QuickBooks budgeting tool and budgeting software for growing companies
A QuickBooks budgeting tool turns the actuals in QuickBooks Online into a budget you can run the company on. Budgeter.ai connects read-only, drafts the annual budget from 12 to 24 months of history, tracks budget vs actual by class and location after every sync, and adds the cash forecast and scenarios the built-in QuickBooks budget does not have.
Read-only connections. Encrypted data. Cancel anytime.
Budget, September
$412K
Approved version
Actual, September
$431K
4.6% over budget
Example figures inside the product interface.
What the QuickBooks budget does and where it stops
The budget inside QuickBooks Online is a good start. Here is what it covers, and what a company usually needs once more than one person owns a budget.
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| What you need | Built into QuickBooks Online | QuickBooks export to a spreadsheet | Budgeter.ai on top of QuickBooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual budget by account and month | Yes, typed in or prefilled from last year, on Plus and Advanced | Yes, built by hand | Drafted from 12 to 24 months of actuals, then edited |
| Budget vs actual report | Yes, Budget vs. Actuals report | Pasted in after each close | Refreshed after every sync, with a note on each large variance |
| Split by class or location | Yes, one subdivision per budget | Manual tabs | Classes and locations become departments with owners |
| Reforecast during the year | Edit the budget or create a second one | Copy the file | Draft, approved and reforecast versions side by side |
| Cash flow forecast and runway | Not part of the budget | Separate model | 13-week and 12-month forecast from invoices, bills and payroll |
| What-if scenarios | No | New tab for each question | Asked in plain English, saved and compared |
| Overspend alerts | No | No | Alerts at 80 and 100 percent of a limit, on Growth and up |
| Extra cost | Included in the subscription | Your time | From $74 a month billed yearly |
For a company with one budget and one person who maintains it, the built-in feature is fine and costs nothing extra. You fill in the grid once a year, run Budget vs. Actuals after each close and read down the variance column.
The trouble starts when the budget has to answer questions. Why is marketing over? Can we afford the second warehouse lead in March? What happens to cash if the big customer pays 30 days late? The QuickBooks budget holds the numbers you typed. It does not explain a variance, move with a hiring decision or show the bank balance in week nine.
Most teams close that gap with an export. The profit and loss goes to a spreadsheet, somebody adds forecast columns, and from then on the file is correct only on the day it was rebuilt. That is the work a dedicated QuickBooks budgeting tool removes.
Budgeter keeps QuickBooks as the source of actuals and does the planning beside it. Your accountant keeps working in the books exactly as before. The budget, the budget vs actual review and the forecast update on their own each time the books sync.
What you get when QuickBooks feeds the budget
Everything below runs on the data already in your QuickBooks Online company. There is no import template to fill in.
A budget drafted from your actuals
Budgeter reads 12 to 24 months of profit and loss by month and proposes next year by account and department. Seasonality and recurring vendors are already in the draft, so you edit a plan instead of filling an empty grid.
Budget vs actual by class and location
QuickBooks classes and locations map to departments. Each owner sees their own lines, how much of the month is used and which accounts caused the difference.
Versions you can compare
Keep the approved budget fixed and reforecast the remaining months as often as you like. Draft, approved and reforecast sit side by side, so the board sees the plan and the current outlook.
Cash forecast and runway
Open invoices, bills, payroll dates and bank balances turn into a 13-week and 12-month cash forecast. The budget stops being a profit and loss exercise and starts showing when the money moves.
Spend limits with alerts
On Growth and up, set a monthly limit per department or vendor. The owner gets a warning at 80 percent and again at 100 percent, before the month is closed and the overspend is history.
Questions in plain English
Ask what two more hires in March do to runway, or what a 10 percent price increase does to break-even. The AI CFO answers from your own books and shows the accounts and assumptions it used.
How to budget from QuickBooks Online in four steps
Most companies see a drafted budget the same day they connect. There is no implementation project and no sales call.
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01
Connect QuickBooks Online
Sign in to QuickBooks Online from Budgeter and approve read-only access to your company. Nothing is written back to your books.
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02
Confirm the account mapping
Budgeter suggests a budget category for every account in your chart of accounts and turns classes and locations into departments. Change the few that need it.
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03
Review the drafted budget
The annual budget is drafted from 12 to 24 months of your actuals, by account, department and month. Adjust any line, then approve the version.
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04
Track it every month
After each sync you see budget vs actual, the cash forecast and runway. Reforecast the rest of the year without touching the approved budget.
The connection details, including the exact list of data Budgeter reads, are on the QuickBooks integration page. If part of the company runs on Xero, the same budget can read a Xero organization as well.
A worked example for a 40 person company on QuickBooks Online
Take a hypothetical distribution company with 40 people, four QuickBooks classes and about 5 million dollars in annual revenue. The controller builds the budget in the QuickBooks grid each December and runs Budget vs. Actuals after every close.
