Top 10 budgeting software that integrates with QuickBooks

QuickBooks has become the go-to accounting system for small and mid-sized businesses. Its ease of use and strong features make it a reliable solution for managing daily finances. But when it comes to building forward-looking budgets, finance leaders feel its built-in tools don’t always keep pace with growing business complexity.

The gap shows up in board decks, growth modeling, and headcount planning, where static QuickBooks reports can’t deliver the scenario analysis or real-time collaboration teams need. Finance leaders are looking for more powerful budgeting capabilities to get more granular insights. A dedicated budgeting software that integrates with QuickBooks uses your accounting data to provide better planning, forecasting, and AI-powered insights. 

In this guide, we evaluate the top 10 budgeting software that integrate seamlessly with QuickBooks. We have analyzed product research data, user feedback, analyst insights, and vendor documentation to compare each option in terms of how it improves planning workflows, strengthens forecasts, and helps finance teams turn data into confident decisions. The clear comparison of features, AI capabilities, pricing, and trade-offs will help you pick a solution that meets your budgeting requirements.

QuickBooks for budgeting?

QuickBooks includes a built-in budgeting module designed to help small and mid-sized businesses set up and track financial plans. Budgets can be created annually or monthly, using either historical data or fresh projections, and can be subdivided by class, location, or customer for added visibility. As these tools pull directly from QuickBooks' accounting data, teams can easily compare actuals to their plan. This helps them spot variances and make quick adjustments. The process is straightforward, with clear steps and reports that make budgeting easy and accessible, even for non-accounting staff.

QuickBooks’ budgeting features have clear limitations, though. The out-of-the-box budgeting capabilities allow for basic budget creation and variance analysis, but lack many advanced tools that finance teams need. Features like multi-scenario analysis, rolling forecasts, workflow approvals, and detailed collaboration across departments are either missing or only available in higher-tier plans. QuickBooks falls short as businesses scale and financial needs grow complex.

If your business has simple budgeting needs, QuickBooks' built-in tools are a good place to start. But if you need more in-depth forecasting, team-based planning, and better analytics, you should connect a specialized budgeting tool with QuickBooks. This will give you advanced financial planning capabilities while still using QuickBooks for your accounting.

Price: $$ 

Best for: Small businesses

QuickBooks’ budgeting strengths

• Builds static budgets: QuickBooks lets you create static budgets for monthly, quarterly, or annual periods. Depending on your QuickBooks version, you can break these budgets down by account, class, customer, or location.
• ‍Built-in reporting: Track your budget against actual spending and get simple variance analysis reports.‍
• Ease of use: Designed for small businesses to help them use their financial data more efficiently for budgeting with an intuitive interface and integrated invoicing, expense, and payroll features.

QuickBooks’ budgeting weaknesses

• ‍No scenario analysis or what-if modeling: Without these features, you can't easily create alternative budget versions, rolling forecasts, or test different drivers without using spreadsheets or external tools.‍
• Limited dimensional flexibility: The system has limited dimensional flexibility. You can't easily collapse or expand accounts, create hierarchical budgets, or link budgets directly to operational metrics like headcount or sales.‍
• Collaboration is challenging: The lack of features like version control, approval workflows, or audit trails forces teams to rely on Excel to manage budgets across different departments or keep track of multiple versions.‍
• Budgets aren't updated in real time: Actuals depend on data entered in QuickBooks and are not updated in real time. Manual reconciliation or data exports are required for advanced analyses.

Top 10 budgeting software for QuickBooks 

Drivetrain

Price: $$

Best for: Mid-market and Enterprise

Drivetrain is a comprehensive, AI-native financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform built for mid-market and enterprise businesses that’s powerful, yet simple enough for even non-technical users to work with. 

It transforms budgeting from a once-a-year task into a continuous and collaborative process. While QuickBooks is great for simple monthly budgets, it can't handle dynamic forecasting, scenario modeling, or input from multiple teams. 

