The best small business budgeting software must let users budget income and expenses, categorize budgets in classes and locations, create budget reports, and provide different options to forecast amounts. Additionally, it should be easy to use to give users a more meaningful budgeting experience. With that in mind, here are the five best budgeting software for small businesses:
- Zoho Books: Best overall small business budgeting software with detailed budgeting features
- Xero: Best for large budgeting teams
- QuickBooks Online: Best for simple budgeting
- PlanGuru: Best standalone software for advanced budgeting
- YNAB: Best for freelancers and self-employed individuals
We are committed to providing you with an unbiased, thorough, and comprehensive evaluation to help you find the right accounting software for your business. We meticulously and objectively assess each software based on a fixed set of criteria—including pricing, features, ease of use, and customer support—in our internal case study.
To delve deeper into our best small business accounting software, we tested and used each platform to evaluate how the features perform against our metrics. This hands-on approach helps us strengthen our accounting software expertise and deliver on the Fit Small Business mission of providing the best answers to your small business questions.
Best Small Business Budgeting Software: Quick Comparison
Pricing | Number of Users Included | Free Trial | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | $70 to $275 | 10 or 15 ($3 monthly per added user) | 14 days |
 | $15 to $78 | Unlimited | 30 days |
 | $90 or $200 | 5 or 25 | 30 days |
 | $99 or $299 | 1 or 3 ($29 monthly per added user) | N/A; offers a 30-day money-back guarantee |
 | $14.99 | 1 only | 34 days |
Class or Location Budgets | Multiyear Budgets | Actual vs Budget Reports | Is Accounting Software? | Budget Formula (Adjust Budgeted Amounts by) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | Yes |
|
| ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | Yes |
|
| ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | Yes | Setting adjustments manually (spreadsheet or manual computation) |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No |
|
| Via categories | ✕ | ✓ | No | Setting amounts manually within the software |
Zoho Books: Best Overall Small Business Budgeting Software With Detailed Budgeting Features
Pros
- Projects sales by a fixed amount or by percentage increments
- Prefills budgets based on actual amounts
- Supports exports for older Microsoft Excel versions (1997–2004)
Cons
- Lacks advanced budgeting features like roll forward budgeting and multi-year budgets
- Is not a dedicated budgeting software
- Lacks complex forecasting features
Zoho Books has six pricing plans, but the Free, Standard, and Professional plans lack budgeting features. The plans with budgeting are:
- Premium: $70 per month for up to 10 users
- Elite: $150 per month for up to 10 users
- Ultimate: $275 per month for up to 15 users
You can try these plans for free for 14 days. Also, you can add more seats at $3 per user, per month.
We ranked Zoho Books as our overall best small business budgeting software because of its flexibility and scalability. It makes budgeting easier for small businesses since there are options to add increments per budget period. This feature also autofills per period, which reduces the time spent needed to complete a budget spreadsheet even more.
Besides budgeting, Zoho Books is primarily accounting software. That’s why we find the combination of accounting and budgeting convenient because all data needed for budgeting are in the same ecosystem. The platform also has workflow rules, validation rules, and advanced inventory features that can be helpful for small business accounting. Overall, we picked it because it is easy to use, especially for DIY small business owners.
It received high marks in all categories, including its general accounting features and pricing. It scored better than QuickBooks Online, Xero, and YNAB in the category of basic budgeting features, like prefilling the budget based on actuals and applying fixed amounts per period, but it took a hit with its inability to produce reports, like budget by cash flow statement and budget by balance sheet. It also doesn’t let you add, edit, or delete budget line items, so if these features are important to you, we recommend PlanGuru.
Zoho Books scored a little better in the advanced budgeting features category, but its inability to create multiyear and roll forward budgets and compute business valuations lowered its score. Along with QuickBooks Online, it received the highest score for ease of use, partially because of its robust mobile app that is able to perform most of the same functions as the web interface.
Deployment Type | Cloud |
|---|---|
Free Trial | 14 days for all paid plans |
Discount | Discounted pricing for annual plans:
|
Customer support | Phone and email, live chat, chatbot, and online resources |
Average User Review Rating | 4.5 of 5, see what users have said in our Zoho Books review |
- Budget formula: Zoho Books lets you autofill budget periods by a fixed amount, specific amount, or percentage increment. This feature is good because you don’t have to do the calculations manually in a separate spreadsheet.
