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Make Smarter Decisions Faster With LivePlan’s New AI-Driven Monthly Financial Review

Kody Wirth

5 min. read

Updated November 24, 2024

Say hello to your personalized AI financial advisor

Running a business is incredibly demanding, and finding time to dig into your financials can feel impossible. 

You know there’s more you could do if you had clear insights into your business performance, but detailed financial reporting and analysis often get pushed aside.

That’s where Monthly Review comes in—the latest addition to our AI-powered LivePlan Assistant, designed to simplify your financial analysis.

Your monthly performance snapshot

LivePlan Assistant analyzes your accounting data from QuickBooks or Xero and automatically generates a report on your financial performance—both month-to-month and fiscal year-to-date. 

Without even looking at a spreadsheet, you’ll immediately have a sense of how your business is doing and what areas need your attention the most. 

It’s like having a personal accountant review your financial reports and highlight the most important insights.

Get the story behind your numbers

With one click, the short summary expands into an in-depth analysis of your business performance.

Like a professional business advisor, the LivePlan Assistant provides the “why” behind your numbers: surfacing only the most critical areas of variation, describing what occurred, and suggesting important next steps for your business.

Then, when you’re ready to take action, you can access your forecasts and financial statements directly from the analysis.

Quickly compare actual results to your forecasts

Comparing your actual performance to your forecasts (and previous periods) has never been easier. You can see how your revenue, expenses, profitability, and cash position compare to your forecast, the previous month, and the previous year—all in one place.

Want to find out what’s causing that increase in revenue? Or understand what could have led to that drop in expenses? There’s no need to dig through traditional financial reports. Instead, check your “Top Movers,” where LivePlan Assistant automatically surfaces critical revenue and expense items for you to monitor.

These comparisons aren’t limited to the last month, either. With a simple click, you can toggle to a year-to-date overview or select another month to view its performance. 

All of these comparisons and report adjustments are done for you, so you can access every detail without creating a complex report or spreadsheet. 

Monthly insights right in your inbox

Note: To keep your financial data secure, we do not send your actual numbers by email.

We know how difficult it is to set aside time to review your business performance. So, whenever a new analysis is generated, you are notified via email with a key insight about your business.

The email is also a helpful reminder every month to log in and explore the new full analysis in your Monthly Review.

Keep everyone up-to-date

Do you have a management team, board, or investors you want to keep in the loop? 

You can download and share the Monthly Review as a PDF or invite collaborators to your LivePlan account so they can explore it on their own. In either case, you can access an easily digestible performance report that helps tell the story behind your numbers.

How to access LivePlan Assistant’s Monthly Review

All LivePlan Premium users* get access to the Monthly Review’s AI-powered financial analysis. To generate this report, just:

• •Connect to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or upload your actual results from a spreadsheet.
• •Build your forecast (which LivePlan guides you through step-by-step).

That’s all it takes! 

As soon as you’re accounting connected and have a forecast, you’ll get an analysis for the previous month. The more detailed your forecast, the better the insights from your Monthly Review will be.

*You will need AI enabled in your LivePlan account to access this feature. It’s entirely optional; if you opt out, you won’t have access to this or other AI functionality. For more information, please read about our approach to using AI within LivePlan.

Small business owners already love the Monthly Review

Here’s what LivePlan users are already saying about this AI-powered review:

Less time in your numbers means more time running your business

LivePlan Assistant’s Monthly Review eliminates the guesswork from your financial analysis—providing immediate, actionable insights that help you make quick, confident decisions for your business. 

By focusing on the numbers that matter most, you’ll spend less time sifting through data and more time driving your business forward.

Try LivePlan Premium today and see how AI-powered financial analysis can transform your business planning and growth.

FAQ

Do I need a QuickBooks or Xero account to use the Monthly Review?

While a QuickBooks Online or Xero connection will automate the analysis every month, you can also enter your actual results manually or upload from our CSV template to produce the Monthly Review.  

Where can I find the Monthly Review within LivePlan?

LivePlan Assistant’s Monthly Review is part of your Dashboard. To access it, navigate to the Dashboard and click the tab at the top of your screen labeled “Monthly Review.”

Can I view previous Monthly Reviews or only the most recent month?

If you have accounting data for previous months, you can look back at earlier Monthly Reviews by switching to a different period.

What should I do if something in my Monthly Review looks off?

If the analysis in your Monthly Review isn’t matching your expectations, take some time to review and revise the details in: 

• •Your Forecast in LivePlan: Do you need to update your financial plan to match shifts in your business?
• •Your accounting in QuickBooks Online, Xero, or your CSV upload: Did you close the previous month, or are there still accounting adjustments you need to make?

You can also regenerate LivePlan Assistant’s analysis to prompt the AI for new output. 

Is my financial data secure when using this and other AI features?

We take the privacy and confidentiality of our users’ company information seriously. We are completely transparent about how user data is being used in our AI features and have implemented safeguards to protect against unauthorized access, misuse, or disclosure of user data. 

We will also give you control over your data by allowing you to choose what is shared with us and how it is used. If you still have concerns, you can always opt out of using any AI features within LivePlan.

Kody Wirth

Kody currently works as the Inbound and Content Marketing Specialist at Palo Alto Software and runs editorial for both LivePlan and Bplans, working with various freelance specialists and in-house writers. A graduate of the University of Oregon, he specializes in SEO research, content writing, and branding.