Small Business Budgeting Software and Beyond: 12 Tools Checked for Price, Features and Plan Limits

Business budgeting software covers a surprisingly wide price range. A small business can build a budget and compare it with actual results for $15 a month, while midsize planning platforms typically cost $18,000 to $40,000 a year. Both are called budgeting software, and both get recommended in the same lists, which makes it easy to buy far more tool than you need, or far less.

This guide compares 13 business budgeting tools, grouped by the size of business they are built for, and checks each one’s pricing, budgeting features and limits on the vendor’s own pages in 2026. It also covers two things most lists skip: in popular accounting software, budgeting is often locked to higher plans, and company budgets cannot show whether a single client project is staying on budget, which is where project budgeting tools come in.

What business budgeting software does

Business budgeting software, also called company budgeting software or business budget software, helps you set a financial target for the year, usually as a profit and loss budget, then compare actual results against it as the months go by. Better tools also forecast what is likely to happen next, model what if scenarios, split the budget by department or location, and route budgets to managers for approval.

The tools in this guide fall into three groups:

• Accounting software with budgeting built in, such as QuickBooks Online and Xero, where budgets sit next to the actual numbers already in your books.
• Small business planning tools, such as LivePlan, PlanGuru and Budgyt, which add forecasting and scenarios on top of your accounting data.
• FP&A platforms, short for financial planning and analysis, such as Cube, Prophix and Pigment, built for finance teams that manage many departments, entities and approval steps.

A spreadsheet is still enough when one person owns the budget, the business has a single entity, and you only need an annual plan reviewed once a month. The case for software starts when several managers contribute, when you need budget against actual results without copying numbers by hand, or when the budget has to be reforecast during the year.

Budgeting methods and the software that supports them

How you build a budget shapes which tool fits. These are the main methods:

• Top down: leadership sets targets and departments work within them. Fast, but managers may not believe the numbers.
• Bottom up: each department builds its own budget, which finance rolls up. More accurate, but slower. Abacum supports top down and bottom up budgets in one model.
• Incremental: last year’s figures plus or minus a percentage. Simple, but it carries old waste forward.
• Zero based: every line is justified from zero each year. Thorough and time consuming; Prophix supports it alongside traditional and driver based budgeting.
• Driver based: the budget is calculated from business drivers such as headcount, billable hours or units sold. Jirav, Centage, Abacum and Jedox are built around it.
• Rolling forecasts: instead of a fixed annual budget, the forecast is extended every month or quarter. Cube, Pigment, Jirav and Centage all support rolling forecasts.

For most small businesses, an incremental or simple driver based budget inside the accounting system is enough. Bottom up, zero based and rolling approaches are where dedicated planning software starts to pay for itself.

Business budgeting software compared

What separates these tools is less their price than what they let you budget and how they track it. Company tools budget accounts such as revenue, payroll and rent; project tools budget the work for each client. Prices are compared in the cost section further down.

Best budgeting software for small business

When people look for the best small business budgeting software, the honest answer is usually two tools: the budget in your accounting system for the company as a whole and, if you sell your team’s time, a project budgeting tool that shows whether each client job is on budget. Start with what you already own and add a planning tool only when it falls short.

1. actiTIME

Key features:

• Cost, billing and time budgets
• Budgets per customer, project and task
• Estimated vs. actual reporting
• Profit/Loss by project

actiTIME is project budgeting software for service businesses such as agencies, consultancies and engineering firms, where the biggest cost is the team’s time. Instead of budgeting accounts, it budgets the work. On any customer, project or task you can set three independent budgets: a cost budget based on each person’s pay rate, a billing budget based on billing rates for types of work, and a time budget in hours.

As people log hours in their timesheets, each budget’s progress bar fills, either as a running total or day by day, and turns red when the budget is exceeded. A shortcut from each bar opens the report behind it. Here is an illustrative project halfway through:

The hours look fine, but more senior people are doing the work than planned, so cost is burning faster than time. A company budget would only show that at quarter end. The Estimated vs. Actual Time report flags tasks whose estimates were wrong, and the Profit/Loss report compares billable amounts with staff costs by customer or project. Approved hours flow to QuickBooks Online through the QuickBooks integrator, so project costs reach the company books.

