SaaS CFOs today now have some great options when the time comes to level up their budgeting practices with software tools designed specifically for different financial planning and analysis (FP&A).
These tools promise to make budgeting faster and easier than ever before so CFOs can focus more of their time and attention on turning data into insights that drive results. In this guide, we’ll take a deep dive into four of the best SaaS budgeting software platforms on the market in 2025.
We’ve reviewed 15 solutions to help you find the best fit for your unique business budgeting and planning needs. For each one, you’ll find a summary of key features related to SaaS budgeting and some of the pros and cons you might want to consider as you evaluate your options.
To cover the broadest range of possible needs, we’ve broken these tools out into three categories based on the needs of the market sector they serve:
- Enterprise, which is defined as 1000 employees and/or more than $100M ARR
- Mid-market businesses defined as 50-1000 employees, and/or $5-$100M ARR
- Small businesses, defined as 0-50 employees with greater than $5M ARR
For each category, we’ve described the features most relevant to businesses in each of those sectors and how each solution stacks up.
We have also included in this update a new section on how AI is being incorporated into the CFO and finance functions today and highlight five platforms that are leading the way in terms of how they are incorporating AI into their platforms. This information will benefit CFOs and others working in corporate FP&A who want to leverage the power of AI to streamline their work and improve financial performance.
The best business budgeting and planning solutions for enterprises
At the enterprise level, strategic budgeting software serves as a comprehensive platform that connects multi-dimensional financial planning, advanced consolidation, and robust governance frameworks. Enterprises need solutions that can handle the complexity of multiple business units, regions, and product lines while maintaining performance and enterprise-level compliance.
Audit trails and version control are critical to satisfying regulatory requirements while protecting data integrity. Some of the key features that enterprise CFOs and their finance teams need for budgeting specifically, include multi-dimensional planning capabilities that support complex organizational structures and allocation methodologies.
They also need advanced financial consolidation for accurate financial reporting across global operations. This requires the ability to automate data flows between their budgeting platform and ERPs and other key business systems. Enterprise finance teams also need a solution capable of handling intercompany eliminations and currency translations in accordance with the various accounting standards they might be dealing with.
In this guide, we cover six budgeting software solutions that offer these and other key features enterprise CFOs need to effectively manage complex budgeting and planning at scale. They are Drivetrain, Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC), Pigment, and SAP Business Planning.
The table below offers a quick look at how they stack up in terms of their enterprise budgeting capabilities with a more detailed analysis following that.
| Software/ Platform |  |  |  | %20%20logo.webp) |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $$ | $$$ | $$-$$$ | $$$ | $$$ | $$$ |
| Integrations | 200+ | 50-60 | 60-100 | 9 | 30-40 | 100+ |
| Implemen-tation time (time to value) | ||||||
| Multi-dimensional modeling | ||||||
| Advanced scenario planning & analysis | ||||||
| Global consoli-dation features | ||||||
| Rolling Forecasts with Variance Analysis | ||||||
| Real-time perfor-mance analytics | ||||||
| Strategic planning integration | ||||||
| Custom reporting & advanced analytics | ||||||
| Role-based permissions, version controls & audit trails |
Drivetrain is a powerful, built-for-B2B strategic finance software. A relative newcomer compared to most of its competitors in the enterprise market, Drivetrain is a comprehensive FP&A solution offering all the key budgeting features enterprises need today. And, it’s one of the few solutions on the market purpose-built for SaaS.
Drivetrain offers the ability to track budget vs. actuals and variance analysis capabilities. Drivetrain also enables rolling forecasts to provide ongoing visibility to help enterprises be more agile in their decision making as market conditions change.
With Drivetrain’s multi-dimensional modeling capabilities, enterprises can build financial models across multiple departments, products, regions, and scenarios simultaneously while maintaining the relationships between those dimensions in one place. This allows large and highly complex organizations to analyze performance from various angles and understand how changes in one area impact others.
Many enterprises today have highly complex tech stacks with the data finance teams needed for comprehensive planning and budgeting siloed in different systems. This is no problem for Drivetrain. With 200+ integrations Drivetrain can connect with systems across the entire enterprise to automate data flows and create accurate budgets faster. For example, in Drivetrain, you can easily consolidate data from multiple ERPs and different currencies.
Another way Drivetrain stands out is in its ease of use, especially in terms of implementation. Unlike other competitors that come with a steep learning curve, Drivetrain’s intuitive UI and its familiar Excel-like formulas improve adoption among enterprise finance teams, significantly accelerating time to value. With Drivetrain, enterprises can be up and running within just a few weeks as compared to other solutions that can take months.
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Budgeting
Driver-Based and Zero-Based Budgeting
Rolling budget and forecasts
Multi-dimensional modeling
200+ native data connectors to popular systems
Customizable, automated reporting with interactive dashboards
Highly intuitive UI
Extensive customization options
Heavily focused on B2B businesses
Less established than traditional vendors serving the market for extremely large enterprises
Predictive forecasting capabilities
Real-time budget and forecast vs. actuals
Scenario Planning and What-If Analysis
Real-time analytics and automated variance analysis to reduce manual effort
Subscription revenue modeling with multi-currency support
While Anaplan is particularly well-suited to enterprise-level SaaS businesses, it was not purpose-built for SaaS. However, it is designed specifically for connected business budgeting and planning and can accommodate most of the budgeting needs enterprise SaaS businesses have.
It offers a flexible modeling environment for enterprise-scale planning and built-in collaboration features enhance cross-functional planning. And it has enterprise-grade security features including role-based permissions, version controls, and audit trails.
The inherent complexity of Anaplan and its complicated pricing model are its two most significant downsides. Users commonly report long implementation times and a set up that often requires consultants.
