If you’re like most people, you feel overwhelmed by the task of budgeting. You know there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, and that each business is unique. But what if there was a way to make budgeting easier for everyone? That would be great, right? That’s where free budget software comes in. These tools can help you streamline your budgeting process, so you can focus on what’s important to you.
If you’re looking for the best budget software, you’ve come to the right place. The Internet is filled with options, so we’ve done the work for you and narrowed down our recommendations to three of the best budgeting and forecasting programs.
This comprehensive guide will provide you with all the information you need to find the right solution for your business which include Small Business Budget Software, Budgeting and Forecasting Software, and Best Budget Software.
Business Budget Software Free
Managing your money successfully includes keeping a close eye on your expenses. One way to do that is to take advantage of free software and services. Free personal finance software can be surprisingly robust, helping you track spending, create and manage budgets, and run reports.
Mint
The creators of Quickbooks and TurboTax, Intuit, offer a free online budgeting tool called Mint. This software gathers all of your financial information and provides you with a summary of your spending, bills, budget, and credit score. You may set objectives and reminders, make your own budget, and sync your data between the web and apps. Encryption and multi-factor authentication improve security. To keep track of your money and portfolio, utilize Mint.
Access Mint via the web or phone apps for iOS and Android.
GnuCash
GnuCash is desktop software; its features include tracking bank accounts, stocks, income, and expenses. GnuCash is based on double-entry accounting for balanced books and you can run a number of reports to see your financial data. GnuCash also offers small-business accounting tools that let you manage customers and vendors, handle invoicing and bill payment, and even payroll.
GnuCash is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris. There is a companion app for Android that will let you track expenses on the go and later import them into the desktop software.
AceMoney Lite
AceMoney Lite bills itself as the best Quicken alternative. You can manage your budgets, track your finances in multiple currencies, keep an eye on your investments and analyze your spending habits. You can also do online banking. As this is the lite version, you’re limited to two accounts; the full version supports unlimited accounts.
AceMoney Lite is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X.
Personal Capital
Personal Capital offers free financial software for tracking investments and planning for retirement, in addition to its tools for cash flow, spending, budgeting and net worth. Personal Capital’s focus is on investments, showing you the performance of your portfolio over time and helping you make decisions for the future, so its budgeting components aren’t as robust as other software.
If you’re not an investor or prefer fine-tuning your budget to getting the broad view, Personal Capital may not be the best fit. However, if you want to save for college or retirement, its free tools will show you whether you’re on track.
Personal Capital can be accessed via the web or apps for Android and iOS.
Buddi
Buddi is an open-source budget software that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems and has been translated into multiple languages. Buddi can encrypt financial data with a password, and it’s designed to be easy to use even if you have no financial background.
Features include budgeting, tracking accounts, and personal finance reports, but you will have to enter transactions manually. Free plugins add more features, and the online user manual is easy to read and use.
Buddi is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Free Budget Spreadsheets
If you don’t need fully featured personal financial software and you’re just concerned about keeping a budget, there are some great free budget spreadsheet templates you can use with Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc or Google Sheets. Just download and open them in your spreadsheet software to get a handle on your cash flow.
Goodbudget
Goodbudget prioritizes budgeting above transaction tracking. This program is based on the envelope budgeting technique, in which you divide up your monthly revenue across different categories of expenses (called envelopes).
This app is not tied to your bank accounts. Cash sums, debts, income, and account balances (which you can retrieve from your bank’s website) are manually entered. After that, you designate money for the envelopes.
You may access the app on the web and on your phone. The numerous articles and videos that are accessible might assist you use the program.
The free version of Goodbudget has a restricted amount of envelopes, two accounts, and two devices. The premium edition of Goodbudget Plus provides more features including unlimited envelopes and accounts, up to five devices, and more.
Why you may want to think twice: Every expense must be entered because financial accounts cannot be synced. The app probably won’t work for you if you’re not willing to put in the effort.
Small Business Budget Software
Xero
Best for small business
Xero is a popular small business online accounting solution because of how simple it is to use. Tools for financial reporting provide immediate, current reporting with direct links to all original transactions. You can also view cash flow in real-time, wherever you are, with online accounting.