Limitation: actiTIME budgets projects, not the company, so it has no profit and loss budget for rent or software and no company forecast. Pair it with the budgeting in QuickBooks Online or Xero.

Pricing: free for up to 3 users; from $5 per user per month; 30 day free trial.

Now we can better predict future project requirements

Our company needed a simple way of tracking time used on multiple projects – and actiTIME fit the need. Its interface is simple and easy to maintain. We use the application for time management, task estimation and also to communicate deadline information to our team members. Now having actiTIME we can better predict future project requirements!

Try actiTIME

2. QuickBooks Online

Key features:

• Profit and loss and balance sheet budgets
• Budgets by location or class
• Budget vs. actuals report
• Import from Excel

QuickBooks Online is where most US small businesses already keep their books, and its budgeting works directly on that data. You can create profit and loss or balance sheet budgets, view them by year, quarter or month, and split a profit and loss budget by location or class to give each branch or department its own target. Budgets can be prefilled from last year’s actuals, and the Budget Overview and Budgets vs. Actuals reports show where you are off plan.

The catch is the plan. Intuit’s help article on budgets applies to Plus, Advanced and Intuit Enterprise Suite only, so Simple Start and Essentials have no budgeting at all. Plus also includes a beta feature that lets you chat to plan scenarios and save them as budgets, and Advanced adds Spreadsheet Sync to work on budgets in Excel. Profit and loss budgets can be imported from an Excel template of up to 10 MB.

Limitation: only profit and loss budgets can be imported, and a deleted budget cannot be recovered.

Pricing: Plus $140 per month (5 users), Advanced $340 (25 users); introductory discounts and a 30 day free trial are often offered.

3. Xero

Key features:

• Budgets with smart suggestions
• Budget variance report
• Cash flow forecast up to 180 days
• No per user fees

Xero is the main alternative to QuickBooks, especially for businesses outside the US, and it charges per organization rather than per user, so adding your bookkeeper or a manager costs nothing extra. You can build a budget from last month’s or last year’s actuals, or from scratch, and the Budget Variance report compares budget to actual results month by month, with exports to Excel or PDF.

As with QuickBooks, budgeting depends on the plan. On the US pricing page, budgeting with smart suggestions is not included on Early, Growing is limited to 3 budgets, and Established includes it fully. The cash flow forecast also grows with the plan, from 30 days on Early to 60 days on Growing and 180 days on Established. Three budgets is enough for one company budget plus a couple of scenarios, but not for a budget per department.

Limitation: there is no budgeting on Early, and Growing’s 3 budget cap rules out detailed departmental budgets.

Pricing: Early $27, Growing $59, Established $97 per month; first time US organizations are often offered a large introductory discount.

4. LivePlan

Key features:

• Budget and forecast with an AI assistant
• QuickBooks and Xero sync (Premium)
• Budget vs. actual dashboards (Premium)
• Up to 10 what if scenarios (Premium)

LivePlan, from Palo Alto Software, is built for startups and small businesses that need a business plan, a budget and a forecast in one place, for example to show a bank or investors. You build profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet forecasts with an AI chatbot, from an uploaded spreadsheet or from scratch, and both plans allow 1 active company, 5 contributors and unlimited guests.

The budgeting features most businesses want are on Premium: sync with QuickBooks Online and Xero, budget against actual dashboards with more than 20 trend reports, up to 10 what if scenarios and a forecast that updates automatically from your actuals. Standard is closer to a planning tool for building the numbers; Premium is what turns the plan into a budget you track. Data exports to Excel as CSV, and an optional Expert add on gives access to advice.

Limitation: budget against actual tracking, accounting integrations and scenarios are Premium only, and only one company can be active at a time.

Pricing: Standard $15, Premium $30 per month billed annually ($20 and $40 monthly); 35 day money back guarantee.

5. PlanGuru

Key features:

• Budgets up to 10 years out
• 20+ forecasting methods
• Unlimited scenarios
• Excel reporting add in

PlanGuru is a long range budgeting and forecasting tool for small businesses, nonprofits, franchises and the accountants who advise them. It builds budgets and forecasts up to 10 years out from up to 5 years of imported actual results, using more than 20 forecasting methods plus a formula builder for your own, with unlimited scenarios per company.

