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).
3rd Generation FP&A software is delivered as a service and offers a user-centric design, low cost, shorter implementation times, many self-service features, native ERP integration, and a quick/high ROI. — The FP&A Market Guide
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 six of the best SaaS budgeting software platforms on the market in 2024.
To cover the broadest range of possible needs (small startups, SMBs, and enterprises), we have reviewed a range of first, second, and third generation solutions to help you find the best fit for your unique business. 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.
The best SaaS budgeting software compared
Let’s start with a side-by-side comparison of the key features SaaS businesses need in a truly robust business budgeting software platform. Then we’ll jump into a bit more detail below.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $$ | $-$$ | $$ | $$-$$$ | $$$ | $$$ |
| Market Sector | Small to Mid-Market | Small to Mid-Market | Small to Mid-Market | Mid-Market to Enterprise | Enterprise | Large Enterprise |
| Scalability | High | Moderate; Same limitations as MS Excel | High but requires extensive planning | Scalable but requires continual adjustments | Scalable with upgrades | High |
| Type of FP&A solution | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 1st Generation |
| Native Integration | 200+ OOTB integrations plus custom integration | 70+ OOTB | Few | 7 OOTB | Native integrations | Integrations available but complex |
| Predictive Forecasting | ||||||
| Variance analysis | ||||||
| Multidimensional modeling | ||||||
| Multiple scenarios and What-if analysis | ||||||
| Rolling budget/forecasts | ||||||
| Collaboration | ||||||
| Automated reporting | ||||||
| Dynamic Dashboards | ||||||
| In-house implementation | Yes | unknown | unknown | No | No | No |
Drivetrain
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, third generation FP&A solution with the full range of features SaaS CFOs and their finance teams need to compare actuals with budget and forecasts.
Let’s start with data aggregation and consolidation. Most tools in the market today have limitations when it comes to data ingestion and handling — usually either in the number of integrations they support, or the ability to perform the unique, complex joins needed to make the data useful and accessible for budgeting. Such limitations and their associated opportunity costs, are non-existent with Drivetrain. With a programmatic approach to data imports and transformations (ETL), Drivetrain can ingest data from any system or application, and in any format without limitations.
Further, Drivetrain’s scalable, multidimensional modeling architecture is quite powerful and intuitive, helping you build complex models at one-tenth the time compared to other tools. With Drivetrain, you can model at the speed and dimensionality at which your business operates—thanks to plain-English formulas, a moderate amount of Excel functions, and a shallow learning curve.
This mix of powerful computing and control in the hands of the end-user combined with ease of use for surfacing hard-to-reach insights is how Drivetrain helps improve decision-making at every level in your business.
$$
Small and Mid-market
Purpose-built for SaaS
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Budgeting
Driver-Based and Zero-Based Budgeting
Rolling budget and forecasts
200+ native data connectors to popular systems
Advanced collaboration and access control features
Automated reporting with interactive dashboards
Highly intuitive UI
Extensive customization options
Heavily focused on B2B companies
Predictive forecasting capabilities
Real-time budget and forecast vs. actuals
Scenario Planning and What-If Analysis
Subscription revenue modeling with multi-currency support
Best of breed vendor, headcount and sales planning templates
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 supports several FP&A use cases, including budgeting, and gives users the ability to continue using their existing financial models in Excel.
$-$$
Small and Mid-market
Familiar Excel interface
Comprehensive collaboration tools
Uses AI to surface results from plain English queries
Works only with Excel, not Google Sheets
Few customization options
Limited visualization capabilities, particularly for complex analyses
Lacks functionality needed for advanced modeling
Even simple models require 100s of formulas
Limited access controls
Budgeting and forecasting
Scenario modeling
Financial reporting
Like Datarails, Vena also uses MS Excel. It is a Microsoft Excel add-in that caters to users who prefer to use spreadsheets but whose FP&A needs are more complex than what they can easily manage with spreadsheets alone.