At its core, Xero is a robust yet user-friendly accounting program created from the ground up. It is all you need to run your small business because it is written in straightforward language for users who are not familiar with accounting jargon.
Scoro
Scoro combines budgeting features with other tools to manage your entire company in one system. You can also manage expenses and resources, use a financial dashboard, and manage project budgets.
Top features:
- Budget planning and forecasting
- Financial reports and analysis
- Unlimited project budgets
- Financial KPI dashboard
- Invoicing and professional services automation
- Automated revenue stream from invoices
What’s special about this tool: Scoro combines the tools for budgeting, CRM, and project management so that you can manage your entire business in one solution and access all the financial data in one place.
Pricing: From $26 user/month, 14-days free trial.
Quickbooks
With over 4.3 customers worldwide, Quickbooks is one of the most trusted business financial toolkit available online.
The tools available on Quickbooks let you:
- Track income & expenses
- Maximize tax deductions
- Invoice & accept payments
- Run reports
- Send estimates
- Track sales & sales tax
- Manage bills
- Work together with your team
- Clock employee time and billable hours
- Track Inventory
- Create and manage budgets
- Pay employees with free direct deposit
You can try Quickbooks free for 30 days and then choose the plan which fits to your needs better.
Freeagent
The accounting program Freeagent was created with the needs of freelancers and small enterprises in mind. You may manage all of your invoices, expenses, projects, and taxes with the online accounting software.
The straightforward pricing of this software makes it stand out from similar products.
Freshbooks
97% of clients, according to the business, suggest Freshbooks.
The software has an intuitive user interface, the capacity to automate invoicing, the management of projects and payments, and the tracking of time. You can manage your business from anywhere with Freshbooks’ availability on the Android and iOS platforms.
The three different plans for this accounting software start at $15. By registering for the website’s free trial, you can try any of them.
Bill.com
You can automate every financial transaction using Bill.com. It allows you to automate the way you pay bills, send invoices, and receive payments and is made to integrate with Quickbooks, Xero, and many other accounting programs (up to 3x faster).
7. Jira
Jirav is a cloud-based financial planning and analysis tool that frees accounting and finance teams from the use of antiquated, error-prone spreadsheets for budgeting and forecasting. You can track, forecast, and share the data that matters most to your organization since it is totally configurable.#
Vena
Vena provides a comprehensive planning platform with ready-made solutions to automate time-consuming operations that connects people, processes, and systems. Financial planning and analysis, reporting, compliance reporting, and financial closing are examples of specific competencies. Vena provides FP&A software that is “pre-configured” for a prescriptive approach and can be altered to suit particular requirements.
Budgyt
Best for cloud
A budgeting and forecasting tool for any company, Budgyt is simple to use and intuitive. With this cloud-based solution, creating budgets is quicker, more precise, and more dependable thanks to an intuitive budgeting tool that takes the place of cumbersome spreadsheets. Clients in any industry with several stores, units, or divisions can use this service. Individual budgets are rolled up by Budgyt, which also produces reports and analyses. Additionally, Budgyt imports and exports data from the general ledger accounting software you now use.
Enterprise, mid-market, and small firms in the for-profit and non-profit sectors all favor this approach. If you are a for-profit organization or a non-profit, there are different price options.
Budgeting and Forecasting Software
Workday Adaptive Planning
best overall
A corporate performance management (CPM) product called Workday Adaptive Planning has forecasting and budgeting functions. Businesses in all market segments—Enterprise, mid-market, and small—love the Workday Business Planning Cloud.
Forecasting models supported by Workday include::
- Budgeting expenses
- Forecasting revenue
- Workforce planning
- Capital Planning
- SaaS account modeling
- Sales planning
- Academic calendar modeling
Those who are closest to the business can plan thanks to the purpose-built solutions provided by Workday software for finance. the whole collection of cloud-based software products supported by a strong in-memory technological platform that enables large-scale built-in analytics and functional and corporate-wide business planning.
Xero
Best for small business
Xero is a popular small business online accounting solution because of how simple it is to use. Tools for financial reporting provide immediate, current reporting with direct links to all original transactions. You can also view cash flow in real-time, wherever you are, with online accounting.