That range of methods is the reason to choose it over the budget feature in your accounting system: you can forecast one revenue line from a growth rate, another from a seasonal pattern and payroll from headcount, then compare scenarios side by side. It imports from QuickBooks Online, Xero and Excel, produces budget against actual reports and rolling forecasts, and every plan includes an advanced reporting Excel add in. Annual billing saves 16%, and there is a 14 day free trial with no credit card.

Limitation: consolidating departments or locations needs the Multi Unit plan, and the entry plans include one user.

Pricing: Single Entity $83, with Analytics $166, Multi Unit Consolidations $333 per month billed annually ($99, $199, $399 monthly); extra users $25 per month; 30 day money back guarantee.

6. Budgyt

Key features:

• Unlimited users
• Forecasts up to 10 years
• Salary and FTE forecasting
• Automatic budget vs. actuals

Budgyt is built for small and lower midsize businesses with several departments, such as multi location companies and nonprofits, where many managers contribute to one budget. Users are unlimited and the price depends on the number of departments, so every budget holder can work in it without adding seats. It forecasts up to 10 years, uses driver based formulas, forecasts salaries and benefits with FTE variance, and calculates budget against actual results automatically.

It connects to QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Business Central and xLedger, and lists a two week guided implementation. Budgyt also offers a free pilot in which it rebuilds your own budget at no cost before you commit. Read the price carefully: the headline “from $399 per month” matches its nonprofit rate, while the for profit calculator starts at $5,988 a year for up to 10 departments.

Limitation: balance sheet and cash flow statements, approvals and multi currency are paid add ons, and setup costs 40% of the annual fee, at least $3,000.

Pricing: from $5,988 per year for 1 to 10 departments, billed annually, plus a one time setup fee; nonprofit pricing from $4,788 per year.

7. Jirav

Key features:

• Driver based modeling
• Monthly rolling forecasts
• Workforce planning
• 200+ integrations

Jirav is an FP&A platform aimed at small and medium businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets but do not want an enterprise rollout. It is built around driver based modeling, monthly rolling forecasts and departmental budgets, with cash flow forecasting and what if scenarios, budget against actual reporting and workforce planning. It lists more than 200 integrations, including QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage Intacct and ADP.

Pricing is published, which is rare at this level. Starter covers 5 departments and 2 admins, and Pro raises that to 15 departments and 5 admins, with unlimited read only users on both. Every plan includes workforce planning and budget against actual reporting, and budgets can be uploaded from Google Sheets or Excel, so a team can move its existing spreadsheet model across rather than rebuilding it. Jirav also sells through accounting firms on a separate price list, so if you use an outsourced accountant, ask whether they already offer it.

Limitation: Starter is limited to company level planning, 24 months of model data and 2 active scenarios.

Pricing: Starter $10,000, Pro $15,000 per year; Enterprise on quote.

Budgeting software for midsize companies

Once several entities, a finance team of two or more and formal approval rounds are involved, a dedicated planning platform makes more sense than add ons to the accounting system.

8. Centage

Key features:

• Rolling, driver based forecasts
• Multi entity consolidation
• Personnel planning with payroll integrations
• Excel plug in

Centage, formerly Planning Maestro, has been building budgeting software since Budget Maestro launched in 2001. It is aimed squarely at midsize companies with $25 million to $500 million in revenue and a finance team of 2 to 10 people. It combines rolling, driver based forecasts with multi entity consolidation, a personnel module that integrates with ADP, UKG and Paylocity, approval workflows and version control, and an Excel plug in for people who prefer to work in spreadsheets.

Centage says it connects natively with more than 20 accounting systems, including NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Xero and Microsoft Dynamics, and that customers go live in 4 to 6 weeks with standard onboarding included and no setup fee on annual plans. Its pricing page is unusually candid: the software starts at $699 a month, but most midsize customers pay between $18,000 and $40,000 a year all in, depending on entities, chart of accounts and seats.

Limitation: the real price needs a demo, and the starting figure is far below what a typical customer pays.

Pricing: from $699 per month billed annually; typical midsize cost $18,000 to $40,000 per year.

9. Cube

Key features:

• Native Excel and Google Sheets
• Budget into rolling forecast
• Approval workflows (Silver and up)
• Unlimited users

Cube is for finance teams that want to keep working in Excel or Google Sheets but need a proper planning system underneath. Every plan works natively in both spreadsheets, so managers receive budget templates prefilled with actuals in a format they already know. Once approved, the annual budget is locked and rolls into a rolling forecast, and budget against actual results update as new data arrives.

