General

The General Data screen enables you to enter general information about your plan and to define the plan period. The screen is arranged in a card file structure, with tabs that include various information that you should enter, as follows:

General Data Tab

Plan Name: Enter a name or a short description of the sales plan.

Company Name: Enter the name of your company or business.

Prepared By: Enter your name here.

Φ Note: The above three items will be used in the reports and will appear, as default, at the header of each report (using the report customization screen you will be able to remove it from the report).

Currency Units: Enter here the units in which your currency figures throughout the program will be presented (e.g., Thousands or Millions, etc.). You may select the description from a list. Leave the field empty if you want to enter amounts in units.

Basic Currency Code: Select the basic currency code from a list that displays the codes entered in the Currency Table. At least one currency should be included in the Currency Table in order to use the Basic Currency Code dropdown list. Then, in some of the Data screens, you will be able to select a specific currency code for each item, (e.g. Sales Plan prices), while in other data screens, the basic currency code will be in effect.

Analysis Currency Code: Select the analysis currency code from a list that displays the codes entered in the Currency Table. At least one currency should be included in the Currency Table in order to use the Analysis Currency Code dropdown list. The analysis screens, reports and graphs will be presented in the currency code selected for the analysis, and all amounts will be translated to this currency according to the exchange rates entered in the Currency Table.

Sales by Units or Cash: The choice of sales type will reflect the way that the input windows of Product and Cost and Sales Plan will be displayed to you.

There are two ways to generate the revenue and the direct cost forecasting:

1. Sales by units- In this method you are required to estimate the sales quantities, the unit price and the unit cost

Example:

ABC Inc. is a manufacturer of air condition systems. The estimated sales for 2002 are 1000 units, and 1500 units in 2003. The unit price is $1000 and the production cost is $ 500 per unit.

The Forecast

If you choose to forecast the sales by Units, the Product & Cost window will enable data input of direct costs for each product or service, while the sales plan will be entered in units and price per unit.

2. Sales by Cash - In this method you are required to estimate the sales revenue and the profit margin.

Example:

Mr. Joe Brekman considers opening a new business, a super market. He estimates that in 2002 the sales revenue will be $ 300,000 and in 2003 the sales will be $ 400,000. The average profit margin in this business is about 30%.

The Forecast

If you choose to forecast sales by Cash, in the Product & Cost screen you will be asked to enter the profit margin or mark-up in% for each product or service type, while in the Sales Plan screen you will enter the sales amounts.

Historical Financial Reports (HGB)

If you defined in the Historical Period field mentioned above, that you want to enter data for one or more historical years, you will be able to use the Previous Periods screen to enter data for the Previous Balance Sheet and the Previous Profit & Loss Report. The software offers two formats for the historical financial reports: The simple format that includes the main report’s items and is more suitable for planning, and the standard HGB format that includes all the items commonly used in the accounting system. If you mark here the option "Use HGB format" then the format for the historical financial reports will be the HGB format. This will not change the format of the projected financial reports that the software displays which is always the simple format.

Period Data Tab

Forecast Period (Years): Select the number of years for the plan forecast. Up to ten years are enabled. This figure will be applied in all the data entry, analysis, reports and graphs screens.

Historical Periods: Select the number of years for which you want to enter historical data. You can enter data of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Report for up to five previous years. This information is included in the calculations, reports, and graphs.

Actual Years: Select the number of years for which you want to enter actual data and to run the Actual vs. Plan analysis.

Initial Year: Enter the first year of the forecast period i.e. 2003.

Initial Month: Enter the first month of the forecast period, which usually is the beginning of the fiscal year.

Period Type: For each year select the type of period: Month, Quarter or Year. This will define how data will be entered for this year and how the plan results will be calculated and presented in the analysis screens, reports and graphs. The type of period for a year can’t have greater division than the year before it, namely if the previous year is in months the current year can be in months, quarters or a year, but if the previous year is in quarters then the current year can be in quarters or a year, not in months. If the previous year’s period type is a year then the current year’s period can only be a year.

Year Caption: When the plan period starts in a month other than January (as defined in "General Data" screen), the captions of the years, in all the screens and reports, will be changed to show that a year includes months from two calendar years, e.g. if the plan period starts on April 2005, the first year caption will be 2005/06, the second year caption will be 2006/07, etc.

VAT Data Tab: In the VAT tab enter data that will be used to calculate the VAT payments and returns.

Specify VAT rate for each expense type

This parameter will open a column in the Operating Expenses screen, the Products and Cost screen and the Plant and Equipment screen to enable you to enter the VAT rate for each item. If this parameter is checked, then the 'VATable Expenses (%)' is grayed out.

VAT Rate (%)

Enter the rate of the VAT in your country. It will be used to calculate VAT on the expenses and purchases of your business. The expenses that the software calculates for the VAT include all the direct product costs and the expenses entered in the Operating Expenses screen, excluding the labor cost and the salaries. Investment in plant and equipment are also calculated unless they are marked as without VAT in the Plant and Equipment screen.

Φ Note: If there is more than one VAT rate in your country, enter the rate that is used for most of the purchases and use the VATable Expenses field to get the effect of other rates that are paid on part of the expenses.

VATable Expenses (%)

This parameter is functional only if the 'Specify VAT rate for each expense type parameter' is not checked

Enter the % of expenses on which VAT will be calculated. This figure is usually 100% but it can be changed in cases that you have more than one rate of VAT in your country or in cases when part of the expenses are exempted from VAT.

Φ Note: The VAT on sales is calculated according to the data entered in the Sales Plan window for each product in each market.

First VAT Month: Enter the first month from the beginning of the year, in which VAT is paid to the tax authorities.

Vat Period: Choose the appropriate period from the drop down list box (Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly)

Vat Payment delay: Delays the VAT payment by one month.

General Parameters Tab

Here you can specify parameters that will affect the calculations

Specify days payable for each expense type

This parameter will open a column in the Operating Expenses screen and the Plant and Equipment screen to enable you to enter the days payable parameter for each expense type. If this option is not marked , the software will calculate the days payable for all the expenses according to the parameters entered in the Financial Parameters screen.

Discount Rate

This field should reflect the average cost of money to you, which includes your risk factor. It is used to calculate the Net Present Value of your business.

As a default you can choose your discount rate from the following table:

Risk Level

Buttons

The buttons at the bottom of the screen are:

OK: Close screen and save all changes

Cancel: Close screen without saving the changes

Help: Show the on-line Help for this screen