Drivetrain has native QuickBooks integration to automatically pull in actuals and transactional data from the general ledger (GL). It eliminates the need for manual uploads and reduces errors. It ensures budgets, forecasts, and reports remain accurate and up to date, giving finance leaders real confidence in their numbers. By combining QuickBooks’ trusted accounting data with Drivetrain’s collaborative and driver-based planning tools, businesses can unlock deeper insights, model multiple scenarios, and make faster, better-informed financial decisions.

How Drivetrain improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍AI-powered forecasting and scenario modeling: Move beyond static QuickBooks budgets with rolling forecasts, what-if scenarios, and side-by-side budget comparisons by Drivetrain to test assumptions, assess risks, and plan confidently for various growth opportunities.‍
• Driver-based financial modeling: Connect your budgets to key business drivers and operational KPIs to get more strategic and forward-looking insights than using QuickBooks data alone.‍
• Collaborative planning and workflow automation: Assign responsibilities, set approval workflows, and gather input from different departments with complete audit trails to make budgeting clear and collaborative across teams.‍
• Multi-entity and departmental consolidation: Simplify your financial processes by consolidating all your data into a single location, eliminating the need for manual roll-ups and making your reporting more accurate.‍
• Advanced analytics and dashboards: Drill into variances, customize reports, and track performance in real time with interactive dashboards that provide a deeper layer of insight than QuickBooks’ standard budgeting reports.

Pigment

Price: $$-$$$

Best for: Mid-market and Enterprise

Pigment is a business planning platform built for companies that have outgrown QuickBooks’ native budgeting tools or basic spreadsheet models. Pigment fills the financial planning gaps left by QuickBooks to help finance teams shift from reactive reporting to proactive planning. It centralizes data, offers flexible modeling, and provides powerful analytics.

When integrated with QuickBooks, Pigment automatically pulls in actuals and transaction-level details, reducing the need for manual imports and reconciliation errors. It simplifies plan-vs-actual comparisons and provides dynamic business insights through interactive dashboards and scenario planning. Pigment can transform budgeting for growing organizations by making it more collaborative and strategic.

On the downside, Pigment is one of the highest cost options we cover in this guide and is a pretty complex software to implement, which often requires third-party support, increasing costs further. Setting up models can require significant time and expertise, and the inherent complexity of the platform creates a long learning curve to effectively use it.  

How Pigment improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Model budgets across dimensions: Build more detailed budgets by product line, region, cost center, or entity.‍
• Run scenarios and what-if analysis: Evaluate the financial impact of hiring plans, pricing changes, or expansion decisions without relying on static and one-time reports.‍
• Collaborate securely: Assign inputs, set permissions, and let business users update forecasts directly to maintain governance and version control.‍
• Visualize and share insights: Use interactive dashboards and presentations to communicate results without manual formatting and exports.‍
• Maintain control and compliance: Track changes, set user-level permissions, and keep clear audit trails for better financial oversight.‍

Planful

Price: $$ 

Best for: Mid-market and Enterprise

Planful is built for finance teams managing complex, multi-entity planning where QuickBooks’ basic budgeting tools fall short. While QuickBooks can handle straightforward budgets, it eventually forces growing companies into manual, time-consuming processes when consolidating multiple entities, preparing group budgets, or running advanced scenario analyses. Planful removes these challenges by automating consolidations, improving forecasting, and simplifying close and reporting processes. 

Planful’s direct connection with QuickBooks automates the flow of financial data between the two systems, eliminating spreadsheet errors and manual data handling, to provide more accurate data for financial planning. 

However, Planful’s complexity can overwhelm teams, with a complex implementation that requires third-party consultants. Navigating the platform imposes a steep learning curve for teams. Implementation and onboarding are a lengthy affair, and users often need training support to fully leverage the features Planful can offer. Additionally, Planful’s modeling and reporting flexibility is capped at just 8 dimensions, which limits scalability for growing teams.

How Planful improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Automated multi-entity consolidation: Automatically combine budgets from multiple QuickBooks files or subsidiaries to produce unified group budgets and reports.‍
• Driver-based and rolling forecasts: Create dynamic financial models linked to your business drivers that automatically update with your actuals data from QuickBooks.‍
• Workflow and compliance controls: Leverage Planful’s structured approval processes, audit trails, and role-based permissions to provide better governance.‍
• Advanced reporting and presentations: Generate polished, board-ready reports and dashboards.