Plans are set by the number of legal entities rather than users: Bronze covers 1 entity, Silver up to 10 and adds workflows and single sign on, Gold up to 50 with multi currency included, and Strategic goes beyond that. Every plan includes unlimited users. Cube integrates with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Workday, ADP, Salesforce and Snowflake, and holds SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports.

Limitation: approval workflows are not included on Bronze, and multi currency is an add on below Gold.

Pricing: quote only; free trial on request.

10. Abacum

Key features:

• Top down and bottom up in one model
• Headcount and scenario planning
• Two way Excel connector
• 700+ integrations

Abacum is an FP&A platform for midsize and fast growing companies that run collaborative budget cycles across many department heads. It supports top down and bottom up budgets in the same model, so leadership targets and departmental requests can be reconciled in one place, along with headcount planning, driver based planning, scenario planning and roll ups.

Abacum reports that customers cut their budget cycle to 4 weeks from 10, and that implementation takes weeks rather than quarters, with one customer citing 6 to 8 weeks. It lists more than 700 integrations, a two way Excel connector and live variance tracking with rolling forecasts, and holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications. Abacum was founded in 2020 and says it has raised $100 million.

Limitation: there is no published price or price range at all, so you need a demo just to learn the cost.

Pricing: quote only.

11. Prophix One

Key features:

• Zero based, traditional and driver based budgets
• Approval workflows
• Excel and PowerPoint add ins
• 120+ ERP connectors

Prophix One comes from Prophix, a company founded in 1987 that describes itself as purpose built for midsize finance teams. It supports zero based, traditional and driver based budgeting, collaborative budgeting with approval workflows, and conservative, base and stretch scenarios in one model, with budget against actual variance calculated automatically when actuals arrive at period close.

The Microsoft 365 add ins are a practical strength: Contributor and Analyzer for Excel, and Presenter for PowerPoint, so board decks can pull figures straight from the plan. Prophix lists connectors to more than 120 ERPs as well as HR and CRM systems, and says it has more than 3,000 customers. There is no free trial, only an interactive demo and a call. Prophix says it is not built for Fortune 500 scale, which makes it a natural step for companies that have outgrown the budgets in their accounting system but do not want an enterprise rollout.

Limitation: whether Excel users can write data back depends on their license type, and pricing is not public.

Pricing: quote only.

Enterprise budgeting software

At enterprise scale, budgeting merges with planning across finance, sales, workforce and supply chain, and implementation takes months.

12. Jedox

Key features:

• Excel add in
• Financial and operational drivers
• Workflows with audit trails
• SAP, Dynamics and NetSuite connectors

Jedox is a planning platform for midsize organizations up to large enterprises, with more than 2,900 customers in over 30 industries. It supports rolling forecasts driven by both financial and operational drivers, automated workflows with audit trails, and an Excel add in that keeps the spreadsheet experience while the data lives in a central model.

Where Jedox earns its price is in linking finance to operations: connectors for SAP, Dynamics 365 and Nav, NetSuite, Snowflake and Power BI let a budget pull in sales, inventory or workforce data rather than only the general ledger. Pricing is a monthly fee per named user, billed annually, with different user types for full users, planners and viewers. One customer on Jedox’s pricing page describes three months from signature to go live, and Jedox holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 reports.

Limitation: advanced modeling and ERP connectors are add ons on the entry package, and the setup effort suits enterprises rather than small teams.

Pricing: quote only, per named user per month, billed annually.

13. Pigment

Key features:

• Variance analysis with commentary
• Scenario planning on the fly
• One click rolling forecasts
• Cell level access rights

Pigment is an enterprise planning platform used by companies such as Unilever, Siemens, Danone and Uber. Budgets, forecasts and variance analysis live in the same platform, so a variance is explained in place, with reason categories and commentary, instead of in a separate deck. Scenarios can be modeled on the fly, rolling forecasts update in one click, and access rights can be set down to an individual board, metric, dimension or cell.

Pigment highlights a customer that saves 4 days on each quarterly or budget close, and it integrates with NetSuite, Sage Intacct and SAP. Unlike most enterprise tools it offers a 14 day free trial with no credit card, although some features are limited during the trial. It recently raised a $250 million Series E and positions itself around AI driven planning.