$$
Mid-market
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
Workday Adaptive Planning (formerly Adaptive Insights) is a robust enterprise performance management (EPM) tool that, while not purpose-built for SaaS, includes budgeting features suitable for SaaS businesses.
$$-$$$
Mid-market
Not dependent on MS Excel but offers a familiar, Excel-like UI
Good customization capabilities
Self-service reporting with interactive dashboards
Limited integrations
Long implementation times (usually 6 months or more)
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
Financial forecasting
While Anaplan is more accurately characterized as a second generation FP&A tool, we have included it here as an option that is particularly well-suited to enterprise-level SaaS businesses. Anaplan is not purpose-built for SaaS. However, it is designed specifically for connected business budgeting and planning and can accommodate most of the FP&A use cases SaaS businesses have.
$$$
Enterprise
Granular analysis
Sophisticated what-if scenario modeling capabilities
Good customization capabilities
Long implementation times (Usually 6 months minimum)
Steep learning curve
Limited dashboard functionality
Complex pricing model; very expensive for small- to mid-sized businesses
Scenario modeling, including what-if analyses
Driver-based and assumption-based planning
Top-down and bottom-up budgeting
Oracle’s Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) has been around since 2014. It has continued to evolve, and with the addition of frameworks for financials and strategic modeling became known as Oracle’s Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS), a first generation FP&A solution.
Today, EPBCS as well as a number of other Oracle tools have been combined into what is now marketed as Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud, which offers a comprehensive solution for strategic budgeting, particularly for enterprise-level customers with complex requirements.
$$$
Large Enterprise
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; expensive solution for small- to mid-sized businesses
Scenario modeling, including what-if analyses
Driver-based expense planning
Financial forecasting
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.
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.
See how Drivetrain can accelerate your budgeting process
How to choose the right SaaS budgeting software for your business
What is the best budgeting software for your business?
The ideal SaaS budgeting software solution is the one that best aligns with the unique needs of your business. However, there are a number of specific features you‘ll want to look for that combined will facilitate accurate financial planning, effective collaboration, and more strategic decision-making.
5 benefits of using a budgeting and planning software
Choosing the right business budget 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.
Choosing a third generation FP&A platform – a strategic finance platform purpose-built for SaaS businesses – will provide powerful, value-added benefits:
1. Better cost optimization
The right budgeting and forecasting software will support a variety of business budgeting methods, including those that focus on optimizing costs, such as zero based budgeting and activity based budgeting. These methods are typically very time consuming due to the depth of analysis they require, especially when using spreadsheets for budgeting. However, in Drivetrain, you can quickly drill down into your budget to a very granular level to gain valuable insights, such as areas in your business that offer cost savings opportunities and hidden expenses that should be eliminated altogether.
2. More accurate forecasting
Revenue forecasting can be challenging for SaaS companies based on the complexity inherent in the subscription business model. The right business budgeting and planning software brings 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.
3. Strategic resource allocations
The financial visibility and clarity that budgeting and planning software like Drivetrain can provide will also allow you to be more strategic in your allocations. You’ll know what areas of your business are driving growth and where your “money pits” are, enabling you to make data-driven investment decisions in the activities that will produce the biggest ROI.
4. Faster alignment across teams
Using spreadsheets for budgeting not only takes an enormous amount of time, it can make achieving alignment on the final budget very difficult. Every team is pulling data from siloed source systems and using their own models and assumptions in their budgeting. This can lead to disagreements about whose data is correct, leaving finance teams to sort it all out. In Drivetrain, all your data and plans is 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.
5. Flexible, adaptive planning
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. This, combined with variance analysis capabilities that Drivetrain provides, gives you the flexibility you need to identify and respond quickly to emerging problems and new opportunities.
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.
Note: We've adapted the table below from FP&A software classifications developed by Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy).