In September the report shows total spend of 431,000 dollars against a budget of 412,000. The report says marketing is over by 27 percent. It does not say that two trade shows were booked in the same month, that the rest of the year now runs 118,000 dollars over plan, or that the cash low point moves from November to October.
With Budgeter reading the same company, the September sync produces all three. The marketing variance comes with a note that names the two vendor bills behind it. The reforecast for October to December picks up the higher run rate, and the cash forecast shows the new low point with the week it happens.
The marketing lead had a spend limit, so the 80 percent warning arrived on September 14, when one of the bookings could still be moved. That is the practical difference between a report on last month and a budget with spend limits.
Who adds a budgeting tool to QuickBooks
QuickBooks stays the system of record. These are the teams that usually outgrow its budget grid first.
If the company is small and owner-run, the small business budgeting page covers the simpler setup.
- Owners and CEOs on QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced You want one screen with the plan, what actually happened and how long the cash lasts, without waiting for the month-end package.
- Controllers who rebuild the forecast in a spreadsheet The monthly export, paste and reconcile routine goes away. Actuals arrive on their own and the reforecast keeps its history.
- Companies with department or location budgets Each class or location gets an owner who sees only their lines, with limits and alerts on Growth and up.
- Fractional CFOs and bookkeeping firms Run several client companies from one account on Scale, each with its own QuickBooks connection, budget and board pack.
- Teams planning hires against a tight cash position Every planned role shows its fully loaded cost and what it does to runway before the offer goes out.
Which Budgeter plan fits a QuickBooks company
Every plan connects to QuickBooks Online. Prices are public and you can start today without a demo call.
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| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly, per month | Fits | Budgeting scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business | $149 | $74 | One QuickBooks company, owner or controller | Annual budget, budget vs actual, cash forecast, 5 scenarios, 3 users |
| Growth | $599 | $299 | Department budgets and a hiring plan | Adds spend limits, headcount and revenue planning, board pack, 25 scenarios, 10 users |
| Scale | $1,999 | $999 | Up to 5 entities, fractional CFOs | Adds consolidation, department budgets with approvals, unlimited scenarios, audit log |
| Enterprise | $4,999 | $2,499 | Up to 25 entities | Adds SSO, SCIM, custom roles and an uptime SLA |
Full limits for each plan are on the pricing page. If you are comparing a wider set of tools, the budgeting and forecasting software overview explains how the budget, forecast and scenarios fit together.
Questions about budgeting with QuickBooks
Connections are read-only and encrypted. Your books are never changed and your data is never used to train public models.
Does QuickBooks have a budgeting tool?
Yes. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced include a budgeting feature. You enter a budget by account for each month, quarter or year, can split it by class, location or customer, and run the Budget Overview and Budget vs. Actuals reports. It is a budget grid and two reports. It does not forecast cash, model hires or compare scenarios.
Can QuickBooks Online do budgeting and forecasting?
QuickBooks Online handles a basic annual budget and a budget vs actual report on the Plus and Advanced plans. Forecasting is where most companies add a second tool. A rolling forecast, a 13-week cash view, what-if scenarios and a hiring plan need a planning layer on top of the books, which is what Budgeter adds.
What is the best budgeting software that integrates with QuickBooks?
It depends on company size. For a single simple budget, the feature inside QuickBooks Online is enough. Companies with 5 to 500 people that want a drafted budget, department owners, a cash forecast and scenarios usually pick a dedicated tool that syncs with QuickBooks. Budgeter does this from $74 a month billed yearly, with every price public.
Does Budgeter change anything in my QuickBooks company?
No. The connection is read-only. Budgeter reads the chart of accounts, profit and loss by month, balance sheet, receivables, payables, classes and locations. It never creates, edits or deletes invoices, bills, journal entries or payments, and your budget lives in Budgeter, not in the QuickBooks budget grid.
Does it work with QuickBooks Desktop?
The direct connection is for QuickBooks Online. Companies still on QuickBooks Desktop can feed monthly figures through the read-only Google Sheets integration, which works the same way for any system that exports a profit and loss by month.
How much does a QuickBooks budgeting tool cost?
Budgeter Small Business is $149 a month, or $74 a month billed yearly, and covers the QuickBooks Online connection, the annual budget, budget vs actual, the cash forecast and 5 saved scenarios. Growth, at $599 a month or $299 billed yearly, adds spend limits, headcount and revenue planning and the board pack.
Related planning modules
- QuickBooks cash flow forecast What Budgeter reads from QuickBooks Online and how the forecast is built.
- Budget vs actual Review each month by department with a note on every large variance.
- Cash flow forecasting A 13-week and 12-month view of the bank balance.
- Expense control Spend limits per department and vendor with alerts.
See how long your cash lasts before you connect QuickBooks
Enter a few numbers to see runway and the month cash runs out, then connect QuickBooks Online to get a drafted budget and budget vs actual every month.
Forecasts and scenarios are estimates based on your data and assumptions, not financial, investment, tax or accounting advice.