means printing them takes only half the paper, on average.  However, if you wish, you can re-expose these unfilled periods again, to allow the convenient browsing across the entire budget horizon.

       "Activate Next Period"/"Hide Inactive Period(s)  -- When compressed, a new button at the top of the Income Statement Variance report is made available to open each new Actual history period for data entry.  When open, this same button converts itself to allow the exposed period to be hidden again, prior to data entry.

       Automatic Data Transfer  --  Now existing data in the "Actual" periods of the Income Statement Variance report and Balance Sheet Variance report automatically transfer from this report to the appropriate section in an Assumptions and Data Entry sheet whenever the budget horizon is moved forward.  Prior editions left this data behind for manual cut and paste between the variance reports and the associated Assumptions and Data Entry sheet.

 

H.         New Seasonal Profile Features:           (Top)

 

       Paste Sales -- This new menu option makes it easy to copy sales totals from a historical portion of the Monthly Assumptions and Data Entry Sheet into the Seasonal Profile form for creation or update of a seasonal profile.  First select monthly sales data from any single horizontal row on the Monthly Assumptions Sheet (or even from your accounting system.)  Then simply place the cursor in the first corresponding month in the Seasonal Profile and Paste Sales.  A snap!

       Zoom The Seasonal Profile Chart -- Now you can zoom the associated seasonal profile chart, for closer inspection of the seasonal patterns across the year(s).  (Chart scales are a bit easier to read also.)

 

I.          Break-Even Analysis annotated -- Go visit it again:           (Top)

 

       Face lift -- The interactive Break-Even report is much the same as before under the hood.  But we've added color and annotations to this report to help you find and actually use its many features.  Why are some row titles green?  What does the Refresh button do?   Can I change which Year to analyze?  Where do I put my "what if" numbers?  Well, hopefully the face-lift will make all this a bit more obvious and intuitive.

       Sensitivity -- The new annotation will also help guide you towards better use of the built-in  Chart and Sensitivity Table.  Use it to view potential problems and profit in as finely constructed range as you need.   Want to see what each 1% change is sales means?  Or, how about showing results at every 5% sales interval around Break-Even, or perhaps you'd prefer to check results in 10% intervals.  Simply enter whatever percentages you choose!

 

J.         New Industrial Data Cross-Reference Listing and Import RMA update:           (Top)

 

       North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) Cross-Reference Listing  --  The  (NAICS) system was developed in the 1990s to help better classify business activities throughout North America.  It has now "officially" replaced our US-based Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes and has been formally adopted by Congress.  This new 84 page classification scheme is slowly being implemented by those who have long gathered and published industry standards, such as Robert Morris Associates.  While 2003 standards are still being published under the current SIC codes, conversion to NAICS is anticipated late this year or by March, 2004.   In anticipation, Profit Plan v2003 includes a full cross-reference listing of SIC to NAICS codes for your convenience.  You can use the NAICS codes on your reports now, even though the SIC data groupings are actually still being used for actual compilation of the data.  (And yes, the data will continue to be nationally and regionally based for some time to come.)

       Import RMA Data Update --  Data from Robert Morris Associates, perhaps the best know publisher of industry data, has been importable by Profit Plan since 1999.  However, RMA changed their export data format for 2003, creating a need to manually edit their export data before Profit Plan v2001 and earlier editions could import it.  This RMA induced difficulty has been overcome in Profit Plan v2003.  It can again effortlessly import RMA data exported in either file format from older or current editions of RMA's CD-ROM based Statement Studies.

       Ratio Reports Usage -- The fundamentally annual Industry Standards data is now converted into equivalent values on the Monthly, Quarterly, and Semiannual Ratio Analysis reports.  Thus Annual industry standard inventory turns are now converted automatically into inventory turns per month, quarter or semester.  The Annual Return on Assets is converted into a monthly return, etc.  This makes it easier to compare the firm's non-annual results with equivalent industry results, even if they can only be computed on an averaged basis.

 

K.         New Graphic Analyzer features:           (Top)

       Enhanced Options Retention -- Now every chart on the main Graph menu retains its own chart options for Chart Style, Legend, AutoRefresh and Zoom status so you can set and forget.

       AutoRefresh -- This new option  has been added, so now even "Graph Selected Data" charts can remember the data area they are to chart.  This allow the chart to be automatically redrawn with fresh data by simply bringing the chart back to the foreground, clicking an exposed surface on the chart, or clicking its Refresh button.

       Show Grid -- This option provides a simply way to expose or hide a chart's scaling grid.  Show it to help pick values from the chart, or conceal it if more attractive and appropriate for a presentation. 

       Show Gradient -- This new option applies a pleasant horizontal grey-scaled "gradient" to the Graphic Analyzer background.  This provides better perspective and a more professional chart appearance.  But feel free to turn this off, if sending to a black and white printer..

       Always On Top  -- In prior editions, certain mechanical constraints forces this feature to be On by default.  Now, this constraint has been relaxed and we recommend you use the new default by leaving it off.  This lets the Graphic Analyzer fall behind other Profit Plan windows, when they are selected, and takes advantage of the Analyzer's  new AutoRefresh feature.   Now you can easily make alterations on a report and view the results simply by bringing the Analyzer forward again.  Clicking an area of the Analyzer left exposed on the desktop or clicking its icon in the System Tray does the trick.

       Gross Margin Return on Inventory (GMROI) -- A chart of this key inventory management ratio is now available directly from the Graph menu.  It is the result of two key issues; return of each sales dollar, and the inventory level required to support that sale.  GMROI=(Gross Profit/Sales) X (Sales/Inventory).

       Graph/Selected Data chart enhancements:

Ø       Scale Format -- These charts now typically take their scaling format for the vertical axis from the first number selected to be graphed.  Thus a row of % values are treated as percentages and a row of $ valued items appear with a $ scale.  Cents are also included if the range of data is relatively small and pennies are also displayed in the data being charted.

Ø       Legend -   The row label(s) to the left of the selected data is automatically selected for the chart's legend.  Prior editions could do this, but typically did not.

Ø       Chart Style -- New installations will now default to a less attractive but more practical two-dimensional line chart for almost all chart types.  Prior editions defaulted to a three dimensional line (ribbon).  While a Profit Plan Upgrade never overrides your current defaults, we mention it here for your consideration.  (In fact, if you want your upgrade to automatically use all currently recommended defaults, you can force this by simply deleting your current Profplan.ini file before upgrading.)

 

L.         Miscellaneous feature enhancements:           (Top)

 

       Tutorial - Updated for readability and new feature emphasis.

       Help  -- Updated with all new features.

       Messages -- Widely reviewed and revised to enhance clarity.

       Impact Analysis -- This report now inherits background colors from the Annual Assumption Sheet, as do most others always did.

       BizPlan Outline Panel -- Now sports a white background, for enhanced readability.

 

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