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This guide takes you from a fresh workspace to a live forecast and an executive brief. It is the short version. When you want the day-by-day plan, follow the First week tutorial.

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Prerequisites

  • A Novaplan workspace and a sign-in (your admin invites you).
  • At least one data source ready to connect: your HRIS (HiBob), your GL (NetSuite), your CRM (Salesforce or HubSpot), Snowflake, or a CSV export. See Connect your data.

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Get started

1

Connect a data source

In Admin, then Data, connect HiBob, NetSuite, Salesforce, Snowflake, or upload a CSV. Novaplan lands a lossless raw record from each source, then curates it into clean people, GL, and revenue records. Bad rows are flagged individually rather than silently dropped. See Connect your data.
2

Pick a budget version

Everything in Novaplan is scoped to a budget version (for example “2026 Plan” or “Rolling Forecast”). The live, unlocked version is where you plan, and locked versions are frozen snapshots you compare against. See Core concepts.
3

Plan headcount

Open Planning, then Headcount to model your team from a live HRIS snapshot, add open positions, and see fully loaded cost per employee per month. Walk through it in Plan headcount.
4

Plan revenue

Open Planning, then Revenue to model ARR. Choose a forecast method (pipeline, drivers, or top-down targets) and project your topline. Walk through it in Plan revenue.
5

Run the forecast

Run the forecast to project costs and revenue across your window. Headcount and revenue each derive into the GL, so every dashboard reflects your latest plan automatically.
6

Compare and explain

Open Reporting, then Comparison Center to see your plan against actuals or a frozen target, then generate a Brief to get the variance story written for you. Walk through it in Build a brief.
7

Ask Nova

Type a question in plain language anywhere in the app. Nova answers on your real numbers with charts, tables, and navigation, scoped to the page you are on. See Ask Nova.

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Where to go next

First Week

A day-by-day onboarding plan from connected data to your first board-ready brief.

Core Concepts

Budget versions, scenarios, actuals vs forecast, lock levels, and dimensions.

Connect Your LLM

Turn your own copilot into an FP&A operator with the Novaplan MCP server.
Need help during your pilot? Reach your Novaplan contact directly, or email support@getnovaplan.com.