Run a business simulation

A business simulation replaces the Excel sheet people keep for a new business or a new line. You fill in what you sell, its price, how many and the running costs; the answer is worked out for you. Like a plan, a simulation never posts entries and never shows up in reports or balances.

Simulations are under Planning›Business simulation, in both the Simple and Advanced views. What you sell can be items, jobs or hours, subscriptions, or a mix of many products.

Choose New simulation. Five short steps take you to the answer, and you can change everything afterwards.

1. What you sell

   Pick the closest: Items, Jobs or hours, Subscriptions or A mix of many products. Turn on Fill in the … example to start from example names and prices that you then change.

2. Prices

   Fill in each item, job or plan with its price, and the cost per sale: the ingredients, materials or fuel each one costs you.

3. How many

   Fill in a normal day once things are running, such as how many you sell a day.

4. Costs and money

   Add the running costs you pay whatever you sell, such as rent, staff and electricity, then the starting money you put in before you start.

5. The answer

   Read the answer, then choose Open the simulation for the full editor.

On the Setup tab, The answer stays beside you while you change anything (on a phone, as a bar at the bottom). For each scenario it shows Profit a month, To break even and Earned back (in the Advanced view: Profit a month, Break-even and Payback), and refreshes a moment after each saved change.

Break-even is given in your own units, for example “33 cups a day”, next to what you plan now. If each sale costs more than it brings in, the answer says that selling more won’t fix it, and that you need a higher price or a lower cost per sale.

The Results tab gives the same answer in words, then the cards, a chart of the money left and the month-by-month table.

Every simulation has three scenarios: Pessimistic, Normal and Optimistic. Each has one setting, Sales vs your figures, that says how much worse or better it is. Choose Change in a scenario’s column to set it.

Under the answer is What if…: move Prices or Sales (how many) up or down by a few percent and watch the answer change. Nothing is saved; choose Reset to go back to your figures.

In the Advanced view you can also add Changes over time (a discount, a loyalty card, a new price, or more or fewer sales from a given month) and a scenario’s own figures.

Once the business is running and its income is recorded in your books, open the Reality tab. For each past month the simulation is compared with the real income: the percent Reached, and which scenario reality is closest to.

For each line, a sentence gives the volume a day the plan needs against the one reality corresponds to, for example “You’re at about 38 cups a day; the plan needs 63”. In the Advanced view, link each line to its income account to compare line by line; without links, the whole simulation is compared with all your income.

A scenario can become a plan’s income, so the plan for a new business uses the sales you have already worked out.

1. Open the plan

   On the plan, find Income from a simulation and choose Choose a simulation.

2. Pick the simulation and scenario

   Pick the Simulation and Scenario, then whether it should Replace the plan’s own income lines or be added to them (Add to).

3. Save

   Choose Use this scenario. Each month the plan takes the scenario’s sales after per-sale costs as income, and the simulation’s own costs as costs.

See Plan a new business or a big expense to lay out the plan and turn it into a budget.

Choose Export on the simulation or in the answer panel for PDF or Excel: the answer, the scenarios side by side, the month-by-month table and the line list. If the what-if sliders are in use, the file says so and marks them as not saved. Every export is kept in Generated reports.