QuickBooks forecasting software and QuickBooks forecasting tool with an AI CFO
QuickBooks forecasting software reads your QuickBooks Online books and projects cash and profit forward. Budgeter.ai connects read-only, builds a 13-week cash view and a 12 to 60 month forecast from your actuals, open invoices and bills, adds planned hires and scenarios, and reforecasts after every close, so you see the month cash gets tight before it happens.
Read-only connections. Encrypted data. Cancel anytime.
Columns show opening, then closing cash. Example figures for a fictional company.
Where QuickBooks forecasting stops
QuickBooks is very good at telling you what already happened. The forecasting inside it is narrower than most owners expect. QuickBooks Online Advanced can project the profit and loss forward from last year or a rolling average, and the Cash Flow Planner on most plans extends the bank balance using open invoices and bills. Both are useful. Neither answers the questions that actually keep a controller up at night.
Can we hire two account managers in February and still cover payroll in a slow March? What happens to cash if our largest customer starts paying in 60 days instead of 30? What does next year look like if we raise prices 6 percent in April? Those need the forecast, the budget and the plan in one place, and they need to update the week the books close, not the next time someone has a free Saturday.
That is the gap a QuickBooks forecasting tool fills. The books stay in QuickBooks. The forward view, the scenarios and the reforecast live next to it, and they read the same numbers your bookkeeper reconciles.
What the forecast is built from
Budgeter reads from QuickBooks Online. It never writes to it.
Bank balances
The starting point of every forecast, refreshed on each sync.
Monthly profit and loss
12 to 24 months of actuals for the run rate, the trend and seasonality.
Open invoices
Expected cash in by week, adjusted for how late each customer usually pays.
Open bills
Expected cash out by week, alongside payroll and rent.
Classes and locations
Forecasts by department, office or product line, not only the total.
Your approved budget
Where a budget exists for a month, the forecast uses it before falling back to the run rate.
What QuickBooks forecasting software does in Budgeter
Each feature works from your live QuickBooks Online file, with no export to maintain.
13-week cash forecast
Cash in and out by week for the next quarter, so a payroll week that lands before a large collection is visible a month ahead.
Rolling monthly forecast
Revenue, costs and cash by month for 24 months on Small Business, 36 on Growth and 60 on Scale, rolled forward after every close.
Scenarios side by side
Save a base case, a hiring plan and a slow-collections case, then compare cash and runway for each without touching the books.
Questions in plain English
Ask the AI CFO what a $95K hire in March does to cash in June. It answers from your numbers and shows the assumptions it used.
Forecast vs actual
After close, see where the forecast missed by account. A large miss gets a note naming the transactions behind it.
Exports for the bank or board
On Growth and up, export the forecast for a lender or the board as PDF, or the full model as XLSX or CSV.
How to set up QuickBooks forecasting in four steps
Most companies see their first forecast the same day they connect.
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01
Connect QuickBooks Online
Approve read-only access from Budgeter. It reads the chart of accounts, monthly profit and loss, balance sheet, bank balances, open invoices and open bills. Nothing is written back.
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02
Check the baseline
Budgeter builds a run-rate baseline from 12 to 24 months of actuals, with seasonality and the growth trend. Fix the two or three accounts that had one-off spikes last year.
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03
Add what you know is coming
Planned hires with start dates, a price change, a new lease, a loan or a funding round go in as assumptions or saved scenarios, so the forecast is not only last year repeated.
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04
Let it reforecast
Every sync and every month close refreshes the 13-week and monthly forecast from the latest bank balance. Forecast vs actual shows where last month's forecast was off and why.
If the main job is next year's budget rather than the forecast, start on the QuickBooks budgeting software page. The connection details and the exact data read are on the QuickBooks cash flow forecast integration page.
A worked forecast for a 40-person distributor
Take a hypothetical wholesale distributor with about $9 million in annual revenue, 40 employees and books in QuickBooks Online Plus. Revenue peaks in October and November, and the two largest retail customers pay in 45 to 60 days. Cash looks healthy every December and tight every February, and nobody has a number for how tight.
After connecting, the forecast shows cash at $612K in November falling to about $497K by the end of January as holiday receivables are collected and inventory for spring is bought. The controller adds two planned hires starting February 1 at a loaded $7,800 a month each and a scenario where the largest customer stretches to 75 days.
The base case bottoms out at $402K in February, which still covers about two months of fixed costs. The slow-pay scenario drops below $300K, which is the line the owner set for drawing on the credit facility. The decision becomes concrete: hire one person in February and the second in April, and ask the customer for a 2 percent early payment discount before the line ever gets touched.
