As a small business owner, you know how hard it can be to balance the books while also running operations. Budgeting, invoices, and forecasting can all quickly become chores. Luckily, there are many different programs that can help ease and speed up these tasks.
To help you find the best budgeting software for your small business, we have compiled a list of the 15 best small business budgeting software programs available in 2021. We have also included the pros, cons, and pricing options of each so you can find the software that best fits your, and your business’s, needs.
Top 15 Best Small Business Budgeting Software
- Microsoft Excel – Best Budgeting Software for DIY
- QuickBooks – Best Budgeting Software for All-In-One
- FreshBooks – Best Budgeting Software for Freelancers and Solo Entrepreneurs
- Workday Adaptive Planning – Best Budgeting Software for Finance Departments
- Budgyt – Best Budgeting Software for Connecting Multiple Departments
- Cube – Best Budgeting Software for Fast Growing Firms
- Xero – Best Budgeting Software for Scalability
- Centage – Best Budgeting Software for Accounting Departments
- Planguru – Best Budgeting Software for Mid-Size Businesses
- Scoro – Best Budgeting Software for Agencies and Consultants
- Tidemark – Best Budgeting Software for Flexibility
- Float – Best Budgeting Software for Project Management
- Tagetik – Best Budgeting Software for Managers
- Coupa – Best Budgeting Software for Supply Chain Management
- Gide– Best Budgeting Software for Startups
#1. Microsoft Excel – Best Budgeting Software for DIY
Pricing: One-month free trial then prices start at $5.99 per month
If you want full control, want to budget yourself, and are very price focused, Microsoft Excel is for you. Excel is extremely versatile, has a large amount of content and algorithms built in, supports thousands of add-ons, and has a large online community that create templates, how-to guides, and can answer questions. A unique perk is that purchasing excel also gives you access to the full Microsoft Office Suite including Microsoft Word (word processor), Microsoft Outlook (email software), and Microsoft PowerPoint (presentation creator).
| Pros | Cons |
| Low Cost | Very Bare Bones When Compared to Other Software Options |
| Extremely Versatile | Limited Integrations Options |
| Large Community and Many Resources | Have to Create all Forms, Invoices, Formulas, etc. Yourself (No Built-In Templates) |
| Access to Full Microsoft Office Suite |
#2. QuickBooks- Best Budgeting Software for All-In-One
Pricing: 30-day free trial then starts at $15 per month for freelancers/single employees or $25 per month for small business
QuickBooks is the one stop shop for an all-in-one software. The basic package includes receipt and milage tracker, cash flow management, invoicing, creating estimates, sales tax tracker, 1099 creation and support, and the ability to accept payments. Upgraded packages include features such as additional reporting options, bill pay, inventory tracker, advanced business analytics, and process automation. Additionally, for only a one-time fee of $50, a live QuickBooks bookkeeper will assist you with setting up the software and answer questions.
| Pros | Cons |
| All-In-One Software | Not All Options Available at All Price Tiers |
| Ability to Automate Tasks | Base Package has Very Limited Options |
| Advanced Business Analytics and Metrics | Low Rated Customer Support |
| Mobile App | Some Features have Limited Functionality and Integration |
#3. FreshBooks – The Best Budgeting Software For Freelancers and Solo Entrepreneurs
Pricing: 30-day free trial then plans start at $15 per month or $130.50 per year
FreshBooks is an accounting and budgeting software that is made for freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, and very small businesses. Their pricing tiers are based on the number of clients with the bottom only allowing 5 billable clients to the top tier having an unlimited amount. FreshBooks’ software offers reporting options such as bank and income statements, business health monitoring, and profit projections while also offering accounting functions such as budgeting, invoice creation, tax reports, and the ability to accept payments.
| Pros | Cons |
| Simple and Fast Invoice Creation | No Quarterly Tax Estimates |
| Mobile App | Not Very Scalable |
| Milage and Time Tracking in all Tiers | Limits Number of Users and Clients |
| Highly Rated Customer Support | Lowest Tier Plan Lacks Many Basic Functions (ex. Bank Account Reconciliation and Accountant/Bookkeeper Access) |
#4. Workday Adaptive Planning – Best Budgeting Software for Finance Departments
Pricing: Contact for prices and options
If you are looking for a software that focuses solely on budgeting, forecasting, and is made specifically for finance departments, then Workday Active Planning is for you. Workday Active Planning is very easy to use, scales well with your business, and provides industry leading planning and forecasting tools. But it does sacrifice some of the tools that other software offers such as inventory management, invoicing, and outside integrations.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to Use | Longer than Average Set Up and Implementation Process |
| Works Well in Browser | Limited Business Analytic Reporting Options |
| Industry Leading Forecasting Tools | Working with Multiple Currencies Can be Clunky |
| Also Includes Some HR Tools | Limited Training Resources |
#5. Budgyt – Best Budgeting Software for Connecting Multiple Departments
Pricing – Plans start at $199 per month, additionally there is a $1,500 set up fee in the first year
Budgyt is a top-of-the-line P/L budgeting tool that is fast, easy to use, offers the same features at every price tier. While Budgyt’s high price may dissuade some, this fully web-based tool offers fast set-up and implementation, streamlined API connections, highly rated 24/7 support, live training, and full integration across multiple departments with an unlimited number of users for no extra cost.