- Multiple budgeting filters: You can filter specific accounts for budgeting. This feature enables you to take a deep dive into budgeting for specific accounts and transactions affecting these accounts. Zoho Books can also filter by class or location.
- Outstanding mobile app: Zoho Books tops our list of best mobile accounting apps. You can track key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards and generate reports through the app. It also works perfectly with iOS devices since you add widgets to your iPhone’s home screen. The app can also send notifications to your Apple Watch, so you can stay on top of everything even when you’re away from your laptop.
Budget Autofill Feature (Source: Zoho Books)
- Businesses that want an easy way to budget for projects: Zoho Books lets you store the ideal amount of money you would like to spend for a project as a whole and individual tasks and staff. After you’ve set your budget, you can compare the time and cost it actually took vs the amount you set in your budget.
- Businesses seeking integrated management software: Zoho Books integrates with other Zoho products, such as Zoho Invoice and Zoho Expense, which automates different aspects of your business. With Zoho Expense, you can create multiple budgets, restrict employees from overspending, and compare budgeted vs actual expenses.
Xero: Best for Large Budgeting Teams
Pros
- Is good for unlimited users
- Has affordable plans for small businesses
- Supports budget increments when creating budgets
- Offers a wide range of integration options via Xero App Store
Cons
- Lacks advanced budgeting features, such as roll forward budgeting and multiyear budgets
- Is not a dedicated budgeting software
- Has no complex forecasting features
All Xero plans include budgeting and are good for unlimited users:
- Early: $15 per month
- Growing: $42 per month
- Established: $78 per month
You can try Xero for free for 30 days.
Xero is our top pick for large budgeting teams because it has unlimited users. Its convenient actual vs budget comparisons make it easier to access these figures without creating a separate report for it. We like this because it reduces the work needed to be done just by assembling a unique report.
Overall, pricing is Xero’s main advantage against all the picks in the guide. For only $78 per month at the highest plan, it’s by far the most affordable pick for small business budgeting (except YNAB, because it’s mainly for personal budgeting). You also get the powerful accounting features of Xero and access to Xero Advisors for assisted bookkeeping.
Along with Zoho Books, Xero received the highest overall score in our evaluation of the best small business budgeting software. We awarded it the highest score in the pricing category because of its affordability and ability to accommodate unlimited users.
Xero also ranked high with its accounting features, but it took a hit with both its basic and advanced budgeting features because it lacks many of the same features as Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online, like producing a budget by cash flow statement and a budget by balance sheet or adding, editing, or deleting budget line items. Xero also doesn’t provide telephone support, which is why we marked it down in the ease of use category. If you’re seeking a provider that offers telephone support, we recommend Zoho Books or QuickBooks Online.
For users interested in learning more about how to use Xero, check out free Xero training tutorials.
Deployment Type | Cloud |
|---|---|
Free Trial | 30 days with no credit card required |
Discount | 50% off for four months upon signup |
Customer Support | Chatbot, email, and self-help library |
Average User Review Rating | 4.5 of 5, see what users have said in our review of Xero |
- Budget formula: Xero’s budget worksheet lets you adjust budgeted amounts by fixed or variable amounts. The budget formula feature can be used for forecasting and reduces the amount of time needed to complete the budget worksheet.
- Flexible actual vs budget comparisons: Xero has a more user-friendly approach in actual vs budget comparisons. You can compare actual results with budgeted amounts on the same screen where you generate basic reports. For example, you can generate an actual vs budgeted income statement in the same screen where you generate an income statement.
- Unlimited custom reports: Xero offers unlimited custom reports, which are useful for creating specific budgets per class, location, department, or personnel.
Budget Variance Report on Xero (Source: Xero)
- Small businesses seeking real-time tracking: Similar to QuickBooks Online, Xero allows for real-time tracking of income and expenses. As transactions occur, the software updates the budget automatically, giving users an instant overview of their financial position.
- Small businesses seeking an alternative to QuickBooks Online for budgeting: We named Xero as one of our best QuickBooks alternatives because it has features very similar to QuickBooks but is considerably less expensive and includes unlimited users.
- Fixed asset management: Xero is the only software in this guide with a fixed asset management feature, which can be helpful with budgeting. It can track fixed assets and calculate depreciation expenses automatically.