Granular analysis
Sophisticated what-if scenario modeling capabilities
Good customization capabilities
Long implementation times (Usually 6 months minimum)
Steep learning curve
Limited dashboard functionality
Complex pricing model; very expensive for small- to mid-sized businesses
Scenario modeling, including what-if analyses
Driver-based and assumption-based planning
Top-down and bottom-up budgeting
Flexible modeling environment
Workday Adaptive Planning (formerly Adaptive Insights) is a robust enterprise performance management (EPM) tool. While not purpose-built for SaaS, it includes budgeting features suitable for SaaS businesses.
Workday is known for its budgeting and reporting capabilities. It offers the ability to build annual plans using real-time, enterprise-wide data and to create rolling financial forecasts.
Similar to Anaplan, however, Workday imposes long implementation times and often requires specialized expertise to get up and running with it. Users also report a long learning curve to work with it.
Not dependent on MS Excel but offers a familiar, Excel-like UI
Good customization capabilities
Self-service reporting with interactive dashboards
Comprehensive scenario planning and what-if functionality.
Limited integrations
Heavy dependence on third party system integrators
Steep learning curve
Complex configuration required to build financial models
Scenario modeling, including what-if analyses
Driver-based expense planning
Rolling financial forecasts
Ability to build annual plans using real-time, enterprise-wide data
Oracle’s Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) has been around since 2014. It has continued to evolve, and with the addition of frameworks for financials and strategic modeling became known as Oracle’s Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS).
Today, EPBCS as well as a number of other Oracle tools have been combined into what is now marketed as Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud, which offers a comprehensive solution for strategic budgeting, particularly for enterprise-level customers with complex requirements.
Oracle BPCS scores well in a number of important areas for enterprise budgeting. It offers multi-dimensional modeling capabilities that can support complex hierarchies and relationships and can handle large volumes of dimensional data efficiently.
The platform also offers scenario planning capabilities but with limitations. For example, it requires significant setup for advanced scenarios and can be complex to modify scenarios once established. While its predictive capabilities are good, they require additional configuration.
A significant downside to Oracle BPCS is that while it integrates seamlessly with other tools in the Oracle ecosystem (nine of them in all), other integrations require additional middleware which can drive up costs. These types of integrations are also typically complex to set up and configure and require significant technical expertise to maintain.
Robust features for enterprises with complex business models
Good for financial structures that combine financial and operational planning
Well suited for companies with existing investments in Oracle solutions
Integrations can be difficult to mange
Importing and exporting data manually is complicated
Performance can suffer with large or complex reports
Lengthy implementation times with heavy dependence on third-party systems integrators
Complex pricing model
Scenario modeling, including what-if analyses
Driver-based expense planning
Financial forecasting
Pigment targets both mid-sized businesses and enterprises. However, it is best suited for large enterprises that require advanced modeling capabilities to support intricate financial planning processes.
Pigment offers scenario planning, capabilities, and including strong what-if analysis to help enterprises make informed decisions. However, its formula logic comes with a steep learning curve, which can make building complex models difficult.
Pigment offers a flexible modeling environment. However, its multi-dimensional planning capabilities are somewhat limited in their ability to handle complex hierarchies.
Real-time calculation engine with immediate updates across all connected data
Modern, intuitive user interface with strong visualization tools
Flexible but somewhat limited multi-dimensional modeling
Driver-based forecasting and rolling forecast capabilities
Good performance with large datasets
Implementation requires significant initial data model setup (2-3 months typical)
Basic security and permission features compared to other enterprise solutions
Complex implementations require dedicated project team involvement
May require more technical expertise for advanced modeling
Rolling forecasts
Scenario planning and what-if analysis
Multi-currency support and basic consolidation features
Budget vs. actual analysis
Driver-based modeling capabilities
SAP Business Planning offers comprehensive budgeting and forecasting capabilities for enterprises. It offers strong capabilities for both multi-dimensional modeling capabilities and rolling forecasts. It also offers comprehensive variance analysis features and driver-based forecasting.
SAP’s scenario planning capabilities however, require additional configuration for advanced scenarios and while it offers good predictive capabilities, those also come with a complex setup.
SAP Business Planning is highly customizable, but it’s also complex. As a result, like most of the other enterprise options we’ve covered here, implementation can be lengthy (6+ months).
Multi-entity consolidation
Able to handle complex global operations and multiple currencies
Extensive customization options for reporting and analytics
Reliable performance with large data volumes when properly configured
Lengthy implementation timeframe (6-12 months typical)
Complex user interface with steep learning curve
Additional modules often needed for full functionality
Complex configuration requirements for advanced features
Rolling forecasts with variance analysis
Multi-entity consolidation capabilities
Driver-based budgeting and forecasting
Audit trails and version control
Multi-currency support
The best budgeting and planning software for mid-market companies
As small businesses evolve into mid-market companies – the complexity inherent in their budgeting also grows. They’re hiring more people, working with more vendors, and working with multiple revenue streams often across different regions.
To manage all this effectively, mid-market companies need structured tools that can handle collaborative budgeting workflows across multiple departments while at the same time, maintaining good financial control and visibility. Self-service reporting capabilities are essential for this as they allow department leaders to access and analyze their budgets without creating bottlenecks in the finance team.
Another key feature mid-market businesses need in a budgeting solution is driver-based planning that links financial outcomes to key operational metrics. This allows them to more quickly adapt their budgets as market conditions change, which is particularly important in a highly dynamic industry like SaaS.
The best budgeting solutions for mid-market businesses will provide a broad range of integrations and the ability to leverage automation to handle the increased complexity of their business. As growing companies adopt additional technologies to meet their business needs across different departments, their finance teams need the ability to tap into those systems for more informed budgeting and planning.
