Financial Plan, an important tool for handling finances

A Financial Plan is a set of stages which is carried out and is related to an individual’s or family’s or a business’s financial matters. This technique is derived from the well defined procedure of Financial Planning.

                           In Personal Finance, a Financial Plan for an individual or a family refers to a set of stages for defining fixed targets related to money expenditure and savings. This kind of financial plan, can be used for allocating money for payment of taxes, daily expenditure and other miscellaneous expenses. Further in Personal Finance, a financial plan can also help in investing of income towards financial sectors like Stock Market Equities or Bank Savings. In Business Finance, a Financial Plan consists of Strategic Planning Procedures like Forward or Future Planning and Financial Year Forecasts of a company. Here, financial documents like Company Balance Sheets and Cash Flow Statements are also prepared.

                           There are various advantages of creating a Financial Plan. In Personal Finance, it can help an individual or a family in channelizing their money. This is done for meeting future expenditure and planning out further savings for long term financial gains. In Business Finance, it can help an enterprise in prevention of it’s fund misuse and also help in Wealth Generation. It can also help an enterprise in installing confidence within banks and financers, for giving them financial help if required.

                           There are various disadvantages of creating a Financial Plan also. In Personal Finance, it can take a lot of time of an individual or of an entire family, if the plan is not sorted out in a well defined manner. This plan can only provide a road map for future personal financial planning but can’t provide guaranteed returns of financial gains for a person. This can only depend upon the person’s or family’s lifestyle and spending habits, which can enhance or spoil the personal finances of a household. In Business Finance, it can take a lot of time of an enterprise, if the Strategic Planning Procedures of a financial plan are not carried out in an analyzed manner. This plan can also turn into a liability if a lot of money has to be spent on a financial advisor for making it and ultimately if the end result turns out to be unsatisfactory.

                           In today’s IT World, various softwares for constituting a financial plan are available on the Internet. Examples of such softwares are Excel Templates which are used as Financial Projection Softwares, Expert Softwares for carrying out Strategic Planning and Tally for making financial documents like Company Balance Sheets and Cash Flow Statements. Some of these softwares are available for free download on the Internet and are known as Free wares, where as some of them are available for download only in exchange of some online payment. Even for Personal Finance, softwares like Microsoft Excel and Access are available for jotting down a financial plan and they don’t need to be downloaded from the Internet.

                           Thus, a Financial Plan has become an important tool in the handling of Personal as well as Business Finances. It is also the base of a Financial Planning Process.