Q:  The Financial Statement templates are available on the internet - why would I need to buy your template?

A:  There are many well organized templates available just by searching on financial template.

The benefit of using Predict5 is that by populating the 'Wizard' sheet you are forced to think through (from a financial perspective) how the business will be structured.  The side effect of populating the 'Wizard' is a complete set of financial statements.  You will not spend time trying to make your P&L tie to the SCF and the SCF to the Balance Sheet and then reworking them each time you change one...

The real benefit is that you'll know, intimately, the financial impact of each decision you make.

Q:  Shouldn't I use Quickbooks for this?

A:  We recommend leveraging Quickbooks or other off the shelf accounting packages to track your business' financials.  Those applications are not set up to build a financial model - they are set up to keep track of debits and credits...and do a great job with reporting.  Once you have the business running you are able to leverage Predict5 to 're-forecast' on an ongoing basis.

You are able to leverage our structured methodology for your financial model or you can build your own customized spreadsheet.  The advantage of Predict5 is that you can focus on assumptions, simple formulae, and logical extrapolation into the future...as opposed to trying to figure out why the P&L, SCF, and Balance Sheet are out of alignment!

Q:  Should I hire an accountant to help me?

A:  As we are CPA's we would be remiss to say no!  Actually, you can leverage this tool to build your financial model and we absolutely recommend taking one of the following approaches:

• Hire an accountant or CPA to help you think through your assumptions and modeling.  Keep in mind that all of us have different specialties.  If you go down this path, find someone to help you that understands the needs of small businesses...just because they are a CPA they may not have the perspective you'll want.

• Find a CFO, Controller, or Finance Manager in a local business and offer them the opportunity to serve on your 'Advisory Board'.  You can provide them a great line item for their resume and they can provide you valuable insight.  When your business takes off you may want to include them as part of a more formal 'Board'. 

• Hire us!  As mentioned on the Advisor Tab of our web site we created this template because so many times a client has requested we help build a business plan.  We determined that our 'value add' is the relationship and guidance we provide to clients.  Building a custom model for each client was time consuming and expensive for our clients who were already investing in other aspects of building their business.   Predict5 puts the power in the hands of the client to build the model and let us provide guidance and feedback.  If you want to contact one of our CPA's send an email to advisor@predict5.com - we'll respond quickly.

Q:  If I buy this template and just have a quick question are you going to charge me to answer it?

A:  Feel free to email us with questions...if you include a copy of your file and specifically identify the issue or question we will respond as quickly as possible.  If your question requires complex analysis on your business we may suggest an hourly fee however we are not the type to nickel and dime you.  We love small business and are truly interested in helping!

Q:  You make this sound too easy.  Accounting is not my forte!

A:  Download the demo and look through the Wizard - if you can populate some basic formulas you should do fine.

Q:  I like your template but it's missing something I really NEED!

A:  Let us know - we'll see what we can do to accommodate.

Q:  What types of businesses have used your template?

A:  We do not know how for sure every application but based on various Q/A activities we have seen applications in Retail (various types of franchise / small stores), technology start-ups (both Internet Retail and web application companies, and 1 Application Service Provider), and at least one not-for-profit.  Because of the easy customization it is fairly flexible.

Q:  Your Question Here...email faq@predict5.com!

Please email faq@predict5.com with any questions - we'll post answers here!