Finance teams also need automated variance analysis and reporting features to efficiently track performance against budget. The ability to create rolling forecasts is essential at this stage, enabling companies to extend their planning horizon and incorporate actual results into revised projections on a regular basis. Cash flow forecasting and scenario planning features are also critical to the types of strategic budgeting mid-market companies are doing today.
Mid-market CFOs and finance teams need solutions that balance sophisticated functionality with practical usability – a robust feature set with flexible, pre-built financial models and templates to help them get up and running faster.
In this section, we cover six budgeting solutions with features that meet many of these and other needs of mid-market businesses. They are Drivetrain, Mosaic, Vena, Abacum, and Cube. The table below offers a quick comparison of their relative strengths and weaknesses in terms of the budgeting capabilities that mid-market businesses need. Below the table, you’ll find a detailed description of each solution to help you better evaluate them for your unique business.
| Software/ Platform | |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $$ | $-$$ | $$$ | $$$ | $$ | $$ |
| Scalability | High | Moderate; Same limitations as MS Excel | High but requires extensive planning | HIgh | Moderate | Moderate |
| Integrations | 200+ | 70+ | Few | 30-45 | 40-60 | 40-60 |
| Driver-based planning | ||||||
| Rolling forecasts | ||||||
| Cash Flow Forecasting | ||||||
| Automated financial reporting | ||||||
| Scenario analysis & what-if analysis | ||||||
| Customi-zable KPIs with tracking & analysis | ||||||
| Pre-built models & templates | ||||||
| Tools for interdepart-mental collaboration |
Drivetrain is a strategic finance software and one of the few budgeting software solutions on the market today that are purpose-built for SaaS. Powerful, yet simple to use, Drivetrain offers a comprehensive platform with the full range of features SaaS CFOs and their finance teams need to streamline their budgeting process.
Drivetrain provides a scalable, multidimensional modeling architecture that is powerful and intuitive, helping finance teams build complex models at one-tenth the time compared to other tools. The platform also provides the ability to generate multiple scenarios like best-case, worst-case, base-case, and what-if analysis to help mid-market businesses better plan and prepare for various situations that can impact their budgets.
With over 200+ popular integrations, Drivetrain automates data consolidation and helps finance professionals get real-time visibility into their business in seconds. It also facilitates rapid planning, re-forecasting and reporting, adjusting effortlessly to the growth and complexity of the business.
And with the ability to create rolling forecasts, regularly comparing actuals with budgets and forecasts, businesses are able to be much more agile in their decision-making.
With all the data necessary for creating budgets and forecasts flowing into the platform in real time, Drivetrain offers a single source of truth, which combined with role-based access controls, fully supports easy interdepartmental collaboration. Drivetrain's unique approach to computation through simple, plain English formulas also makes it accessible for cross-functional teams to collaborate across different geographies, market segments, and channels to build more accurate budgets.
Self-service interface (ranked #1 on G2 for ease of use)
Ability to flexibly ingest data from any system
Ability to create custom metrics quickly
Advanced collaboration with granular access control features
Multiple templates for headcount planning, triangulation forecasting, vendor cost modeling and more based on company size
Board-ready reports and interactive dashboards
Highly intuitive UI
Heavily focused on B2B businesses
Simple to use yet powerful financial modeling capabilities including multi-dimensional modeling, with real-time updates
Real-time variance analysis and the ability to drill-down into forecast and budget vs. actuals
Dynamic scenario planning and what-if analysis
Rolling budgets and forecasts and predictive forecasting capabilities
Collaboration features, including fine-grained role-based access controls and version control
Datarails is a Microsoft Excel-based plugin that allows businesses to save their spreadsheet data into a database to extend Excel’s capabilities.
While not purpose-built for SaaS, Datarails provides several features that mid-market companies need for effective budgeting while at the same time, allowing them to maintain their Excel-based workflows. This approach helps to reduce the learning curve and implementation time compared to budgeting solutions that require complete workflow changes.
Datarails offers pre-built templates that can help streamline and standardize budgeting workflows. It also offers capabilities for rolling forecasts and basic driver-based planning. While it provides cash flow forecasting and scenario analysis capabilities, these features require more manual setup and maintenance compared to some of the other options covered here.
While Datarails offers customizable KPIs and collaborative features suitable for mid-market businesses, these capabilities are relatively basic.
Familiar Excel interface
Comprehensive collaboration tools
Uses AI to surface results from plain English queries
Works only with Excel, not Google Sheets
Few customization options
Limited visualization capabilities, particularly for complex analyses
Lacks functionality needed for advanced modeling
Even simple models require 100s of formulas
Limited access controls
Budgeting and forecasting
Scenario modeling
Financial reporting
Like Datarails, Vena also uses MS Excel. It is a Microsoft Excel add-in that caters to users who prefer to use spreadsheets but whose FP&A needs are more complex than what they can easily manage with spreadsheets alone.
Vena is unique among the other competitors for its native Microsoft 365 integration. This allows finance teams to leverage their Excel expertise while accessing powerful automation and collaboration features. This approach enables a smoother transition from basic spreadsheet-based budgeting to more sophisticated planning processes.
In terms of its budgeting features, Vena offers driver-based planning, rolling forecasts, and cash flow forecasting features. It also offers basic scenario planning, however manual setup is required for more complex scenarios.
While some users find it less intuitive than some of its competitors, Vena offers good support along with a library of pre-built templates and workflows designed to help finance teams get up and running fast.