| Pros | Cons |
| Fast, Easy Set Up and Integration | No App or Mobile Site |
| Highly Rated Budgeting and Forecasting Tools | High Monthly Price |
| Highly Rated Customer Support | Not All Features Live Yet (Still a Work in Progress) |
| All Features Offered at Every Price Tier |
#6. Cube – Best Budgeting Software for Fast Growing Firms
Pricing – $850 per month but discounts are available if you have less than 50 employees
Cube is an extremely powerful budgeting, reporting, forecasting, and analysis tool. You can connect Cube to your existing CRM, HR, sales, and payroll software using their extensive list of integrations. Cube has been consistently praised for its speed, ease to use, real time planning, extensive reports and templates, and data aggregation. While Cube has some impressive features, it is still a fairly new startup, and its best days are still ahead.
| Pros | Cons |
| Real Time Reporting and Budgeting | High Monthly Price |
| Lightning-Fast Processing Speed | Limited Features Relative to Other Software Packages |
| Large Number of Possible Integrations | Still a New Startup so Growing Pains Can Occur |
| Unique Data Aggregation Algorithm |
#7. Xero – Best Budgeting Software For Scalability
Pricing – 30-day free trial then plans start at $12 per month
Xero is accounting software built specifically for small business. Xero lets you manage everything from fixed assets, sales, bills, inventory, invoices, and, for an additional $39 per month, you can add on payroll to your plan. Despite its perks, Xero still falls short in its financial planning and cash flow projection ability when compared to similar software packages. Also, not all functionalities are available at all price tiers.
| Pros | Cons |
| Unlimited Number of Users | Not All Functionalities Available in All Plans |
| Quotes, Invoices, and Accept Payments | Lowest Price Plan Limits Invoices and Bills |
| Double-Entry Accounting | Cash Flow Projections Lacking |
| Payment and Bill Pay Reminders | No Phone Customer Service, Online Only |
#8. Centage – Best Budgeting Software for Accounting Departments
Pricing – Contact for price quotes
Centage is financial software built to make the tools traditionally only available to large corporations, available to small businesses. It mostly accomplishes through its powerful “what if” tool that runs potential future scenarios to predict firm budgets, profits, and workflow. A unique feature of Centage is that it guarantees that its calculations and generated reports are GAAP compliant, but some have stated this makes Centage inaccessible to anyone without a financial background.
| Pros | Cons |
| “What if” Scenario tool | Unintuitive UI |
| Guaranteed GAAP Compliance | Limited Reporting Options |
| Fast Integration | Lackluster Customer Support |
| Poor Online Training |
#9. Planguru – Best Budgeting Software for Mid-Size Business
Pricing – 30-day trial then $99 per month or $899 per year
Planguru does what you need in the way you want to do it. Planguru offers a robust budgeting software with fully customizable dashboards, an excel add-on for reporting, and impressive business health analytics and cash flow projections. The main goals of Planguru are to analyze, project, and reconcile cash flow and, while it does this very well, it does not offer much of the other all-in-one options that many of the other software packages on this list do.
| Pros | Cons |
| Generate Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows at any time | No Inventory Management |
| Forecast Cash Flows up to 10 Years | Desktop App does not Offer All Features Compared to Website |
| Good Online Training | Reporting Tool Lacks Flexibility |
| Unlimited Number of Users and Projects | Struggles with Multi-Currency Transactions/Projections/Budgets |
#10. Scoro – The Best Budgeting Software for Agencies and Consultants
Pricing – Prices start at $28 per month per user (minimum 5 users)
Scoro handles all levels of project management from planning, budgeting, timing, to the finished project. This software was built with consulting and agency firms in mind with its included CRM application, marketing, and business automation capabilities. But not all of these capabilities are available at all price tiers. The lowest package (named “essential”) is very barebones, and you truly need the top package (Named “Pro”, $63 per user per month with 5 users minimum) to experience the majority of what Scoro has to offer.
