There is a wide variety of software available for creating business plans. Those who understand the process will be able to create a plan with the programs found on most business computers; thus, the most useful software here would be that used to create spreadsheets, since these programs do all the necessary calculations needed to create multiple financial scenarios.

There are also a number of packages designed to deal with specifically with business plans. One should probably use caution in using such programs right out of the box. A bank loan officer is likely to spot the fact that the plan comes from a "canned" program and may conclude that you have not done all the work necessary to properly understand your own business plan.

Some of these software packages include:

Business Plan Pro from Palo Alto software. This program utilizes plan wizards to aid you in dealing with the financial material. Some simple "yes" or "no" questions are used to provide a scaffolding on which you can build your plan, and the software provides more than 400 sample plans for you to use in personalizing your own plan. Additionally, the package includes PowerPoint templates you can use in making presentations. A database of venture capital firms is also included.

PlanMagic Business from PlanMagic Corp. provides a number of business plan templates that allow you to create plans for multiple product lines. There are also loan schedules and budget documents.

PlanWrite Business Plan software from Business Resource Software also uses wizards to aid you in creating a personalized plan. The software also has a number of sample plans to use. This application has the ability to integrate material from popular business financial database software and allows the user to export to word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, PowerPoint, and HTML.

Ultimate Business Planner From Atlas Business Solutions Inc. utilizes a "step-by-step approach" to create a business plan. This software has more than 1,000 indexed business plan samples and a set of more than 20 full sample plans to jumpstart the process. The publishers emphasize the "plain-English" instructions included in the application. The program also contains advice and how-to hints. It works with popular word processing and business finance software.