At its core, Xero is a robust yet user-friendly accounting program created from the ground up. It is all you need to run your small business because it is written in straightforward language for users who are not familiar with accounting jargon.
Budget Maestro
Best for mid-market
For mid-market and even enterprise-level businesses wishing to handle budgeting and forecasting with reliability, Budget Maestro is the perfect answer. For the purpose of creating more accurate budgets and financial predictions, the program automates many of the labor-intensive and error-prone activities involved with using spreadsheets.
Budget Budget accuracy is continuously maintained by Maestro’s built-in financial intelligence and business rules, which are based on your assumptions and processes. Working with a centralized database eliminates the possibility of human error leading to data disparities. Additionally, any adjustments to estimates or hypotheses are immediately updated, ensuring that you are constantly working with the same version of the truth.
Prophix
Best free to start
A free trial of PROPHIX’s budgeting and forecasting software is available, and it contains a central database, periodic forecasts (monthly, mid-year, multi-year), and other forecasting requirements that are all easily accessible. For proper analysis and management, this software provides income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, and other company-specific budgeting requirements to your desktop.
PROPHIX provides several options to increase forecasting precision. With PROPHIX’s versatile modeling capabilities, it is able to undertake what-if analyses, inter-period forecasts, actual to forecasts/budget comparisons, rolling forecast development, and forecasting based on numerous key performance metrics.
Budgyt
Best for cloud
A budgeting and forecasting tool for any company, Budgyt is simple to use and intuitive. With this cloud-based solution, creating budgets is quicker, more precise, and more dependable thanks to an intuitive budgeting tool that takes the place of cumbersome spreadsheets. Clients in any industry with several stores, units, or divisions can use this service. Individual budgets are rolled up by Budgyt, which also produces reports and analyses. Additionally, Budgyt imports and exports data from the general ledger accounting software you now use.
Enterprise, mid-market, and small firms in the for-profit and non-profit sectors all favor this approach. If you are a for-profit organization or a non-profit, there are different price options.
Limelight
The financial planning and reporting software platform Limelight is simple to use and quick to set up. The web-based Limelight software enables collaboration, data integration, real-time planning, and reporting from any device.
Dynac CPM
Imagine if your income statement and balance sheet are integrated, producing current cash flow statements whenever you require them. Add to that dynamic rolling prediction with “What if” scenarios so you can see the results of company choices.
Vivid Reports
is made to be an add-in for Microsoft Excel that is completely integrated with the general ledger accounts, balances, and transactions in your ERP. You can utilize all of Excel’s features, and it is quite simple to learn and use.
CALUMO
For accountants, CALUMO is a reporting, budgeting, and forecasting tool. Organizations can easily and rapidly report on, budget for, forecast, and plan their financial, sales, operational, manufacturing, and other initiatives with CALUMO.
Solver
The main factor influencing the expansion and profitability of your firm is quicker and better decision-making. Managers may readily get the data they need to examine business operations and financial data because it is all conveniently available in one package.
Pricing: N/A
Best Budget Software
Mint
Best budgeting app overall
Cost: Free
Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps and for good reason. It is free to use, something rare among the best budgeting apps, and you get financial budgeting shared by 24 million users.
The app allows you to create a personalized budget and will then monitor your spending. It studies your spending habits and advises how to increase your savings. It will also check your subscriptions to ensure that you are not paying for services you do not need. With MintSights, you can set goals to reach financial milestones and build a stronger financial foundation. Once you connect your accounts, you can easily navigate between outstanding account balances, your monthly expenses versus spending, and even access your free credit score. Mint is compatible with not just banking accounts, but also your credit cards, loans, and investments. You can even file your IRS taxes and receive your refund through the app’s integrated TurboTax services.
Goodbudget
Best budgeting app with digital envelopes
Cost: There is a free version with ads, or you can upgrade to an ad-free plan for $7 per month or $60 per year.