Vena

Price: $$ 

Best for: Mid-market

Vena is a tool for finance teams that combines the familiar interface of Excel with advanced features not found in QuickBooks. It enhances QuickBooks' basic budgeting capabilities by adding capabilities, such as audit trails, approval workflows, and scenario planning. This allows teams to retain the formulas and models they know, while operating within a centralized and cloud-based environment that ensures accuracy and consistency.

Vena integrates directly with QuickBooks to automate data entry for GL balances and actuals. This keeps models updated and consolidates Excel-based budgets and forecasts for real-time analysis. Finance leaders can combine the ease of spreadsheet modeling with the structure, control, and scalability of a modern FP&A platform.

However, integrations beyond QuickBooks and Microsoft products, as well as highly customized workflows, may require IT involvement for proper configuration. Because it relies so heavily on Excel, Vena users may struggle with inherited spreadsheet limitations. Excel, and Vena by extension, does not effectively support collaborative work, which can create challenges for scaling cross-team collaboration. 

How Vena improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Excel-powered modeling with QuickBooks data: Leverage the formulas, templates, and custom logic of Excel with live QuickBooks data.‍
• Scenario and driver-based planning: Run rolling forecasts, compare what-if versions, and link budgets to operational drivers like sales or headcount.‍
• Centralized consolidation and reporting: Consolidate data from different teams or departments to track key performance indicators (KPIs) in dashboards.‍
• Audit trails and governance: Track every change, approval, and adjustment for better compliance and accountability.

Datarails

Price: $$ 

Best for: Small and Mid-market

Datarails is built for finance teams that still lean on Excel as their comfort zone for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. QuickBooks handles basic budgets, but lacks tools for collaboration, version control, or consolidated visibility across multiple accounts. Datarails enhances Excel with automation and governance, filling critical budgeting gaps that QuickBooks can't address, all while letting teams continue using their familiar spreadsheets.

The platform connects to QuickBooks Online using “entities” and to QuickBooks Desktop through Web Connector. It automatically pulls accounting data into Datarails, automatically syncing budgets and forecasts with QuickBooks data to ensure finance teams always have accurate numbers to work with. 

Datarails’ reliance on Excel can limit workflow modernization, though. Complex multi-entity structures may require manual configurations, and some advanced reporting functions can involve additional customization effort. Feature depth for advanced analytics may also require more manual effort compared to certain planning platforms.

How Datarails improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Smarter budget cycles and scenarios: Build, clone, and compare multiple versions, including past years and scenarios for best-case and worst-case.‍
• Streamlined collaboration and controls: Manage departmental budget files, track progress, and handle approvals centrally, eliminating manual QuickBooks tracking.‍
• Automatic data sync with QuickBooks: Automatically prefill budgets with past data and update forecasts using QuickBooks.‍
• Consolidated reporting and dashboards: Track performance trends by comparing actuals, budgets, and forecasts using intuitive dashboards.

Cube

Price: $$ 

Best for: Small and Mid-market

Cube is a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that provides finance teams with the convenience of a centralized database and automation. Integrating Cube with QuickBooks helps actuals flow directly into your models. However, deep customization for unique business models in Cube is limited, and while its real-time sync solves static data issues, companies with complex consolidation needs may outgrow it sooner than expected.

Cube simplifies complex planning using the familiar spreadsheet interface your team already trusts. But with that familiarity comes not only the usual spreadsheet drawbacks, but also Cube’s own limitations. Modeling is limited to just 8 dimensions, and managing user permissions or multiple data versions quickly becomes cumbersome, especially as your teams grow.

How Cube improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Real-time spreadsheet sync with QuickBooks: Automatically sync QuickBooks data with Excel or Google Sheets, with no manual data entry.‍
• Scenario and driver-based modeling: Build and compare "what-if" scenarios, like sales shifts or cost increases.‍
• Centralized control with versioning: A single, shared data model ensures consistency across users, with built-in audit trails to track every change.‍
• Dashboards and advanced reporting: Publish interactive reports and dashboards that combine QuickBooks financials with non-financial data.

