What's New in the Profit Plan v2007
Financial
Software for the Business Professional
[Note: The Profit Plan v2007 Upgrade Edition automatically updates the current version of existing models to the new Profit Plan v2007 formats as they are opened. When saved again, the models will contain new features and will no longer be compatible with Profit Plan v2007 or earlier editions.]
So what's new? The short answer is – Lots! We are sure you will find some of our new features uninteresting, and some others truly exciting. There should be something new here for everyone, such as the...
(1) Windows Vista™ compatible
On-line Help has been converted to the Microsoft mandated HTLM version. This does have some nice features, but also a bit of a learning curve for some. So we added a Using Html Help topic tutorial to the Help menu.
Cosmetics –
Turns out Microsoft apparently was not too concerned with
compatibility issues. If it was good enough for Microsoft well
everyone else had just better adjust! So we did. And
after six months of effort we now have shiny new buttons and
semi-transparent window frames, in Windows XP and Vista. They look
pretty nice, but work pretty much just like the old gray ones did
before. So no big learning curve from this.
Installation
– New requirements for installation related issues have been
overcome. Still you must be an Administrator in order to install
even an upgrade, to meet new Windows requirements. Sorry.
(2) New Enhanced Common Size Balance Sheet Report
Often asset and liability accounts are directly or indirectly related to sales volume. While the standard Common Size Balance Sheet does allow one to review trends in asset mix (relative composition) and is helpful in comparing firms of different sizes, the fact is that sales volume also directly affects many asset totals. This new report allows graphical comparison of account values and both their relationship to Sales volume and the percentage of Assets they absorb. Now it is easy to see if inventory is stable with regard to sales volume but actually growing or declining as a percent of overall assets. This will help highlight growing credit limit requirements and may also help your vendor and lender understand why they really should increase that line of credit, for instance.
(3) Loans Module Upgrade
Loan
Payoffs & Asset Settlements -- It is now easy to payoff
a loan (or sell off or close a saving account or CD) directly from within the
Initial or Actual Schedule loan views. Prior releases provided balloon
payments for conventional loans only. Now most types of early loan payoffs can be handled
easily.
Simply select the period for the payoff (edit the
payoff date itself, if you wish) and use the right-click payoff menu
to handle the mechanics. (Don’t right to results? Simply hit
the Delete key and the old schedule is restored.)
Investments
– We have structured labeling just a bit within the “Loans”
module input form to make it just a bit more intuitive just how to enter that retirement
plan, loan to shareholder or employee, money market saving account,
Certificate of Deposit, etc. And you can pay off or close (settle) the
account right in the schedules whenever you wish also, as mentioned
above.
(4) Import & Export:
QuickBooks
Import -- It is no longer necessary to hand-edit your incoming memo fields
to delete the extra quotes inserted during export of QuickBooks memo descriptions that
contain quotes and/or commas. Now exported descriptions like [ 10'
x 3/4", aluminium stakes ] are translated automatically
during import.
When importing a
QuickBooks chart of accounts into a new model, “inactive”
Quickbooks accounts will be automatically marked as inactive in
Profit Plan's Hide Acct?
column. This retains the accounts historical data but will automatically conceal that account line in associated standard reports. (Use the Zero Suppression menu option to reexpose in a standard report, if exposure is actually desired.)
Space-Delimited text import -- We have added the ability to import and export data that is “space-delimited”. For some of you this will allow importing numeric data from those accounting reports that use spaces (one or more) for “padding” between columns of numbers, rather than the more common tab characters. (Also handy for copying from viewed pdf file data, which typically uses spaces to pad between the columns for screen displays. To import pdf text data, use the pdf viewer's text selection tool to copy the desired data onto the Windows clipboard. Then save the data into a text file and import the result.)
(5) Mouse Scroll Wheet Help
Not all PC mouse drivers treat the Scroll Wheel the same. As a result, some of you have been unable to scroll Profit Plan reports with your particular scroll wheel. But now Profit Plan augments weak mouse drivers by watching the scroll wheel itself and steps in if your driver isn't doing the job. (Because all mouse wheel drivers are not created equal, you may need to experiment with the options available in Profit Plan's main Options / System Default / Scroll Wheel tab if scrolling is still not quite as you like it.)
(6) Speed Plodding Networks
Various Microsoft "updates" installed automatically into your Windows XP and Windows 2000 can leave Profit Plan stuggling to load and/or save its files across your network. We have added compression techniques to work around these "enhancements" to restore normal performance, should you happen to be suffering on a partially updated Windows network.
(7) Graphic Analyzer Enhancements
Date
Selection -- Now it is easy a select a specific range of periods for charting an account's values directly from within the Graphic Analyzer via a new Date menu. Here you can select just
the Forecast, Historical, All periods or any range of periods from from the new build-in From and To
date drop-down lists.
This is great for pin-point statistics and trend line reviews. Now it easy to answer questions like: “What
was the average change in the trend since your new purchasing
policy was implemented? “ or “What will average percent
increase be, if our new assumptions proves correct?”
Multi-column
charts -- Common Size and other multi-column per period reports
can be automatically charted so that the percentages are scaled on
one Y-axis and the $ values are scaled on the other.
Single
point selection -- Now select any single point to chart
and the entire time horizon from that point forward is
included automatically.
Select any single specific $ value or %
value column in a multi-column per period report to generate a time
chart including only the selected column's values from that period forward.
Printing Charts -- It is now possible to either
print a chart as it appears on screen, or with the axis labels
reduced to allow more emphasis to the chart area and less on the axis labels when printed.