Familiar Excel-based UI
Tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 (a benefit if heavily invested in Microsoft ecosystem)
Very good reporting features
Steep learning curve, particularly with collaboration and reporting tools
Performance can suffer when running large or complex reports
Limited customization capabilities
Requires coding knowledge to make changes/additions
Financial forecasting
Scenario modeling
Automated workflows
Mosaic is a cloud-based FP&A platform founded in 2019 with a focus on supporting collaborative planning and consolidating data across ERP, CRM, and HR systems. In February 2025, Mosaic was acquired by Hibob, a platform that serves the HR needs of mid-market businesses.
While we could have eliminated it from this guide, we decided to include our evaluation of its budgeting capabilities here to help its current customers perhaps find a suitable alternative, by comparing what they have in Mosaic now with the other options discussed here.
Businesses currently using Mosaic for budgeting have access to a suite of features that included driver-based budgeting, the ability to compare budget vs. actuals with automated variance analysis, and departmental-level budgeting with department-specific workflows and allocations. Users are able to track performance measures against their budgets, and basic version control with change tracking features make collaboration a little easier.
Mosaic’s framework was generally less flexible than its competitors. For example while it provided out-of-the-box modeling templates, they were somewhat rigid modeling with limited customization capabilities. The platform’s highly structured approach made its scenario planning capabilities somewhat restricted. CFOs and finance leaders looking for a more flexible framework that is powerful, yet easy to use will find it in Drivetrain.
Robust driver-based planning capabilities with real-time updates
KPI customization and tracking
Dynamic budget modeling with automatic calculations
Real-time variance analysis and tracking
Limited pre-built templates and models
Basic collaboration tools compared to competitors
Manual setup required for complex reporting
Implementation requires significant configuration
Some advanced features need custom development
Steeper learning curve for non-finance users
Limited workflow automation options
Driver-based budget creation with automatic updates
Department-level budgeting with role-based controls
Budget vs. actual comparisons and automated variance analysis
Resource allocation planning tools
Budget performance dashboards with visual analytics
Abacum focuses on simplifying the budgeting and forecasting process for mid-market businesses with a user-friendly platform. It offers solid driver-based planning capabilities and scenario analysis tools, with collaborative features that enable interdepartmental coordination throughout the budgeting process.
Users are able to monitor and analyze budget performance against key metrics and create rolling forecasts. However, Abacum’s cash flow forecasting and automated reporting features are less developed than some of its competitors.
Abacum offers mid-market companies the ability to easily collect and consolidate data from various sources. However, compared to competitors like Drivetrain or Vena, Abacum is more limited in terms of its integrations.
Abacum is also somewhat limited in terms of its automated financial reporting capabilities, and users may find the number of pre-built templates lacking.
Customizable forecasting models
User-friendly interface for non-finance users
Driver-based planning capabilities
Scenario analysis and what-if modeling tools
Real-time budget updates and tracking
Longer implementation time than for most mid-market competitors
Limited advanced modeling capabilities
Limited pre-built templates and models
Less robust in handling complex organizational structures
Limited scenario planning capabilities
Limited integration options compared to competitors
Flexible modeling capabilities, including revenue and headcount modeling
Integrated budgeting with forecasting
Variance analysis tools
Rolling forecast capabilities with automatic updates
Department-specific budget workflows
Budget vs actual variance tracking
Cube is a spreadsheet-native cloud-based software designed especially for finance teams. It builds on Excel to streamline financial forecasting, workflow management, and budgeting operations. This makes it useful for smaller teams though it is perhaps less scalable for complex scenarios.
Cube’s extensive library of pre-built models and templates, combined with strong Excel integration allows finance teams to maintain familiar workflows while gaining more sophisticated planning capabilities.
The platform offers the ability to create rolling forecasts and tools for monitoring budgets vs actuals. It also offers basic driver-based planning features. Capabilities for what-if analysis are also available, but they are tied to manual updates and changes in data models. Cube’s automated financial reporting features are solid, though some advanced reporting features may require additional configuration or third-party tools.
Cube offers robust KPI tracking and analysis tools. However, its collaboration features are limited primarily to working within shared spreadsheets and lack more advanced functionality.
Native Google Sheets capability (not an add-in)
UI is simple and familiar to most users (in Excel format)
Strong Excel integration maintaining familiar workflows
Comprehensive library of pre-built models and templates
Solid rolling forecast functionality
Very limited number of integrations with some reported as being a bit clunky
Time consuming to update and fetch different reports
Large data sync can take more than an hour
Basic driver-based planning capabilities
Limited scenario analysis and what-if modeling
Basic collaboration tools
Limited real-time analysis capabilities
Rolling forecast automation
Pre-built budgeting templates
Basic variance analysis
Department-level budgeting
Version control for budget iterations
Standard budget reporting
The best planning and budgeting software for small businesses and startups
Small businesses and startups need budgeting software that simplifies financial planning – practical tools that help them create and maintain budgets without requiring advanced financial expertise.
Maintaining cash flow is critical for small businesses, and all of the budgeting tools we’ve reviewed here also provide features found in modern cash flow forecasting software. Budgeting software extends the ability to effectively manage cash flow with features including expense management and controls that help businesses set spending limits, track expenses against budget, and receive alerts when spending approaches preset thresholds.
Integration with popular small business accounting platforms like QuickBooks and Xero is non-negotiable as it eliminates manual data entry and ensures that budgets can be easily tracked against actual financial performance. Some budgeting solutions catering to the small business sector will also offer basic scenario planning capabilities, including simple “what-if” analysis, which can help owners make more informed decisions about business growth.
Basic financial dashboards are another essential feature. Visual representations of key metrics can provide small business owners and founders immediate insight into their financial health without having to interpret complex financial statements. A budgeting solution truly designed with small businesses and startups in mind will also offer an intuitive user experience and require minimal training.