Mosaic

Price: $$ 

‍Best for: Small and Mid-market

Mosaic is built for finance teams that need more robust planning capabilities than  QuickBooks can provide. Integrating the two transforms financial planning into a dynamic and collaborative process with features such as driver-based forecasting, rolling updates, and financial models.

Mosaic pulls updates from invoices, expenses, and GL entries in QuickBooks into its dashboards and forecasts. This offers finance teams a more accurate, connected, and strategic planning approach. 

However, Mosaic’s modeling capabilities are pretty limited. Its out-of-the-box templates are very rigid. Yet to build and customize a model or any analytics from scratch requires advanced setup, which can be challenging for all but the most technical users. 

Integration with other tools beyond QuickBooks can be challenging, too. Its ecosystem of native data connectors is quite limited (~35). As a result, companies with a lot of different financial management tools, or newer tools that are less common, will have to figure out workarounds or purchase professional services to fully integrate their systems.

How Mosaic improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Real-time updates from QuickBooks: Automatically update budgets, forecasts, and dashboards with actuals, invoices, and expense data.‍
• Driver-based forecasting and scenarios: Model the impact of hiring plans, revenue shifts, or new contracts.‍
• Collaborative workflows: Create workflows that allow multiple departments to contribute inputs, comment, and align on budgets in one place.‍
• Visual dashboards and KPI tracking: Translates QuickBooks data into customizable dashboards with trend analysis, cohort metrics, and non-financial drivers.‍
• Rolling forecasts and continuous planning: Move beyond annual budgets with ongoing projections that adapt with new QuickBooks data and operational data.

Jirav

Price: $$

Best for: Small and Mid-market

Jirav is a cloud-based financial planning platform designed for SMB finance teams ready to move beyond QuickBooks’ basic budget module. Jirav adds a visual and interactive layer to your accounting data, making collaborative planning, operational modeling, and team analysis much easier than managing spreadsheets manually.

Jirav integrates directly with QuickBooks, automatically syncing actuals, transactions, and budget data for up-to-date forecasting and reporting. The partnership provides finance teams with a flexible and transparent way to budget for making more informed decisions.

However, Jirav’s workflow customization options are limited, which can be a problem for businesses with customized processes or unusual organizational structures. While its standardized templates make initial setup easier, they don’t allow much flexibility for advanced reporting. Working with large or highly detailed datasets can introduce additional complexity.

How Jirav improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Driver-based and operational modeling: Build budgets tied to business metrics such as sales, headcount, or pipeline, instead of just GL accounts.‍
• Rolling forecasts and scenario analysis: Create ongoing forecasts and test multiple “what-if” scenarios to evaluate growth strategies or changing business conditions.‍
• Collaborative, department-level planning: Allow teams and department heads to contribute inputs, monitor progress, and adjust budgets with secure permission controls.‍
• Real-time variance tracking: Compare budget vs. actual performance across departments, cost centers, or entities to identify deviations and act quickly.‍
• Consolidation and reporting automation: Aggregate multiple QuickBooks files, entities, or locations into unified dashboards and reports, eliminating the need for manual roll-ups.

Budgyt

Price: $$

Best for: Small businesses and early-stage startups

Budgyt is a cloud-based collaborative budgeting platform designed for organizations managing multiple departments, locations, or projects. While QuickBooks’ built-in budgeting handles basic budget tracking and reporting, Budgyt adds flexibility, enabling teams to enter, review, and approve budgets in a more structured, multi-unit environment. It replaces static spreadsheets, making collaboration easier and more scalable.

Budgyt integrates directly with QuickBooks, pulling in actuals and pushing back approved budgets. This streamlines workflows for finance teams by providing real-time updates and centralized approvals while maintaining QuickBooks as the primary financial record. The integration enhances financial planning by improving accuracy, transparency, and efficiency.