Limitation: pricing is not published, and the platform is built for large planning teams rather than a small finance function.

Pricing: quote only; 14 day free trial.

What budgeting software really costs

Entry prices in this category range from $180 a year to tens of thousands. This is the first year cost at each tool’s entry point for budgeting, using the vendors’ published prices:

Look at the table from the bottom up and two things jump out. First, if you already pay for QuickBooks Online Essentials at $85 a month, moving to Plus to get budgets adds $55 a month, or $660 a year, which is still far cheaper than any dedicated planning tool. Second, the jump from small business tools to planning platforms is steep: after QuickBooks Online Plus at $1,680, the next published prices are Centage at $8,388 and Budgyt at about $9,000 in year one, so there is little middle ground. A business that has outgrown its accounting system’s budgets should expect to spend at least $8,000 to $10,000 a year.

Which budgeting software to pick

• You already use QuickBooks Online: upgrade to Plus and use its budgets before buying anything else.
• You use Xero: Established gives full budgeting and a 180 day cash flow forecast.
• You need a business plan and budget for a bank or investors: LivePlan Premium.
• You want long range forecasts with many methods on a small budget: PlanGuru.
• Many department managers contribute to one budget: Budgyt for unlimited users priced by department, or Jirav for driver based rolling forecasts.
• You are a midsize company with a small finance team: Centage, Cube or Prophix One; Cube if everyone lives in spreadsheets.
• You run large, cross department planning: Jedox or Pigment.
• Your biggest cost is your team’s time on client projects: actiTIME for cost, billing and time budgets per project, alongside the budget in your accounting system.

Where business budgeting goes wrong

• Buying an FP&A platform for a one person budget. If one owner builds the budget once a year, a $10,000 tool adds setup and little else. Budgets in the accounting system are enough.
• Not checking which plan includes budgeting. QuickBooks Online has no budgets below Plus, Xero has none on Early, and LivePlan keeps budget against actual on Premium.
• Budgeting once a year and never reforecasting. A budget set at the start of the year is often out of date within a quarter. Use a rolling forecast or at least a quarterly reforecast.
• Missing labor by project. A payroll line in the company budget can be on target while individual client projects lose money. Track time and staff cost against project budgets; our guide to project budget management software covers more tools for that job.
• Ignoring setup costs and implementation time. Budgyt charges a setup fee of at least $3,000, and midsize platforms quote 4 weeks to 3 months to go live.
• Leaving managers out. Budgets built only by finance get ignored by the people who spend the money. Tools with unlimited users or contributor access make it cheap to involve them.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use QuickBooks for budgeting?

Yes, on QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced or Intuit Enterprise Suite. You can create profit and loss and balance sheet budgets, split them by location or class, prefill them from last year’s actuals and run a Budgets vs. Actuals report. Simple Start and Essentials do not include budgeting.

What is the best software for budgeting?

For a small business, the budgeting built into QuickBooks Online Plus or Xero Established is the best starting point, with LivePlan or PlanGuru if you need forecasting and scenarios. For a midsize company with a finance team, Centage, Cube or Prophix One are the stronger choices.

What is the 50/30/20 rule for business?

The 50/30/20 rule comes from personal finance: 50% of income to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings. There is no standard business version. Some owners adapt the idea to split revenue into operating costs, growth spending and reserves, but the right proportions depend on your margins and industry, so treat it as a starting point for a conversation rather than a target.

Can ChatGPT make me a budget?

An AI chatbot can draft a budget template and suggest categories from figures you give it, but it does not connect to your books or track actual results. Several budgeting tools now build AI into the workflow instead: QuickBooks Online Plus has a beta feature to chat to plan scenarios and save them as budgets, and LivePlan builds forecasts with an AI assistant.

Conclusion

Start with the budgeting you may already own. When it comes to small business budgeting software, for most companies the budget feature in QuickBooks Online or Xero, on the right plan, is enough for a year or two. Move to a dedicated tool when several managers contribute, when you need rolling forecasts, or when the budget spans several entities, and expect a real step up in cost when you do. If your business sells its team’s time, track that time against project budgets too, because that is where margins are won or lost.

To set cost, billing and time budgets on every project and see them fill up as your team logs hours, start a free trial of actiTIME.

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