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web application that replaces spreadsheets | ||||||
| Web application that integrates with spreadsheets | ||||||
| Application uses a spreadsheet for calculations | ||||||
| Add-in for spreadsheet applications |
We didn’t have to wrestle with spreadsheets anymore, says Abhishek. With a single source of truth and a familiar Excel-like interface, Drivetrain instantly clicked with department heads. They didn’t need to rely on us (finance team) for budgets or variance reports which were completely automated now.— Abhishek Bajaj, Whatfix Finance Lead
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.
See how Drivetrain can accelerate your budgeting process
Features
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native integrations with top 6 ERPs | ||||||
| Native integrations with top CRM, HRIS, Billing & BI tools | ||||||
| Integration with Excel and Google Sheets | ||||||
| Excel/CSV upload download |
2. Predictive Forecasting
Forecasting capabilities are essential to the budgeting process because they allow a business to predict future revenues, expenses, and cash flows. With the right financial forecasting tool, SaaS businesses can 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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolling forecast | ||||||
| Driver based forecasting | ||||||
| Pre-configured forecast methods |
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget variance analysis | ||||||
| Real-time view of Budget vs. Actuals | ||||||
| Real-time view of Forecast vs. Actuals |
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-memory multidimensional calculation engine | ||||||
| Rolling budget | ||||||
| Driver-based budgeting and forecasting | ||||||
| Custom data modeling | ||||||
| Multiple scenario planning | ||||||
| Unlimited planning window (long range planning) | ||||||
| Customizable templates | unknown | unknown |
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. 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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OOTB SaaS metrics (ARR, Runway, NRR, Burn Multiple, Payback Period, and 40 more) | ||||||
Best of breed revenue model templates (Sales capacity planning, territory planning, incentive and compensation management model, and 80 more) |
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenting Threads | ||||||
| Fine-Grained Role Based Access Control | ||||||
| Slack Notifications |
7. Automated reporting and dynamic dashboards
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill down to transaction-level | ||||||
| Drill down by any dimension | ||||||
| Global- and chart-level filters | ||||||
| Automated 3-Way financial statements | ||||||
| Text callouts/ notes in dashboards | ||||||
| Reporting templates |
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.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Vena | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan | Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (EPBC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation time | 4-6 weeks | unknown | > 2 months | >4 months | >6 months | > 6months |
| In-house implementation | Yes | unknown | unknown | No | No | No |
| White-glove onboarding | ||||||
| Self-service management (learning curve) | ||||||
| Dedicated customer support/success |
FAQ
How do you budget for SaaS?
Some SaaS businesses still use a traditional budgeting approach (i.e. incremental budgeting). However, many are now discovering that strategic budgeting methods give them far more flexibility and align better with their strategic goals. There are four methods that, when implemented on a rolling basis, are considered strategic:
Creating and implementing a strategic, rolling budget is easy in Drivetrain and helps to eliminate the opportunity costs associated with static, incremental budgeting.
What technology do you use to manage a SaaS budget?
There are a number of different technologies that SaaS companies can use to help them manage different aspects of creating a budget and managing it day-to-day. These might include expense management software, ERPs systems, revenue forecasting software and of course, the ubiquitous spreadsheets. There are also modern FP&A platforms like Drivetrain, which is purpose-built for SaaS businesses and encompasses a wide range of capabilities that go well beyond business budget management, offering a more comprehensive budgeting solution.
How do you create a budget forecast?
At a high level, creating a budget forecast involves:
- Gathering and analyzing historical revenue and expense data and key SaaS metrics
- Evaluating how the competitive landscape, market dynamics and industry trends might impact your financial performance
- Defining the key assumptions you will use in your estimations
- Forecasting future revenue and estimating expenses factoring in day-to-day expenses and any growth initiatives
- Model different scenarios based on different assumptions and potential outcomes
- Monitoring actual performance against the budget and making adjustments if needed
- Review your forecast to ensure it is realistic and aligned with your strategic goals, making adjustments where necessary.