We evaluated several small business budgeting solutions and found four that are well suited to meet their needs and those of SaaS startups. They are Causal, Budgyt, Fathom, and Finmark.
In addition to their business budgeting capabilities, we’ve also evaluated the relative scalability of each software, which may be of particular interest to fast-growing SaaS companies looking for a solution they can grow with.
Check out the table below for a quick summary of how each of the five solutions we evaluated compare, then you can start digging into the details.
| Software/ Platform |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $ | $$ | $$ | $ |
| Scalability | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | High |
| Accounting software integration (e.g. Quickbooks, Xero, etc.) | Yes, but limited | Yes | Yes | Yes, but limited |
| Simple budget creation & tracking | ||||
| Expense categorization & analysis | ||||
| Cash flow forecasting & management | ||||
| Basic scenario planning | ||||
| Visual financial dashboards | ||||
| Template-based reporting | ||||
| Ease of use |
Causal is designed specifically for small businesses that need the ability to do financial planning but with a tool that has a user-friendly interface. Causal checks both boxes here as it allows businesses to build customized financial models and budgets using formulas similar to spreadsheets but in a more dynamic and automated environment.
The platform offers powerful capabilities for budgeting. While it offers the ability to handle complex calculations without requiring advanced financial expertise, it does have a bit steeper learning curve, particularly for users unfamiliar with financial modeling.
Causal allows for extensive customization, but it relies on users building their budgets and reports from scratch or adapting basic templates, which requires more time than tools like Budgyt or Fathom. Its expense categorization and template-based reporting features are also somewhat basic.
Despite these limitations, Causal remains appealing to startups and small businesses without dedicated finance teams. This is owing to its ability to transform complex financial modeling into accessible, visual experiences through its modern interface and interactive dashboards.
It is important to note that in October 2024, Causal was acquired by Lucanet, a company that offers financial performance management software for primarily mid-market companies. We included it in this guide because the platform still appears to be available to small businesses looking for an affordable, straightforward solution for their business budgeting needs, at least in the short term.
However, Causal co-founder, Lukas Kobis, has signaled an impending shift in focus to mid-market businesses in the future. Going forward, this may make Causal a solution better suited to small businesses and startups on the leading edge of scaling up.
Strong integration with common startup tools (QuickBooks, Stripe, etc.)
Strong scenario planning and modeling capabilities
Quick implementation and minimal setup requirements
Built-in templates specifically designed for startup metrics and SaaS modeling
Clear visual representation of financial data
Advanced features have steeper learning curve
Limited expense categorization options with limited ability to customize
Basic template library for reporting with limited customization options
Driver-based forecasting capabilities
Scenario modeling with real-time updates
Revenue and expense modeling
Bottom-up and top-down budgeting
Real-time budget updates with visual budget vs. actual analysis
Budgyt is a budgeting and forecasting platform that provides budgeting and reporting tools that focus on simplifying collaborative budget creation. It is designed to be a practical solution for small businesses transitioning from spreadsheet-based budgeting to more structured financial planning. With its spreadsheet-like interface, Budgyt provides an easy transition for users who are familiar with Excel while at the same time, eliminating many of the limitations inherent in spreadsheets.
As its name suggests, Budgyt’s features are strongly centered around budgeting rather than more sophisticated forecasting or scenario planning typically addressed by a more comprehensive FP&A software. However, it can be an ideal solution for companies focused on gaining better control of their financial planning without overcomplicating the process.
One of the platform’s strengths is its comprehensive expense categorization capabilities and extensive template library. While its cash flow forecasting and scenario planning capabilities are more basic compared to some of its competitors, Budgyt excels in providing clear expense tracking tools that small businesses need for day-to-day operations.
User-friendly interface requires minimal training
Affordable pricing structure for small businesses
Strong basic budgeting and forecasting capabilities
Built-in approval workflows streamline planning process
Comprehensive expense categorization with detailed expense analysis
Extensive template library
Limited advanced modeling features
Limited scenario planning capabilities
Fewer integration options compared to competitors
Less sophisticated in handling complex revenue models
Limited customization options for growing businesses
Basic dashboard visualizations and reporting
Structured budget creation process
Department-level budgeting and expense tracking with budget consolidation
Standard financial reports and a custom report builder
Basic dashboard capabilities
Basic financial forecasting
Basic variance analysis, including budget vs. actuals
Detailed expense tracking
Fathom is actually better known for its financial analysis and reporting capabilities than its budgeting capabilities. However, we have included it here as a strong contender because its financial analysis capabilities can help small businesses and startups better understand performance against budgets through particularly well-designed visual dashboards.
It’s true that Fathom’s budgeting capabilities are a bit more limited than dedicated budgeting tools like Budgyt. And creating a budget in Fathom typically requires more setup time than some of its competitors. However, some of its complexity in setup is due to the highly customizable expense categorization. While time-consuming on the front end, this ability combined with Fathom’s excellent expense tracking capabilities may make it the right tool for companies seeking more granularity in their budgeting and reporting.
Fathom connects natively with common tools that small businesses use, including QuickBooks and Xero, enabling real-time access to financial data. It also supports basic forecasting and scenario analysis, which helps small businesses adjust their strategies as financial or operational conditions change.
Strong financial analysis and reporting capabilities
Comprehensive set of user resources
Good integration with popular accounting software
Advanced analysis capabilities
Professional dashboard design and report templates
Advanced customization
Limited planning and forecasting capabilities
Basic scenario planning features
More focused on reporting than forward-looking analysis
Complex initial setup and a steeper learning curve
Limited flexibility in budget structure
Accounting software integration and data consolidation
Basic financial forecasting
Comprehensive tracking and analysis of budget vs actuals
Advanced reporting options
Finmark is a financial planning platform tailored to startups and small businesses, enabling them to model revenue and expenses to create detailed budgets, integrating with accounting systems such as QuickBooks and Xero.
