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The Stack / Business
LivePlan
02 DecisionsYes for small operators making money decisions on instinct, but buy Premium. LivePlan is the cheapest honest way to pressure-test a decision (a hire, a price change, a new offer) as a scenario against your actual numbers before you commit. The two features that make it a decisions tool, what-if scenarios and QuickBooks/Xero sync, sit in Premium: $40/mo, or $30 annual. Standard ($20, or $15 annual) is a plan-and-forecast writer. It's fine for a lender pitch, but it isn't a decision seat.
The job in the stack
The business-scenario seat: 'can we afford this move?' answered with a forecast model instead of a gut feeling — plans, projections, and up to 10 what-if scenarios against your real books.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $20/mo | $15/mo annual; AI writing assistance, AI forecast builder, full financial forecast, lender-ready statements, pitch presentation, funder readiness review. No what-if scenarios, no QuickBooks/Xero sync, no budget-vs-actual dashboards |
| Premium | $40/mo | $30/mo annual; adds up to 10 what-if scenarios, QuickBooks Online/Xero sync, market research, budget-vs-actual dashboards, automated monthly financial analysis, board reports, auto-updating profit and cash forecast, trend spotting, milestone planner, Excel export |
| LivePlan Expert | +$30/mo | Add-on (renamed from LivePlan Coach): priority one-on-one 30-minute video sessions |
Pricing verified 2026-10-15. Plans change — the source of truth is LivePlan's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- LivePlan Assistant AI writing and forecasting help built into plan sections and projections
The honest read
What works
- + What-if scenarios turn 'should we?' into a number you can look at
- + Syncs actuals from QuickBooks/Xero, so plan vs. reality stays honest
- + No spreadsheet modeling skills required
- + AI forecast builder is in both tiers
What breaks
- − The decision features (scenarios, accounting sync) are Premium-only at $40/mo, or $30 annual
- − No free tier or trial, just a 35-day money-back guarantee
- − Forecast depth stops at small-business scale; FP&A teams need heavier tools
Use it for
- →Owners deciding on a hire, a price change, or a second offer
- →Anyone a lender or investor has asked for real projections
- →Operators who want plan-vs-actuals reviewed monthly without a CFO
Skip it if
- ×You have no revenue yet and no books to model — a plain document is enough
- ×You already live in a spreadsheet model you trust
Questions operators ask
?Can't ChatGPT write my business plan for free?
It can write the words. It can't hold a live forecast model, sync your actual numbers from QuickBooks, or show you three futures side by side when you change one assumption. The document is the cheap part; the model is what you're paying for.
What changed
- Correction: the pricing page's per-plan feature marks (cards and comparison table, read in a rendered browser) put what-if scenarios, QuickBooks Online/Xero sync, budget-vs-actual dashboards and market research in Premium only. Standard shows a dash for each. This matches LivePlan's help center and reverses the 2026-08-04 entry, which read both as Standard features. Prices hold: Standard $20/mo ($15 annual), Premium $40/mo ($30 annual), LivePlan Expert +$30/mo, 35-day money-back guarantee. Verdict, plan notes, pros and cons rewritten.
- Re-verified on liveplan.com/pricing: Standard $20/mo ($15 annual) still includes up to 10 what-if scenarios, QuickBooks Online/Xero sync, and automatic financial analysis; Premium $40/mo ($30 annual) adds board reports and automated monthly analysis; LivePlan Expert $30/mo; 35-day money-back guarantee. Note: LivePlan help-center article (updated March 30, 2026) still places scenarios and sync in Premium only — it predates the August change; the live pricing page is treated as the source of truth.
- Re-verified across independent sources. No change: Standard $20/mo ($15 annual) with what-if scenarios and QuickBooks/Xero sync, Premium $40/mo ($30 annual) with the reporting and forecasting layer, LivePlan Expert add-on $30/mo.
- Real change: what-if scenarios and QuickBooks Online/Xero sync now appear in Standard, not Premium — the decision features dropped from $40/mo to $20/mo. Premium keeps the automation and reporting rows (automatic forecast builder, automated monthly analysis, board reports, real-time profit and cash forecasting, trend spotting, milestone planner). The coaching add-on is renamed LivePlan Expert, still $30/mo, now sold as priority one-on-one 30-minute sessions rather than four calls a month. Verdict, pros, and cons rewritten to match. Dropped the industry-benchmarks claim: the row is present on the comparison table but checked for neither plan.
- Released from staging to the live stack. Re-verified: pricing unchanged (Standard $20/mo, Premium $40/mo, Coach add-on $30/mo).
- Added to the stack (business-scenario seat, Decisions layer). Verified across four independent sources (official pricing page blocks bots): Standard $20/mo ($15 annual), Premium $40/mo ($30 annual) with QuickBooks/Xero sync and 10 what-if scenarios, Coach add-on $30/mo, 35-day money-back guarantee.
Give LivePlan a job
The business-scenario seat: 'can we afford this move?' answered with a forecast model instead of a gut feeling — plans, projections, and up to 10 what-if scenarios against your real books.
Try LivePlan →Alternatives with different jobs
ChatGPT
02 DecisionsThe generalist seat: quick answers, brainstorming, voice mode, and the widest plugin/app ecosystem when you need breadth over depth.
Notion
01 IntelligenceThe operating-system seat: where plans, docs, and databases live, with AI that can actually see all of it.