No-brainer forecasts

The Quad Business Builder software package is designed for the pub and hospitality market and aimed at users who are not computer literate. Priced at £169 in the first year, the programme provides a diagnostic review of the entire business with "what if" projections.

A typical example of a calculation computes £3,000 of profits and £5,000 of cash (after drawings) on a turnover of £384,000. The programme then out that, with a 15 per cent customer reduction and consequent reduced staff cost, the business would be working 15 per cent less hard to generate £32,000 more profit and £31,000 more cash.

Mike Elvis of the Beaulieu Road Inn in the New Forest said he liked the system because it "talks about the business in language that is understandable". Members of the British Institute of Innkeeping can get a preferential rate of £129 before 12 January.

Midcountry