Questions & Answers

Q: I would like to know more about your software. I am a novice investor and want to know my rate of return on the money I am investing in the stock market. I want to track my personal performance over time. With your software, do I have a manually input all investment transactions from my Schwab account or will it connect to Schwab the way Quicken does and download all the data for analysis?

A: Investment analysis is a forecast return projector not an ongoing monitoring tool. Data is manually input. Full details and access for evaluation is provided at https://bizpep.com/uinvest.html .

Question and Answer Item 347 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: Thanks for your quick response and great product. Would actually like to add more fixed and variable expense categories to the list, is this possible? Also, would like to rename the existing names for the reports?

A: The Forecast and Budget Builder is a high level tool and as such you cannot add additional categories. However in the Budget by Month sheet you can adjust category names as required. Basically anything in a blue cell can be adjusted. For more detailed budgets many business combine the Forecast and Budget Builder with the Budget Tool Business ( https://bizpep.com/BudgetTool.html ) which allows you to build any structure you like and may suit your additional categories request.

Question and Answer Item 47 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: Just bought the Forecast and Budget Builder. We have a seasonal business with 4 retail locations, service and construction. I have revenue and expense history prepared by our accountant, broken down by cost centers. This is what I plan to achieve. Input 1 year of historical data - revenue and expenses (fixed and variable) cut spending by percentage in the variable area define labor costs to budget project growth location analysis for marketing etc. On the budget by month screen - how much of the input area is formulas? I can't see any of the formulas...should I be able to? How should I start this project. On the monthly budget page? Any help would be appreciated.

A: The Forecast and Budget Builder is a high level tool. On the input sheet there are broad categories and forecast inputs. This is where you start, with a few basic inputs you can develop a high level forecast for 3 years. Once you are happy with this you can adjust the revenue percentages in the Budget by Month Master. This allows you set set seasonality/monthly variations. On the Budget by Month sheet you can then refine this calculated budget further with the capacity to vary the value of each line item. Input cells are blue, most other cells include hidden formula (you should not change these and they are hidden). Many clients use this to build a forecast high level budget (ie it only has set line items) and then use the Budget Tool Business https://bizpep.com/BudgetTool.html to establish an item by item budget.

Question and Answer Item 48 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: I'm trying to update the "Budget by Month Master" sheet and it won't allow me to change the Jan-04 month to Jan-05 month for our 2005 forecast. What am I doing wrong?

A: On the Budget by Month Master sheet the cell D6 is the input for the first month of the budget. This cell is blue and is unprotected. You should be able to select it and input your month (in date format ie 1/1/05). Following month cells are then calculated from this initial input.

Question and Answer Item 49 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

Q: Is it possible to expand the categories for variable and fixed costs. The categories provided are extremely limiting. I can easily envision the need to have several dozen categories to make this a useful tool?

A: The Forecast and Budget builder is specifically designed as a high level tool (ie with limited categories). This decreases the complexity and increases the ease of use. We do have a Budget Tool Business Excel https://bizpep.com/BudgetTool.html which allows you to freely add as many categories as you like to build a detailed budget. Many clients use the Forecast and Budget builder to develop a high level forecast and use the insight gained to then generate a detailed budget using the Budget Tool Business.

Question and Answer Item 50 - Browse All Question and Answer Items

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