How LivePlan's Plan vs. Actual Feature Works

Updated

LivePlan's Plan vs. Actual feature connects your accounting software to your LivePlan plan and compares real monthly numbers against what you forecasted. It is built for business owners who already have a plan in LivePlan and want to see whether revenue is tracking, expenses are drifting, and whether a planned hire is actually affordable. The comparison runs on your actual accounting data rather than manual estimates, so the value depends on keeping your accounting records current and your plan assumptions reasonably realistic.

What the feature does

According to LivePlan's own description, the feature works in three steps:

  1. Connect your accounting software to LivePlan.
  2. Compare real numbers against your plan every month — revenue, expenses, and the rest of your forecast.
  3. Read the answers — whether revenue is tracking, whether expenses are drifting, and whether you can afford the next hire.

The stated purpose is decision support: "Real data. Clear answers. Smarter decisions."

Why the comparison is meaningful

The Plan vs. Actual view is only as useful as the forecast it compares against. LivePlan's financial forecasting keeps your income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet connected, so a change to one assumption flows through everything. That matters for variance analysis: if you change a revenue assumption in the plan, the downstream cash and balance sheet effects update too, and the monthly comparison reflects the revised plan rather than a stale one.

A concrete example: if a lender asks what happens to your cash when revenue comes in 20% below plan, LivePlan's connected model can answer it. Plan vs. Actual extends that logic to real results — you see the gap between plan and reality as it emerges, month by month, instead of discovering it at year-end.

What you need before it works

  • An existing plan in LivePlan with a financial forecast (income statement, cash flow, balance sheet).
  • Accounting software that you connect to LivePlan, kept up to date so the "actual" side of the comparison is accurate.
  • A regular review habit — the feature is designed around monthly comparison, so the decision value comes from checking it on a cadence, not once.

Limits to keep in mind

  • The page evidence describes the feature at a summary level; it does not detail which specific accounting platforms are supported or how the connection is configured. Check LivePlan's own documentation or support pages for the current integration list before relying on a specific tool.
  • Plan vs. Actual compares numbers; it does not judge whether your plan assumptions were good. If the plan was optimistic, the variance will show it — that is the point, but it means the feature is a mirror, not an advisor.
  • Pricing and plan-tier details for the feature are not specified in the available material; consult LivePlan's pricing page for what is included at each level.

Who gets the most from it

Owners who already use LivePlan for planning and forecasting and who keep clean books in connected accounting software. If you are still at the idea stage, the more relevant LivePlan tools are Idea Canvas and Market Research; Plan vs. Actual becomes useful once you are operating and want monthly evidence of whether you are on track.