It is a user-friendly tool focused on simplifying the budgeting and forecasting process for small businesses with intuitive templates and real-time expense tracking. While its expense categorization and template-based reporting features are a bit more basic than some of its competitors, Finmark offers intuitive interfaces that help small business owners and startup founders make strategic financial decisions.
Finmark offers driver-based budgeting where key metrics flow through the entire financial model and good scenario modeling capabilities. However, these features impose a steeper learning curve requiring more financial knowledge than some of the other alternatives featured in this guide.
Purpose-built for startups with startup-specific budget creation
Good scenario planning for basic business models
Real-time budget monitoring
Intuitive interface for non-finance users and a modern dashboard design
Interactive scenario modeling
Basic reporting functionality compared to competitors
Less robust for companies with multiple revenue streams
Integration options more limited than competitors
May require transition to more robust solution as company grows
Basic expense categorization and limited customization options
Standard analysis tools
User-friendly forecasting templates
Scenario analysis and what-if analysis
Revenue modeling and expense planning
Multiple scenario modeling
Runway forecasting and planning
Basic expense tracking with real-time budget monitoring
The 5 best AI-enabled software for business budgeting and planning
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the world of business budgeting and planning by significantly improving both data analysis capabilities and predictive modeling accuracy. Today's leading budgeting platforms are leveraging AI in new and exciting ways to deliver more accurate budget forecasts while at the same time, making complex planning processes more accessible through intelligent interfaces and automated insights.
The budgeting solutions we reviewed incorporate sophisticated AI capabilities, including machine learning (ML) algorithms and natural language processing (NLP), to streamline budget creation, tracking, and revision processes. These tools help finance teams move beyond traditional spreadsheet-based budgeting to create more dynamic, responsive financial plans that adapt to changing business conditions.
Each platform offers unique AI-powered approaches to modernize budgeting workflows and improve accuracy in financial planning. Let's take a look at the different ways these solutions are leveraging AI to transform traditional business budgeting processes.
Drive AI by Drivetrain
Drive AI enhances Drivetrain's robust budgeting capabilities with a suite of AI-powered tools that streamline budget creation, monitoring, and adjustment processes. This suite includes AI Transforms, AI Analyst, Model Generation, and AI Alerts – each designed to simplify and accelerate the budgeting process.
One of the most time-consuming aspects of budgeting is consolidating historical data to inform future budget planning. Gathering data from various sources and transforming it into a usable format for analysis can be incredibly time-consuming. However, Drive AI’s Transforms feature automatically transforms complex datasets in seconds, converting historical financial data into useful insights for budget creation.
The platform's AI Analyst serves as a virtual budgeting assistant, allowing users to query budget performance and variances through natural language questions. Teams can quickly understand budget vs. actual comparisons, department-specific performance, and potential areas for budget adjustment without manual analysis.
For organizations struggling with budget accuracy, Drive AI's Model Generation creates baseline budgets automatically by analyzing historical spending patterns and business drivers. This AI-driven approach helps establish more realistic initial budgets while identifying potential areas of over or under-allocation.
The system's AI Alerts feature monitors budget performance in real-time, automatically flagging significant variances and potential issues before they impact financial performance. This proactive monitoring helps organizations maintain budget discipline and make timely adjustments when needed.
AI features to improve budgeting & planning:
- Universal AI-assisted search feature
- AI-driven data transformations
- AI-generated modeling applications
- AI-enabled formulas
- Anomaly detection and notification
Anaplan Intelligence
Anaplan Intelligence brings AI-powered innovation to traditional budgeting processes through four integrated solutions that specifically address common budgeting challenges: collaborative budget creation, optimization, variance analysis, and forecasting. They are: CoPlanner, Optimizer, Predictive Insights, and PlanIQ.
CoPlanner revolutionizes budget collaboration by enabling natural language interactions with budgeting data. Teams can quickly access budget information, track department spending, and identify potential savings opportunities through simple queries. This feature is particularly valuable during budget review cycles, allowing stakeholders to quickly understand and respond to budget performance.
The Optimizer component helps organizations make more strategic budget allocation decisions. Finance teams can set specific budgetary goals (such as reducing departmental spending or optimizing resource allocation) while accounting for various business constraints. The system then suggests optimal budget distributions based on these parameters.
Predictive Insights and PlanIQ work together to enhance budget accuracy by analyzing historical spending patterns and business drivers to generate more accurate budget forecasts. These tools help organizations move beyond simple year-over-year budget adjustments to create more nuanced, data-driven budgets that better reflect business realities.
AI features to improve budgeting & planning:
- Time series forecasting
- Automated insights
- Automated scenario building
Arc AI by Mosaic
Arc AI transforms traditional budgeting processes through intelligent automation and NLP. The platform enables budget managers to quickly access spending data, track performance against budget, and generate variance reports through simple conversational queries.
The solution's AI-assisted reporting capabilities streamline budget reporting processes by automatically generating customized budget performance reports, variance analyses, and spending forecasts. This automation helps organizations maintain consistent budget oversight while reducing the manual effort required for regular budget reporting.
AI features to improve budgeting & planning:
- Automated insights
- Ability to easily query the data
- Automatic sharing of insights via Slack
Pigment AI
Pigment AI enhances budgeting and planning workflows through NLP and an intelligent conversational interface. The platform's smart visualization system automatically suggests the most effective ways to present budget data and financial metrics, recommending formats like waterfall charts for variance analysis or trend lines for spending patterns. This AI-guided approach benefits teams during budget cycles, accelerating the planning process and improving accuracy.
