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M-theory

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 1, 2005
299
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Hi,

Does anyone know of a good professional business plan software package for Mac?

Palo Alto Software has a great set of products but only for Windows.

thx.
 

blodwyn

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,147
1
Portland, Oregon

I don't know of any for the Mac. Having said that I tried the Business Planning software on Windows a few years ago and found it didn't do anything that I couldn't easily do with Word and Excel. It was quicker for me to put a spreadsheet together than to try and unravel how to use the ones that came in Business Plan Pro, and the template sections merely provided prompters for entry which pretty obvious anyway.

Maybe they've got better in the last few years, but I'd still roll my own plan.

Good luck
 

M-theory

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 1, 2005
299
0
Pittsburgh, PA
I don't know of any for the Mac. Having said that I tried the Business Planning software on Windows a few years ago and found it didn't do anything that I couldn't easily do with Word and Excel. It was quicker for me to put a spreadsheet together than to try and unravel how to use the ones that came in Business Plan Pro, and the template sections merely provided prompters for entry which pretty obvious anyway.

Maybe they've got better in the last few years, but I'd still roll my own plan.

Good luck

thank you very much for your input, the palo alto software was suggested to me, but I haven't used it or interacted with it at all.
 

Cromulent

macrumors 604
Oct 2, 2006
6,802
1,096
The Land of Hope and Glory
Just use iWork. When I was writing my business plan I thought I needed special software, but then realised it didn't actually do any special at all. Nothing that I wouldn't need to do in the course of my own market research anyway.
 

str1f3

macrumors 68000
Aug 24, 2008
1,859
0
I'd recommend OmniPlan from the OmniGroup along with the rest of their programs. I think they're the best when it comes to this. They also have great customer support and very active forums.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/

I have Omnifocus (best GTD app btw) for the Mac/iPhone and emailed them about a problem for the iPhone. They emailed me back the next business day with an answer and some follow up questions. Customer service does not get any better.
 

LilyWether

macrumors newbie
May 14, 2010
2
0
I recently used ION FreshStart and it worked perfectly. Before that, I tried to install Windows on my Mac and use Alto Palto, but to no avail.
 

taat.pringist

macrumors newbie
May 22, 2010
1
0
business plan software for Mac

Indeed, most business plan software was designed for Windows - in the past. As a new trend, business plan software moves online, as other fields of business. My favorite is iPlanner NET, but there are other apps as well.
 

trazanka

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2008
10
0
ION FreshStart

I recently used ION FreshStart and it worked perfectly. Before that, I tried to install Windows on my Mac and use Alto Palto, but to no avail.

I am going to second this solution, I had created one in BusinessPlan Pro on windows a few years ago, I needed to update it recently and did not want to have to reinstall it so when I found this I decided to try it out.

This has the exact same layout as BPP so I was able to copy whole sections from the old exported BPP file and paste them into ION then make my changes.

Two things, first it only works with iWork so if you don't have it you need to figure that into the cost, second, it does have some sample business plans to start with, but no where near the of hundreds BPP has to start.

Good luck.
 
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