If you’ve used subpar budgeting tools, you know how much busywork is involved. You find yourself chasing down figures from different spreadsheets, sending lots of back-and-forth emails, and explaining why last month’s projections are already outdated. As your company grows, this process becomes even more error-prone and time-consuming.
Business budgeting software is designed to reduce waste by bringing approvals and reporting together. Team members spend fewer days sorting through information, and more time completing tasks. And with accurate numbers available in real time, leaders can approve expenditures, share updates, and more easily make decisions that move the business forward.
In this article, we’ll explain how online budgeting software works and why it can improve your workflows. We’ll also talk about what key features to look for, and how to decide which tools are worth your time.
Because budgeting touches so many areas of finance, we’ve included tools from a range of categories — from spend management platforms to accounting and FP&A software — all of which include budgeting capabilities in different ways.
What’s business budgeting software?
Spreadsheets may work for a while, but once a business starts to scale, they rapidly become messy and unreliable. They depend on manual entry, and always carry a risk of formula errors. Teams end up questioning whether they can trust the data — if they can even find it.
Business budgeting software solves this problem by providing a central hub for allocating budgets and adjusting forecasts. Unlike spreadsheets, corporate budgeting software supports multi-user collaboration and maintains a real-time link between transactions and spending budgets. This makes budgeting more disciplined and transparent for everyone on the team.
What are the benefits of modern budgeting software?
Most finance leads say they want more of two things: time and trust. Project budgeting software supports both, and the advantages reach every part of the business:
- Automation eliminates the need for most manual entry tasks. It also cuts down on discrepancies, freeing teams to focus on analysis instead of data cleanup.
- Clear approval steps and live monitoring improve control and keep costs in check. With Moss, spend control measures are embedded directly into workflows, so policies apply at the point of request instead of being tacked on after the fact.
- Departments gain clearer resource use visibility. This makes it easier to match spending with strategic goals.
- Employees can make quicker purchase requests. Approvals move faster when compliance checks run automatically. That combination of speed and oversight builds trust between finance teams and the rest of the company.
Key features to look for in budgeting and forecasting tools
Enterprise budgeting software can (and should) do a lot more than tally numbers. To decide which tool is the right fit for your team, you’ll first need to create a wishlist of important features.
Your needs may vary, but we’d suggest focusing on:
- Real-time transparency, so finance leaders can see the impact of spending as it happens. Plus, when each transaction ties back to the right allocation, teams have fewer surprises to deal with and can act quickly if spending deviates from the plan.
- Forecasting tools, which let teams look ahead and test different scenarios. Finance leaders can model the impact of changes to pricing or supplier terms — comparing likely outcomes before making calls. This helps you prepare for contingencies while minimising risk.
- Collaboration tools, opening the process to all team members and streamlining communication. In Moss, for example, budgets are automatically assigned using pre-set rules. The relevant team members can then decide whether each request aligns with policy before submitting it, eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth.
- Centralised dashboards, which pull all vital information together in easy-to-read views. Leaders can track budget utilisation, monitor forecast accuracy, and review spending patterns at a glance. This feature replaces static reports with interactive analysis that guides decisions.
- Integrations with accounting and HR tools, so workflows can proceed without a constant need for tool-switching or data duplication. Moss goes further by enhancing spend visibility, bringing cards, invoices, and reimbursements together in one complete and reliable record.
If you’re looking to manage costs even more effectively, you can also explore spend management software, which offers tools for budget planning and the actual spend process.
7 business budgeting tools to consider for your finance team
There’s a wide range of budgeting and planning software, and no platform is right for every use case. What works for a small startup may not be the best choice for a multinational corporation.
So it’s important to explore your options. Here are seven popular platforms to get you started:
- Moss: With Moss, you can upgrade your team’s entire spend management process. Each transaction and corporate card is tied back to live numbers. This gives you complete and real-time visibility, so employees can work efficiently and leaders can easily strategise.
- Anaplan: Designed for enterprises with complex operations, Anaplan relies heavily on AI features. It offers advanced modelling and scenario planning for multi-entity organisations.
- Planful: With Planful, you get a comprehensive suite that accelerates planning cycles. This software emphasises streamlined reporting and submissions for finance staff in mid-market and large-scale companies.
- Prophix: This enterprise budgeting software offers forecasting and variance analysis. Prophix also enables structured workflows that give controllers more confidence in report accuracy.
- Abacum: As a modern solution designed specifically for scaling businesses, Abacum prioritises usability and speed. It gives accounting teams collaborative forecasting tools without the long, complicated setup larger systems often demand.
- QuickBooks: This small business budgeting software stands out for being simple and accessible. QuickBooks may lack some advanced features, but it’s a go-to option for freelancers and growing companies.
- Xero: Finally, Xero is a cloud-based tool that combines accounting and expense management software solutions. It’s well suited to startups and small businesses, and gives finance one clear view of both budgets and overhead.
How to choose the right budgeting software for your company
As you can see, there are plenty of good options. Your ultimate decision will come down to your desired feature set, considered alongside your current process and future goals.
When deciding which budgeting software to try, you’ll want to think about:
- Your company’s size and complexity: Large organisations may need advanced modelling, smaller firms benefit from accounting-native tools, and SMEs often pair budgeting with spend management to maximise efficiency.
- Current knowledge and available training time: Ease of use is essential, especially for growing teams. Finance staff will use the software daily, but budget owners across the company need to engage with it as well. If the interface is accessible, adoption will be quicker.
- Desired reporting capabilities: Customisable role-based permissions and flexible reporting capabilities help you make processes transparent. By ensuring oversight, budgeting software is an essential software tool for keeping financial operations aligned with strategy.
- Anticipated time and resource spend: The true cost of ownership for any software goes well beyond licensing fees. Factors like time spent on implementation and savings from automation impact the real return on investment.
By weighing these factors, you can choose a solution that supports your long-term goals and creates value from day one.
Improve budgeting control and gather actionable insights with Moss
Business budgeting software helps finance leaders manage oversight without slowing their teams down. Embedding budgets into daily spend management gives you live visibility, allowing for faster approvals and more reliable forecasting.
Moss’ spend management software brings all these elements together in one place, helping leaders stay in control while simplifying day-to-day work. Budgeting becomes part of the daily flow of money through the business, rather than a static report that arrives too late to inform decisions.
Integrate finance workflows into a complete, end-to-end process with Moss’ spend management platform.
FAQ
Spreadsheets require manual updates and increase the risk of errors. Budgeting software centralises data and keeps budgets linked to actual, up-to-date transactions.
This type of software relies on models that adapt dynamically, allowing your team to explore multiple scenarios and refresh forecasts as conditions change.
Successful implementation usually begins with clear ownership of budgets and spending. Effective companies align approval rules with internal policies, run a pilot test in one department first, and provide thorough training.
Moss links expenses from corporate cards, invoices, and reimbursements directly to your budgets. This gives finance teams and leaders a comprehensive view of company spending.