The system leverages ML to analyze historical budget data and provide data-driven insights based on user queries. During budget planning cycles, Pigment AI offers intelligent suggestions to help finance teams refine their forecasts and allocations across various business dimensions.
Teams can explore different aspects of their budgets using suggested analytical prompts (such as "analyze departmental spending trends" or "identify budget optimization opportunities") and dive deeper with follow-up queries. These AI-driven insights integrate seamlessly into budget models, forecasts, and other planning processes within the Pigment platform, enabling more informed financial decision-making.
AI features to improve budgeting & planning:
- Intelligent data visualization
- Ability to drill down into the data using AI prompts
- AI-suggested prompts to help refine projections
Abacum Intelligence
Abacum Intelligence transforms budgeting workflows through multiple AI-powered capabilities, including automated variance detection, smart budget classification, advanced forecasting, and conversational intelligence that enables finance teams to query their budget data using natural language for quick insights and analysis.
The platform's forecasting engine employs machine learning models to analyze historical spending patterns and automatically generate budget projections by identifying trends and relationships across various financial metrics and business drivers.
Abacum also streamlines budget management by using ML to automatically classify and organize spending data, creating structured budgets ready for tracking and analysis. This is particularly valuable for organizations managing complex budgets across multiple departments, projects, or cost centers.
A standout feature of Abacum Intelligence is its sophisticated budget variance detection system. The platform uses ML algorithms to establish baseline patterns for various budget categories by analyzing historical trends. This enables the system to automatically identify and alert finance teams to significant deviations from planned spending, helping them proactively address potential budget issues before they become significant problems.
AI features to improve budgeting & planning:
- Time-series forecasting
- Data classification
- Automated anomaly detection and alerts
How to choose the right planning and budgeting solution for your business
What is planning and budgeting software?
Financial analysis software helps finance teams plan accurately by assisting them with strategic budgeting, forecasting, and making data-driven financial decisions. The software combines financial, operational, and external data to provide valuable financial insights to achieve company-wide goals.
What are the different types of business budgeting software for SaaS?
Budgeting is a core function of SaaS finance teams, and most are still using spreadsheets to create their annual budgets. However, spreadsheets have some pretty big limitations in terms of using them for budgeting. Accuracy is a big one. Everything, data and formulas, have to be entered into a spreadsheet manually, which makes them inherently error-prone.
And of course, when every department has its own budget and uses its own methods and spreadsheets for forecasting costs and revenue, reconciling them all to create a budget everyone can agree on can take weeks. By the time you’re done, there is also no easy way to be certain that none of those numbers have changed in the meantime.
These fundamental issues are what gave birth to the category of what we now know as modern FP&A software (aka strategic finance software) and have driven its continued evolution. Our feature comparisons indicate the maturity of each of these tools in terms of their FP&A features. Here we’ll take a look at the degree to which each solution relies on spreadsheets.
These are some of the challenges that led to the creation, and continued development of what is now known as modern FP&A software. If you’re ready to trade in your spreadsheets for a purpose-built solution for business budgeting and planning, this section will help you understand the different types of all 16 of the FP&A tools we’ve covered in this review in terms of the degree to which each relies on spreadsheets.
Source: Adapted from FP&A software classifications developed by Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy).
| Software/ Platform | Market Sector | Web application that replaces spreadsheets | Web application that integrates with spreadsheets | Application that uses spreadsheets for calculations | Application that uses spreadsheets for calculations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drivetrain | Enterprise & Mid-market | ||||
| Anaplan | Enterprise | ||||
| Workday Adaptive Planning | Enterprise | ||||
| Oracle BPCS | Enterprise | ||||
| Pigment | Enterprise | ||||
| SAP Business Planning | Enterprise | ||||
| Datarails | Mid-market | ||||
| Vena | Mid-market | ||||
| Mosaic | Mid-market | ||||
| Abacum | Mid-market | ||||
| Cube | Mid-market | ||||
| Causal | Startups & Small business | ||||
| Budgyt | Startups & Small business | ||||
| Fathom | Startups & Small business | ||||
| Finmark | Startups & Small business |
Real-world use cases for a budgeting and planning software like Drivetrain
While variances are a natural occurrence in every business, frequent or large budget variances can disrupt cash flow and signal underlying problems in the business. The ability to quickly and easily compare your budget to actuals is essential to pinpointing where those problems are so you can fix them sooner rather than later.
This was one of the reasons Whatfix, a digital adoption platform, decided to go with Drivetrain. The company was growing fast, and the finance team was struggling with data silos and spreadsheets that made tracking their budget vs. actuals a tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone exercise in frustration.
With automated consolidation and centralization of actuals in Drivetrain, the Whatfix finance team was able to eliminate days of manual work to create their variance reports.
Of course, uncertainty is a fact of life for any business. Given this, effective SaaS budgeting requires the ability to conduct scenario planning and what-if analysis to evaluate the impact of different scenarios on their budgets and enables more informed and proactive decision-making.
“I think the key is for executives to be able to see the impact of changes to variables in real time so they can get an understanding of the risks and opportunities around the range of potential inputs.”
— Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A Guy
Drivetrain makes this possible. The platform not only provides all the robust planning and modeling capabilities needed for strategic budgeting, it also makes your data available in real-time.
With the ability to bring all of their data into the Drivetrain platform and work with it in real time, Whatfix was able to drill down deeper into their data much faster than ever before to generate key insights.
Key features to look for in a business budgeting and planning solution
Choosing the right business budgeting software for your company is a big decision. Having an accurate, reliable budget to guide your business is critical because you likely have some pretty big decisions riding on it. Here are some of the most important features you should evaluate before making your decision.