QuickBooks Online: Best for Simple Budgeting
Pros
- Has a vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors
- Offers excellent inventory and project accounting features
- Has an excellent bank reconciliation module
- Provides a free template for importing comma-separated values (CSV) file budgets
Cons
- Lacks budget autofilling based on budget formula
- Is not ideal for making comprehensive budgets using budget formulas and percentage increments
QuickBooks Online has four plans, but only Plus and Advanced are ideal for budgeting:
- Plus: $90 per month for up to five users
- Advanced: $200 per month for up to 25 users
You can try QuickBooks Online for free for 30 days or sign up right away to get 50% off for three months, plus a free guided setup from a QuickBooks expert.
As our best small business accounting software, QuickBooks Online offers a wide array of features in accounting and bookkeeping. Its budgeting features may not be as powerful as Xero or Zoho Books, but users can still make a simple budget. For example, you can autofill budget fields and columns, select or deselect accounts to budget, and create a budget by income statement. You can also generate actual-to-budget comparisons, budgeted financial statements, and budget reports by class or location.
We picked QuickBooks Online because of its powerful accounting features, which can complement budgeting. With the help of a vast network of ProAdvisors, your small business can access professional advisory services from certified public accountant (CPA) ProAdvisors.
In our small business budgeting software rubric, QuickBooks Online did well in the general accounting features, like accounts receivable (A/R), accounts payable (A/P), banking, reporting, and inventory. QuickBooks Online received a fairly high score for its ease of use and its access to QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors. Its pricing is above average as compared to its competitors, and it offers many self-help guides to help you get the most out of QuickBooks.
It fell short with its basic budgeting features as it lacks the ability to prefill budget based on actuals, add or edit budget line items, and adjust budgets incrementally by percentage or a certain amount. It also took a hit on its advanced budgeting features because it can’t create multi-year or rollover budgets or set budgetary assumptions. PlanGuru is the only provider we reviewed that offers all of these features.
If you’re seeking additional training resources, we recommend checking out our free QuickBooks Online training courses.
Deployment Type | Cloud |
|---|---|
Free Trial | 30 days |
Discount | 50% off for three months when you sign up without the free trial |
Customer Support | Phone support (callback only except for Advanced users), live chat, chatbot, and self-help guides |
Average User Review Rating | 4.5 out of 5, see what users have said in our QuickBooks Online review |
- Budget based on actual figures: QuickBooks Online can use actual figures as a basis for your budget totals. It automatically presents actual values at year-to-date for easy referencing.
- Auto split budgeted amounts: You can split budgeted amounts across periods on QuickBooks Online, which will automatically divide the budget totals by the number of months or quarters.
- Budget by specific account: You select specific accounts by clicking the check box on the far left of the worksheet. This feature is helpful if you want to focus only on specific accounts instead of budgeting for all accounts.
Budget Worksheet (Source: QuickBooks Online)
- Small businesses seeking a scalable plan: QuickBooks Online is suitable for a wide range of users, from freelancers to larger enterprises. Its scalability makes it a versatile solution that can grow with the needs of the user.
- Small businesses that want to customize their budgets: QuickBooks Online users can create customized budgets based on their specific needs. The platform allows you to set up budgets for different categories, projects, or departments, providing flexibility for businesses with diverse financial structures.
PlanGuru: Best Standalone Software for Advanced Budgeting
Pros
- Supports imports from Xero, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Excel
- Includes basic to complex budgeting features, such as business valuations and growth rate formula
- Can create multi-year budgets
- Has a comprehensive report builder that can generate graphs
Cons
- Is expensive for businesses with multiple departments
- Has a steep learning curve
- Is not ideal for freelancers
PlanGuru has no free trial but offers a 30-day money-back guarantee:
- Single Entity: $99 per month for one user
- Multi-Department Consolidations: $299 per month for three users
You can add more seats at $29 per user monthly.
PlanGuru is one of the dedicated budgeting software on our list—with YNAB being the other. We chose it as a niche pick for users wanting to do a deep dive into budgeting. It contains advanced budgeting features that incorporate forecasting and projection methods, growth rate formula, and a comprehensive report building tool. It also supports imports from Xero, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Excel.
We highly recommend it as software solely for budgeting. It has a powerful report builder that you’ll not find in Zoho Books and Xero. It is ideal if you want to include more factors and assumptions when creating budgets, as it gives you more ways to manipulate your budget and gives detailed insights into specific areas of the budget.