| Pros | Cons |
| 30-Day Free Trial | Lowest Price Tier Has Very Few Features |
| All-In-One Applications (CRM, Marketing, Etc.) | Unintuitive Project Tracking UI |
| Top-Of-The-Line Project Management | Data Import Requires Some Manual Work |
| High Number of Tasks that can be Automated | CRM Application is Lacking |
#11. Tidemark – Best Budgeting Software for Flexibility
Pricing – Contact for pricing
Unlike other software packages that require you to fit your business in to their programs, Tidemark customizes each package to fit your business and your needs. After inquiring about the software, a Tidemark representative will reach out to tailor your package and discuss pricing and what features you need including reporting, workflow management, scalability, and financial modeling capabilities. The downside of Tidemark is that is lacks many of the “all-in-one” features, including custom reports, ad hoc analysis, and multi-currency capabilities, that other software packages have and may best be used in conjunction with another accounting software.
| Pros | Cons |
| Customizable Plans | No Pricing Information |
| Payroll and Tax Planning | Lacking Many Features |
| Can Run Reports by Branch or Location | No Custom Reporting |
| Limited Integration Capabilities |
#12. Float – Best Budgeting Software for Project Management
Pricing – 30 Day Free Trial then $6 per user per month
Float is a budgeting and management tool meant for HR professionals and day-to-day management. On top of its budgeting and financial planning functions, Float also has applications for personal management including work hours scheduling, time off, and holidays. On top of that, Float also integrates with many enterprise software applications, including Slack, Google Calendar, and Outlook.
| Pros | Cons |
| Large Number of Integrations | High Bandwidth Requirements |
| Mobile App | Overall Financial Applications are Weak |
| Can Request New API or Integration Set Ups | Some UI Features are Lacking or Unintuitive |
| 30 Day Free Trial | Very Few Customization Options |
#13. Tagetik – Best Budgeting Software for Managers
Pricing – Contact for Pricing
Tagetik is a financial software built to unify and consolidate the operations of your business. This app empowers you to make decisions that are backed by real time number and analytics. Tagetik has applications that support budgeting, financial planning and projections, profitability tracker, and integrations with Microsoft Office. All of this does come at the price of some UI issues and some overly complex pathways and options.
| Pros | Cons |
| Microsoft Office Integration | Complex UI |
| Highly Rated Customer Support | Some Features are Unintuitive |
| View, Edit, and Project Data in Real Time | No Up-Front Pricing |
| Highly Customizable | Online Training and Implementation Documents are not up to par |
#14. Coupa – Best Budgeting Software for Supply Chain Management
Pricing – Contact for Pricing
Coupa connects your business, your employees, your customers, and your suppliers under one program. This is accomplished through Coupa’s procurement, automatic payment, invoicing, and contract management functions. Coupa’s primary focus is to track cash flow, most specifically cash outflow and business expenses, and this comes at the expense of traditional accounting or budgeting capabilities. Some budgeting functions are present, but they are obviously not Coupa’s primary focus.
| Pros | Cons |
| Industry Leading Supply Chain Management | No Upfront Pricing |
| Automate Payments and Invoices | No Budgeting Functions |
| Manage Suppliers and Invoices | No Streamlined Implementation Process |
| Mobile App | Clunky UI |
#15. Gide – Best Budgeting Software for Startups
Pricing – Plans start at a $34 onetime charge
Gide uses the spreadsheet model that Microsoft Excel has pioneered and takes it to the next level. This app was made with Excel users in mind who wanted more packages from their spreadsheet app. Gide functions near identical to Excel in terms of spreadsheets, formulas, and functions, but it adds on built in models, reports, analytics, and projection functions. While all of this is possible in Excel, the perk of Gide is that everything is already built in, sharable, collaborative across your business, and customizable. Gide also offers additional features such as audit trails, ad hoc reporting, cash management, and built-in business analytics.
| Pros | Cons |
| Low One Time Price | All GIDE features can be done in Excel |
| Intuitive UI for those Familiar with Excel | Online Training is Lacking |
| Fully Adaptable and Customizable | No Live Customer Support |
| Easily Model and Report in Multiple Currencies |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my business need a budgeting software?
No, a budgeting software is not required to run every business. But budgeting software packages do help with collaboration, taxes, reporting forecasting, planning, and scalability. A budgeting software should be thought of as a helpful tool, but not a necessity.
How do I find the best budgeting software for my business?
The best budgeting software for your business will meet your needs, be at a good price point, and has most of the functionalities that you need.
How long does it take to implement a new budgeting software into my business?
That depends heavily on both the tool and your business. Some business owners report implementations to only take a few weeks while others say it takes a few months. The industry standard for small business implementation is 60 to 90 days.
Are there free budgeting software packages?
Yes, there are free applications with most being spreadsheet based. We chose not to include them in this article as most free options were not as robust as the software packages on this list.
Are there any advantages to using a cloud-based budgeting software?
The main advantage to a cloud-based software is that it is available anywhere, anytime, and with no download required. This can be great for on-the-go and out of office work and budgeting. The drawback is that many cloud-based software packages require internet connection, so offline work is impossible.