1. Native Integrations
Fast and seamless integrations with all the systems containing source data for your budgeting process tops our list of core features you should look for in any budget software for business.
Integration with source systems will save an enormous amount of time by eliminating the need for manual entry of data and the errors that come with it.
For example, the 200+ native integrations that Drivetrain offers pull in financial and business data from various business systems with ETL processes that make the data useful and accessible in real time. An important part of the ETL is mapping and classification. Drivetrain helps with automatic data mapping across ERP, CRM, HRIS, and billing systems, including custom fields.
This creates a single source of truth with reliable, business-ready data that users can sync on demand –every hour or once a day – to directly manipulate, analyze, and surface timely insights. And it also ensures your budget is always based on the most current financial information.
2. Predictive forecasting
Forecasting capabilities are essential to the budgeting process because they allow a business to predict future revenues, expenses, and cash flows.
The right budgeting software will provide robust financial forecasting tools. It will bring all your historical data and assumptions together in one place to help you build financial plans and what-if scenarios for more accurate forecasting of expenses and revenue.
This allows SaaS businesses to make more data-driven decisions both in terms of their resource allocations in the short term as well as their long term strategic planning.
For example, in Drivetrain, users can access historical data in real time, pick from a variety of predefined forecasting methods, and change their assumptions all on the same screen to create forward-looking forecasts.
3. Variance analysis
Variance analysis and variance reporting capabilities are essential because a budget is only as accurate as the forecast it’s based on. The ability to do a variance analysis quickly, easily, and at any time by comparing actuals vs. budget and actuals vs. forecast can be a super-power for SaaS businesses that know how to leverage the insights hiding in their variances.
4. Scenario planning, modeling, and simulation and what-if analysis
Uncertainty is a fact of life for any business. The ability to conduct scenario planning and what-if analysis in real time is critical for SaaS CFOs to evaluate the impact of different scenarios on their budgets and enables more informed and proactive decision-making.
5. Subscription or SaaS revenue modeling
This might seem like a no-brainer since subscription revenue is a defining feature of SaaS businesses. We mention it here, though, because not all FP&A software is purpose-built specifically for budgeting and planning in SaaS.
Revenue forecasting can be particularly challenging for SaaS companies based on the complexity inherent in the subscription business model. Any tool you choose should enable you to model subscription-based income in a detailed way, incorporating factors such as churn rates, customer acquisition costs (CAC), your pricing model, and other factors that can significantly impact SaaS budgets.
6. Collaboration with role-based access control
Whether you’re using a top-down or bottom-up approach to budgeting for your business, SaaS budgeting is an inherently collaborative pursuit that requires information from multiple stakeholders. Given this, any SaaS budgeting software you choose should provide a single source of truth – a centralized database that unifies all data – and include features that facilitate seamless collaboration across all teams.
You should also look at how users are able to collaborate, too. It’s not enough just to be able to communicate within the application. While some vendors offer the ability to comment within the application, without granular role-based access, there’s no way to keep those conversations private. It’s easy to see how this might be a problem during the budgeting process when finance teams are trying to verify numbers and assumptions with different teams with potentially competing priorities.
In Drivetrain, all your data and plans are aggregated and accessible across all teams creating a single source of truth for the entire organization and facilitating collaborative planning. With this kind of visibility, teams are better able to understand and accept the rationale behind sometimes difficult budgeting decisions to align more quickly.
7. Automated reporting and dynamic dashboards
The ability to monitor financial performance, especially cash flows (see cash flow forecasting software) on an ongoing basis allows you to easily implement your budget as a rolling budget, comparing actuals vs the budget every month.
A robust financial reporting platform enables automation of reporting processes saves time and helps to ensure that reports are generated consistently and accurately. Look for SaaS budgeting software that offers interactive dashboards with enriched reporting features for presenting financial data, including budgets, variances, scenarios, etc. for faster, more informed decision-making.
8. Implementation, training, and customer success
Look for a vendor that provides quick onboarding and implementation as it improves your time to value and helps you realize ROI a lot faster. A key to achieving this is a shallow learning curve and a self-service interface to manage data and user access controls. Also, look for training, support and success resources to help you get the most out of the software.
Drivetrain vs. the field: Why Drivetrain is the best SaaS budgeting software solution
The information we have compiled here should provide you with a better understanding of the kinds of features you might want to look for in a SaaS budgeting software based on your company’s unique needs.
Generally, the SaaS budgeting software we’ve compared here fall into one of two main categories:
- Custom-built calculation engines that provide advanced capabilities for large-scale, complex financial modeling.
- Tools that use Excel as the calculation engine, extending its capabilities to provide the features their customers need. These solutions cater to users that prefer the familiarity and flexibility of spreadsheets.
Drivetrain is a standout when considered in the context of these somewhat simplified categories. This is because while it provides a powerful, in-memory calculation engine, its spreadsheet-inspired UI combined with plain-English formulas and budgeting templates makes it easy and intuitive for users to get up and running fast.
Drivetrain makes your data from various sources business-ready, accessible to finance teams and other stakeholders so they can directly perform the different types of analysis they need to surface hidden insights quickly and easily.
Drivetrain is also a solution that can serve the FP&A needs of both mid-market businesses and enterprises. Thus, for mid-market businesses and fast-growing SaaS companies on the edge of scaling up, an investment in Drivetrain ensures they won’t “outgrow” the platform, putting them once again, in search of a new solution.
With Drivetrain, you get the best of both worlds – a powerful, yet simple SaaS budgeting software solution empowering finance teams with the ability to do more high-value analyses that support faster, better, proactive decision-making to deliver real business impacts.
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