Most finance teams don’t need more tools. They need fewer tabs open.
You have probably felt it. Planning that should take hours stretches into days. Forecasts go stale. Reviews turn into reconciliation exercises. Everyone wants to move faster, but the tools make it harder.
Modern business budgeting software connects your data to your strategy.
Sometimes it works well. Often it creates more friction. The real difference is how your team plans, how complex your model is, and who owns it. Choosing the right tool depends on how your team thinks, moves, and grows. It should support your financial goals rather than just storing numbers.
Let’s break down what to look for.
Why finance teams outgrow spreadsheets
Spreadsheets changed the game once, but now they’re starting to hold teams back.
You cannot always tell when it happens. At first reviews just get slower. Then version mismatches appear or hidden formulas break. Scenarios get buried across tabs. You might struggle to confirm your real time cash position because data sits in five different systems that take hours to normalize.
Eventually you spend more time managing the process than actually shaping the plan.
Most teams don't outgrow Excel because it is wrong.
They outgrow it because it's no longer a good fit for how they work. At some point, you can’t answer “what if?” without risking breaking something or spinning up yet another copy of the file.
What the right budgeting tool should actually do
A good budgeting platform is a system that works for you. It should:
- Keep team members working on the same version without confusion
- Connect directly to your ERP, CRM, and HRIS so you ditch exports
- Make it easy to collaborate across departments without losing control
- Show the full impact of every assumption change instantly
- Track the story behind the numbers to see who changed what and why
- Let a model owner adjust structure and drivers without IT or consultants
You shouldn’t need consultants to get it working.
You shouldn’t need days of training to get value.
And you definitely shouldn’t need three tools to do what one should.
How the top 5 platforms compare (and where they shine)
#1. Runway
Website: runway.com
Runway is for teams that want to build, review, and adjust together in one place. You get real time collaboration that keeps everyone consistent. In practice, this suits scrappy finance teams and model owners who need to explain logic to the wider business.
It’s designed for modern finance:
- Structured models use human-readable formulas that feel familiar to spreadsheet users but add dimensionality and guardrails
- Native collaboration ends file merging and version hell
- Built-in scenario planning, live dashboards, and stakeholder-friendly reporting
- Direct integrations with your full stack including NetSuite, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Workday, and 750+ others gives you visibility into your real time cash position
Runway keeps things fast and familiar for spreadsheet users. It gives you enterprise-grade power without the pain. Finance keeps control of the logic while pulling sales, marketing, and ops into the same live model.
#2. Abacum
Website: abacum.ai
Abacum focuses on collaboration for central FP&A teams. It offers multidimensional modeling, fast onboarding, and automatic data ingestion from key systems.
It’s a strong pick for finance leaders who want spreadsheet flexibility without the spreadsheet upkeep, and who are ready to leave manual workflows behind.
However, it comes with a steep learning curve, and some change requests may need external consultants (at high cost). It’s better suited when you’re comfortable treating the platform as a centralized FP&A hub with a smaller group of expert users, rather than something the whole business will live in.
#3. Vena
Website: venasolutions.com
Vena keeps Excel in the center, but wraps it in process controls, automation, and centralized data.
If your team lives and breathes spreadsheets, but needs more structure, Vena lets you modernize without abandoning your core workflows. Think of it as Excel, grown up. You still design and maintain templates; Vena adds governance and data plumbing around them.
#4. LivePlan
Website: liveplan.com
LivePlan is built for simpler planning needs where a single-entity, single-product model is enough.
Templates and guided workflows help you build forecasts, track financial goals, and generate reports. It fits teams that do not yet need multi-entity modeling. It can be limited once things scale or become more complex.
#5. Planful
Website: planful.com
Planful targets finance organizations with complex planning and consolidation across multiple entities and functions.
It offers deep consolidation, advanced forecasting, and robust analytics. It comes with more implementation time and a steeper learning curve than smaller teams may want to manage. What-if scenario planning options might be limited as well. It fits best when you already have a well-defined, centralized planning process and optimize for standardization over speed.
How to choose what’s right for you
Most tools do similar things. The real difference is how they feel to use.
Start here:
- How fast do you need to move? Some platforms optimize for scale while others optimize for speed. Pick based on how often your plans change.
- What does your team already know? The more familiar the interface, the faster your team members will adopt it.
- Who owns the model? If sales, ops, and marketing contribute to the budget, you need collaboration tools that make it easy without turning finance into a help desk.
- Where does your data live? If it sits in 5+ tools, pick a platform with real integrations instead of CSV imports so you can track your real time cash position.
- What happens when you grow? Look for tools that scale with you across users, models, and scenarios without needing a full reimplementation.
What finance looks like when budgeting actually works
A real budgeting platform isn’t just about building the model.
It’s about what happens once you have one:
- Reviews become working sessions instead of reconciliation marathons
- Scenario planning becomes part of the weekly rhythm rather than a yearly chore
- Everyone sees the same numbers and understands the tradeoffs
- You can answer “what if we…?” in minutes and everyone trusts the answer
- Finance becomes a function that helps the company decide faster
The best business budgeting software makes your model better. It also helps your team think better.
Ready to rethink finance?
Runway gives finance teams the speed of spreadsheets, the structure of software, and the clarity of a shared model.
- Collaborative planning that gets everyone on the same page
- Intuitive modeling that’s flexible and transparent
- Real-time reporting that answers the question, “what changed, and what does it mean?”