(8) Assumptions Designer
New Full Height Option – Is the standard Designer form panel height too short to display all the accounts you wish to select from without scrolling? Now a simple menu option is available to maximize the Designer form to full verical screen height, or returns the Designer to normal height.. Nice when building custom formulas via the Accounts to Use panel, so you don't need to scroll the panel to find all of the accounts you wish to include in a long subtotal.
New Pop-Up Variables Pick List -- Right-click the frame of the Value (Factor) or Formula field in the Designer to see a list of available variables internally defined within Profit Plan, like 'Period', 'SalesPct', etc. Select one from the pop-up list and it will be inserted into the current Value or Formula field immediately for you.
(9) Obsolete & Inactive Account Status
In
prior editions, the Hide Acct? field in Account Setup
provided a convenient means to expose or hide non-financial (planning)
accounts and old inactive accounts in the standard reports. But there was no easy
way to insure that those obsolete and inactive accounts defaulted to
$0.00 balances. Now the Hide Acct? field flags can do both!
An
Inactive ( “I” ) flag in this column
hides the account in the formal reports (like an “R”
does), but also sets the default forecast
to $0.00. So when you extend that forecast to prepare the next
budget, the account will automatically have zeros, rather than
whatever would have been the default otherwise. (This is particularly
nice for old interest and depreciation accounts, as well as those
that might have been sales related otherwise.)
An Obsolete
(“O”) flag in this column leaves the
account exposed in the formal reports, but also provides zero values for the default
forecast. This can be handy when you want to expose an old loan, for
example, that you retired some time ago, just to subtly show in
your story that other lenders have been quite happy to provide that kind of capital in the past. When not relevant to the discussions, simply
change the flag, and the obsolete account disappears again.
(10) Zero Suppress or Expose Hidden and Inactive Accounts
A new option on the Zero Suppression dialog now lets you alternately expose (to check for), or hide, the accounts and lines marked by the I,R,O, and * flags. This is much easier than manually exposing and/or hiding individual account lines with the Format / Adj Rows & Cols menu.
(11) Worksheet Tab Enhancements
Control
Maximum Row and Columns – You can now easily control the
maximum number of rows and columns visible in the Worksheet
tab. This makes it very handy for creating custom reports by
simply copying one into a Worksheet tab and editing it directly
there. Then set maximum rows and columns to expose, for best
viewing and printing. (See new Alpha Plus sample of a customized
Cash Flow report used to compute how much their shareholders would be
investing over time.)
Insert New Sheets – You can
now insert up to 254 sheets into the Worksheet tabs. Simply choose
where and insert. (Delete as easily, if you don’t need it any
more.)
Drag 'n Drop Excel (.xls) – Drag any old Excel workbook into the Worksheet tab it directly into Profit Plan. Once dropped there, any data in the Excel workbook can be referenced anywhere else within Profit Plan. (This same technique can now be used to create custom reports also.)
Note: Save an Excel workbook in Excel 95 or 97 format before importing it. This provides maximum compatibility for Profit Plan. (Importing an Excel workbook replaces the existing workbook, unlike the txt, prn, cvs file imports mentioned below.)
Drag 'n Drop Import for Delimited Files (.cvs, .prn, .txt) – Drop any comma, tab, or space delimited file onto a Worksheet to easily iimport it for review and/or reference elsewhere in Profit Plan. (If the imported file info was not what you expected, simply delete the sheet and the rest of the workbook remains unaffected.)
Worksheet Links – Older editions occasionally
generated #Ref! messages when first reloading a model that contained
links from your special custom Worksheet data into the Assumptions
tab. This linkage annoyance has been removed, so feel free to add
your own personnel payrolls, special vendor schedules, custom
purchasing rules or whatever into your Worksheet tab. Then pull the
relevant data (like payroll totals) into the Assumption sheet by
setting up simple link formulas in the Assumptions sheet to reference the desired data now in one of the Worksheets tab's worksheets.
(12) Lock/Unlock Toolbar button added
A new toolbar button is now available for convenient locking/unlocking of the Assumptions Sheets and the amortization schedules (tangible, intangible assets and loan schedules.) This augments the older feature which will still unlock or relock the current report or schedule when the padlock area in Profit Plan' lower right-hand corner is double-clicked.
(13) Variance Report Enhancements
Profit Plan can now translate and automatically reproduce many of those custom non-financial Assumption Sheet formulas you built into the Assumptions Sheets from there directly into the related "Actuals" report columns of the associated Income Statement Variance or Balance Sheet Variance report. In earlier editions, the user had to manually create equivalent formulas for many of these custom formulas from within the report report itself. In addition, when this variance data is subsequently "rolled" into the Assumptions sheets later, the Assumption Sheets can now be expected to recompute these same values in the Assumptions. (Earlier editions locked the variance report's result into the Assumptions Sheet by transfering the computed value from the variance reports, rather than the equivalent formula. This was usually fine, but sometimes "history" changes later and you may want the newly "historical" result recomputed again automatically.)
Many, many other minor and perhaps less obvious features and enhancements have been made to help you along the way. Hopefully, messages are more clear, some options now more obvious, etc. But we won't bore you with the details.
For those upgrading from editions preceding even 2006, we have included a copy of Whats new in Profit Plan v2006 as an introduction to those many features added in 2006 that will also be new to you now.
All in all, we are sure you will find Profit Plan v2007 a great tool for in-depth management of your Vision of Tomorrow!
To upgrade now, surf over to our No-hassle Upgrade form, or order on-line from our sister site's secure Buy Now page.
Enjoy!
Security Development Corp