PlanGuru is dedicated budgeting software, so it is understandable that it will have more advanced budgeting features than the accounting software in this guide. It aced our evaluation of basic budgeting features and received near-perfect marks for advanced budgeting features.
It didn’t score high in the category of accounting features because it is inherently not accounting software, although it does integrate with accounting platforms, so there is a workaround. It also took a hit in pricing and ease of use because there is a bit of a steep learning curve to get started.
Deployment Type | Cloud |
|---|---|
Money-back Guarantee | 30 days |
Discount | N/A |
Customer Support | Email, website form, and self-help guides |
Average User Review Rating | 4.2 of 5 |
- Complex projection and forecasting methods: PlanGuru gives you more options to budget different accounts. You can project amounts using growth rates, percentages of previous account balance, rates based on historical trends and averages, or specific assumptions.
- Comprehensive reporting: PlanGuru’s report builder lets you choose multiple chart types per report, different data types, comparison figures, and period of report. Other software on this list doesn’t have this feature, making PlanGuru more powerful in terms of reporting.
- Flexible imports: For QuickBooks Online or Xero users, PlanGuru can still be a worthy budget software for a small business. Though PlanGuru doesn’t have direct integration with those two software, importing data is easy. You can also import using an Excel file as long as you follow the required format.
- Excel add-on: If PlanGuru isn’t able to perform specific functions, its advanced reporting tool add-on for Excel enables users to utilize Excel’s computing power to perform complex calculations.
Selecting Projection Methods (Source: PlanGuru)
- Chief financial officers (CFOs) and budget planners: Budgeting requires extensive use of probability and quantitative techniques to produce budgets that can approximate future outcomes. CFOs and budget planners can maximize PlanGuru’s extensive budgeting features to create better budgets.
- QuickBooks Online and Xero users: PlanGuru integrates with both QuickBooks Online and Xero as sources of historical data. Although both software providers have budgeting features, PlanGuru has more advanced features since it’s a dedicated budgeting software. By integrating PlanGuru with either QuickBooks or Xero, you’ll be able to access your data seamlessly.
- Multiyear budgeting: PlanGuru is the only software on our list that can create multiyear budgets. If your business wants to plan for the long term, you can use PlanGuru’s multi-year budgeting functions.
YNAB: Best for Freelancers & Self-employed Individuals
Pros
- Lets you connect multiple bank accounts and credit cards
- Offers budget by categories
- Manages debt, spending, and investments
- Helps you manage personal income and expenses
Cons
- Is only for freelancers or self-employed, not larger businesses
- Lacks budget formula and assumptions
- Doesn’t integrate with accounting software
YNAB (You Need A Budget) is priced at $14.99 per month or $99 per year and is good for only one user. You can try the platform for free for 34 days. There’s also a prorated money-back guarantee if you cancel the annual plan.
We picked YNAB as a budgeting tool for freelancers and self-employed individuals. We know that freelancers often mix their personal and professional transactions in one or two bank accounts, and some also use personal credit cards for professional expenses. YNAB is a good choice if you don’t like maintaining accounting software but would like a platform to budget your income and expenses.
Overall, YNAB offers comprehensive features for budgeting personal and self-employed finances. It helps users determine where their income goes, how much income is allocated for expenses, and how much should be left after budgeting everything.
YNAB, like PlanGuru, is intended to assist individuals with budgeting, and partially because of that it received the lowest overall score of the providers reviewed in our guide. It received low marks in the basic accounting category, although many of the accounting functions can be accessed via an indirect integration with Zapier.
Surprisingly, it didn’t score well with basic budgeting features. It doesn’t let you import data from accounting software or import a budget from a comma-separated values (CSV) file, prefill budget based on actuals, generate budget by cash flow statement, budget by balance sheet, autofill budget fields and columns, and apply fixed amounts per period.
However, it fared better with advanced budgeting features, with the ability to create consolidated budgets, select projection methods, and set budgetary assumptions. It also took a hit in ease of use because it has limited customer support. However, it received the highest user review score among the software on our list.
Deployment Type | Cloud |
|---|---|
Free Trial | 34 days |
Discount | N/A |
Customer Support | Chatbot, website form, and self-help guides |
Average User Review Rating | 4.6 of 5 |
- Create and edit custom account titles: YNAB comes with a set of account titles but you can edit the titles to match your lifestyle and profession.