Goodbudget is a budgeting app that helps you create and stick to a budget. There is available debt tracking to keep you motivated and on track. It also helps with money management so you know exactly where your funds are and how they are performing. You will have to subscribe to Goodbudget, but once you do, you will have wide access to the app through both the web and multiple phones. This means that it is easy to share your account with others, like a spouse or family member. It helps you stay connected financially even if you are physically apart, helping to prevent miscommunications and financial mishaps. All transactions are synced to the cloud so you never have to worry about certain financial transactions going missing. Review pie charts and reports to track your spending, with generated reports to show your finances in greater detail. Digital envelopes help you categorize your finances into available funds with each envelope assigned to certain expenses. It is a visual way to improve your finances through the help of virtual tools.
Personal Capital
Best budgeting app for investors
Cost: Personal Capital is free to use.
More than 2.8 million people utilize Personal Capital, and it is a portfolio tracker specifically designed to help with your investments, offering a unique digital approach to your personal finance. The app works with several different types of accounts, including your normal banking accounts, as well as investments, stocks, and retirement funds. The exclusive Retirement Planner tool helps you view your 401K, IRAs, and also your debt so you can have a complete, well-rounded portrait of your finances at the click of a button. The Cash Flow graph stacks your income versus your expenses for an overall financial snapshot that is easy to understand, plus there is an Investment Checkup tool that checks your investments, looking for ways to minimize risk while maximizing rewards. The Retirement Planner is an excellent option when you want to create and manage your retirement. You also have the option to join Personal Capital as an investment client so you can receive direct support from its financial advisors.
Pocketguard
Best budgeting app for overspenders
Cost: There are three subscription plans, in addition to a basic plan with limited features for free.
| Type of plan | Cost |
| Monthly | $7.99 |
| Annual | $34.99 |
| Lifetime One-Time Purchase | $79.99 |
PocketGuard takes a different approach to budgeting, utilizing smart algorithms to manage and track your spending. It also monitors your bills, helping to ensure that you do not miss a payment and risk falling further into debt. There is a bill tracker and organizer available as soon as you link your bank accounts. Any subscriptions you have will be automatically flagged and built into your monthly budget. With the IN MY POCKET feature, the app will automatically calculate your monthly expenses and then advise you on what is left over to spend. It also can help you negotiate better interest rates on your existing accounts, helping you save those extra dollars. It is easy to identify what disposable income you have to spend when the app does all the calculating and reporting for you. You do not have to pay to use PocketGuard, although you will need to subscribe if you want to access all of the best.
Quicken
Quicken is a long-established tool for managing personal accounts, and while its reputation was founded on a desktop version, it is also available as an app for your mobile devices.
Quicken has a comprehensive set of financial reporting features. These are organized around a few different topics, including budgeting, bills, accounts, and even investing. For budgeting, it allows you to enter your purchases and income so you can compare them to have a better picture of how much you spend versus how much you earn.
In terms of bills, you can see which utilities and such services you are constantly paying, as well as the amounts owed and how much money you have left over. For accounting purposes, you can even combine your banking and credit card payments in one location so you know exactly how much you’re paying out. This is especially useful because consumers frequently underestimate how much simple purchases might add to prices.
It also allows you to track your investments, whether they are part of your savings, investment portfolio, or 401k pension plan. This implies that you have a good notion of how much your savings and assets are worth, while it’s fair to say that
In total, Quicken combines your banking, investment reporting, and budgeting into a single dashboard that you can access from a PC or even a mobile device via the mobile app.
YNAB
You Need A Budget, often known as YNAB, is here just in case you require precise instructions. Because, hey, you really do need one if you don’t want to spend every every penny you have and more. Perhaps you have more money than you anticipated as well.
As you may anticipate, YNAB’s main goal is to assist you in reducing your expenditure and avoiding living paycheck to paycheck. Maintain the plan and moderate your spending, and soon YNAB will realize that you are using last month’s funds rather than those you just received.
It is simple to install, supports the bulk of transaction data that can be downloaded from banks, and automatically adjusts for use by either individuals or small businesses by altering its monetary categories in accordance with your requirements.
If you stray from your course, YNAB, which is surprisingly understanding and forgiving for a piece of software, will inform you what to do to get back on track.
Conclusion
Making a better business budget is not as difficult as it seems. By using Free Budget Software to make your budget, you can stay up-to-date on financial affairs and make informed decisions that will help your business succeed. Additionally, tools likeFree Budget Software can help you make a better business budget quickly and easily.