Budgyt’s interface can feel restrictive for teams moving away from spreadsheet-based FP&A, yet support and onboarding resources are limited compared to other solutions. 

In addition, Budgyt’s features for advanced modeling may not be sufficient for larger or rapidly growing teams. Adapting unique or complex workflows to the platform can be challenging, and reporting interface adjustments may require additional user training.

How Budgyt improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Flexible multi-unit budgeting: Collect inputs from multiple departments, locations, or projects and automatically roll them up, eliminating manual merges and spreadsheet errors.‍
• Collaborative workflows and approvals: Assign responsibilities, track submissions, and manage granular approvals.‍
• Scenario and sensitivity analysis: Build and compare multiple budget versions to test assumptions before finalizing plans.‍
• Instant reporting and dashboards: Generate real-time insights with customizable templates and visualizations tailored to your business structure.‍
• Audit trails and compliance: Track every change to budgets and approvals, maintaining transparency and governance alongside QuickBooks’ trusted data.

Fathom

Price: $$ 

Best for: Small and Mid-market

Fathom is an analytics and reporting platform designed for organizations seeking deeper insights from their QuickBooks data. By integrating QuickBooks with Fathom, finance teams always have access to reliable financial data combined with FP&A capabilities that QuickBooks alone cannot provide. With Fathom’s advanced reporting and basic visualization capabilities, finance teams can streamline analysis, improve decision-making, and communicate insights more effectively.

However, Fathom’s focus on analytics means it lacks end-to-end planning processes and automation found in comprehensive FP&A platforms. Businesses with extensive workflow, approval, or multi-entity needs may find the platform’s budgeting features insufficient.

Another drawback is its overall lack of customization options. For example, the ability to customize budgeting outputs falls short of those in more complete planning tools. Fathom does offer dashboards and automated reporting, but here, too, the ability to customize these is limited. While it offers custom KPIs, deeper integration with non-financial metrics will require extra setup.

How Fathom improves budgeting in QuickBooks

• ‍Custom KPIs and visual dashboards: Track financial and operational metrics beyond standard P&L reports, with interactive visuals.‍
• Scenario planning and benchmarking: Model multiple budget scenarios, test assumptions, and compare performance against competitors or industry benchmarks.‍
• Automated management and board reporting: Automatically generate reports combining financials, visuals, and analysis without manual assembly.‍
• Variance and trend analysis: Drill into budget vs. actuals, identify drivers, and uncover trends across departments or cost centers.

Choosing the best budgeting software for QuickBooks

The right budgeting software saves hours on reporting and makes finance decisions smarter and faster. Integrating QuickBooks with a modern FP&A platform forms the core of a far more powerful planning process. FP&A shifts from a month-end spreadsheet scramble to a continuous and real-time business performance review. Teams share the same live data, supported by secure permissions, audit trails, and automated workflows that streamline compliance.

Actuals flow in directly from QuickBooks, and the FP&A tool turns them into forecasts on easy-to-use dashboards in real-time. This eliminates the manual data re-entry bottleneck with no more version-control nightmares and no more copy-paste errors. Additionally, finance teams can run scenario models to test strategy, drill into variance drivers, or stress-test cash flow against market changes.

A comprehensive FP&A software like Drivetrain connects natively with QuickBooks and over 800 other systems to deliver multidimensional modeling, dynamic reporting, and always-current forecasts. Its familiar, intuitive interface and short learning curve make adoption easy for finance teams and business users. Drivetrain simplifies consolidating departmental data into presentable board-ready reports and running rolling forecasts.

Unlike most other FP&A tools that come with steep learning curves, Drivetrain combines enterprise-grade planning and analytics with a refreshingly intuitive interface. It makes budgeting in QuickBooks smarter, faster, and far less stressful. The platform feels familiar enough that business users from any department can get up to speed quickly, yet powerful enough to handle enterprise workloads, offering rolling forecasts, complex driver-based planning, and real-time reporting at scale. 

Book a free demo today and see how Drivetrain can transform QuickBooks from an accounting tool into a true growth partner.

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