- Set spending targets: If you have frequent expenses like utilities or transportation, you can set targets in YNAB on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, let’s assume you visit clients weekly. You can set a target of $200 every week for transportation expenses.
- Auto-assign money: YNAB looks at your spending and budget targets and auto-assigns money to these expense items. YNAB automatically allocates money from your bank balance so you don’t have to do it manually. In this way, you’ll immediately see how much cash is left afterward. However, this feature doesn’t automatically deduct cash from your account—it only plans your cash outflows, so you still have to pay your bills before due dates.
YNAB Dashboard on Mobile and Tablet (Source: YNAB)
- Freelancers and self-employed individuals: YNAB is a great budgeting tool if your freelancing income and expenses are mixed with personal transactions, which is why it’s ideal for self-employed individuals. It allows you to budget for different kinds of expenses, regardless of whether they’re personal or professional.
- Planning large expenses: If you’re looking into purchasing a new car or taking on a new mortgage, YNAB can be especially helpful because it lets you plan and fund large expenses. It forces you to plan in advance and allows you to set periodic goals for funding each expense.
We have a guide on how to separate business and personal finances if you need help in this area, want to simplify tax season, and avoid potential issues with the IRS.
How We Evaluated the Best Budgeting Software for Small Businesses
In evaluating small business budgeting software, we considered pricing, basic budgeting features, advanced budgeting features, and ease of use. Here is the rubric for evaluation:
10% of Overall Score
In evaluating pricing, we heavily considered the additional cost it would bring to small businesses. Getting a new budgeting software means more monthly or annual subscriptions. Hence, three of our top picks are accounting software with budgeting features while two are specialized software for budgeting.
25% of Overall Score
Having accounting features within the budgeting software is a big plus since it doesn’t require integration. It is also a cost saver since you get two features in one software package. We put more weight on software with accounting and budgeting features. However, we still gave points for standalone budgeting software with direct or indirect integration into accounting software.
20% of Overall Score
Basic budgeting features must include an interactive worksheet that would let users plot budgets for different periods. We also put more weight on the software’s capability to import budgets or integrate with accounting software for faster access to historical data. Other features we considered are:
- Budgeting by income statement, balance sheet, or cash flow statement
- Budget prefilling or autofilling for reduced data entry
- Budget personalization such as the ability to add, edit, or delete budget line items
35% of Overall Score
Advanced budgeting features take a deeper look at more complicated aspects of budgeting. We considered financial modeling, comprehensive reporting, complex projection and forecasting methods, and multiyear budgeting. While most small businesses might not need advanced features, using advanced tools can help businesses predict future performance.
10% of Overall Score
The main objective of this criterion is to evaluate the difficulty of using the software. We considered that some do-it-yourself (DIY) business owners might want to do the budgeting since they know the ins and outs of business. Hence, the user experience must not be too difficult for them, and they should be able to navigate and use all budgeting tools easily. Aside from that, we also considered user reviews, customer service, support network, and accessibility as additional criteria.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, QuickBooks does have a budgeting tool that is available with the QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced plans. The budgeting feature in QuickBooks allows users to create, track, and manage budgets for their businesses. With this tool, you can set up budget goals for income and expenses, compare actual financial data against your budgeted amounts, and analyze variances.
First, it is important to define your business goals to identify the key areas where you want to allocate resources and focus your financial efforts. Then, list your income sources and estimate your monthly income and expenses, taking into account items like utilities, supplies, insurance, and advertising. Calculate your net income to ensure that you can plan for contingencies, and regularly review your budget so that you can adjust as needed based on income and expenses. Also, consider using accounting or budgeting software to streamline the budgeting process and track your finances more effectively.
It makes budgeting easier as it automatically performs the needed calculations without creating a formula. Traditionally, managers and analysts create budgets using a spreadsheet. But with complexities in formula and the need to interconnect multiple sheets, budgeting using spreadsheets can be a nightmare.
Budgets can be either financial or operating. Financial budgets focus on capital inflows and outflows, cash flow, financing, and investment plans. Meanwhile, operating budgets focus on operations such as sales forecasting, production planning, and resource allocation.
Bottom Line
Overall, the best small business budgeting software has features that let users create budgets from within the platform. It should automate basic calculations and reporting formatting to make the experience easy for users. Zoho Books is our top pick because it contains the ideal blend of features for small business budgeting. Otherwise, PlanGuru is a good choice for businesses that want to perform a deep budgeting analysis.