When January closes, the forecast reruns from the real bank balance. Forecast vs actual shows freight came in $11K over, so the March and April lines move up without anyone rebuilding a spreadsheet. The weekly side of the same view is explained on the cash flow forecasting page.
QuickBooks forecasting tools compared
Prices are those published on vendor sites in October 2026.
Scroll sideways for all columns
| Option | Price | What it forecasts | Scenarios and hires | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Cash Flow Planner | Included in most QuickBooks Online plans | Short-range cash from bank history, invoices and bills | Manual planner items only | A quick look at the next few weeks |
| QuickBooks Online Advanced forecasts | Included in the Advanced plan | Profit and loss up to 3 years, accrual basis | Percentage rules by account | Advanced users who need a simple P&L projection |
| Float | From $105 a month billed yearly | Cash flow from QuickBooks or Xero | Yes, cash scenarios | Teams that only need the cash view |
| Fathom Pro | $450 a month for 25 companies | Three-way forecasts with reporting | Yes, built by the advisor | Accounting firms reporting on many clients |
| Budgeter.ai | $74 a month billed yearly, Growth $299 | 13-week cash plus 24 to 60 month forecast, reforecast after close | Yes, plus headcount and an AI CFO | Companies of 5 to 500 people running on QuickBooks Online |
If you only want to know whether next month's payroll is covered, the Cash Flow Planner already in QuickBooks may be enough, and we would tell you so. If you need a forecast that carries the budget, hiring plan and scenarios and stays current without rebuilding it, Budgeter is built for that. Advisors forecasting for several client companies should read the fractional CFO software page, and CPA or bookkeeping firms selling forecasts to QuickBooks clients the forecasting software for accountants page.
Who uses Budgeter as a QuickBooks forecasting tool
The pattern is a company that has outgrown a forecast in Excel but does not want an FP&A implementation project. The wider category is covered on the FP&A software page.
- Controllers and finance managers Replace the monthly forecast spreadsheet with one that reads QuickBooks and reruns itself after close.
- Owners of seasonal businesses Distributors, contractors and retailers who need to see the low point of the year in advance and size the credit line.
- Founders reporting to investors Keep runway and the cash-out date current for every board meeting, with scenarios for the next raise.
- Companies applying for a loan Give the bank a monthly forecast that ties to the books instead of a one-off projection.
- Bookkeepers who close the books Hand the owner a forecast that updates with every close at no extra work.
Questions about QuickBooks forecasting software
The connection is read-only and encrypted, and company data is never used to train public models. Plan limits are on the pricing page.
Does QuickBooks have a forecasting tool?
Yes, with limits. QuickBooks Online Advanced includes profit and loss forecasts built from prior-year actuals or a rolling average, and most plans include the Cash Flow Planner, which projects cash from bank history and open invoices and bills. Neither models hires, scenarios or a 13-week cash view tied to your budget.
What is the best forecasting software for QuickBooks?
For a company of 5 to 500 people on QuickBooks Online that wants a cash and profit forecast it can run monthly, the best fit is a tool that drafts the forecast from the books and reforecasts after close, such as Budgeter. Accounting firms reporting on dozens of clients often choose Fathom, and cash-only teams choose Float.
Can QuickBooks Online do forecasting?
QuickBooks Online Advanced can project the profit and loss up to three years ahead on an accrual basis and compare forecast vs actuals. Plus and Essentials users get the Cash Flow Planner only. Driver-based forecasts, headcount plans and side-by-side scenarios need a forecasting tool connected to QuickBooks.
How do I forecast cash flow from QuickBooks?
Start from the current bank balance, add expected collections from open invoices and the run rate of revenue, subtract open bills, payroll and fixed costs by week, and roll it forward. Budgeter does this automatically from a read-only QuickBooks Online connection and refreshes it on every sync.
Does Budgeter work with QuickBooks Desktop?
The direct connection is for QuickBooks Online. Companies on QuickBooks Desktop can export the monthly profit and loss and balance sheet to a spreadsheet and feed them through the read-only Google Sheets connection, which gives the same forecast with a manual monthly step.
Does QuickBooks have predictive analytics?
QuickBooks Online shows a short cash flow planner and some reports, but it does not build a multi-month profit and cash forecast with planned hires and scenarios. Budgeter reads your QuickBooks history, projects revenue and costs with seasonality, and lets you test hires, price changes and slow-paying clients against cash.
How much does QuickBooks forecasting software cost?
Budgeter Small Business is $149 a month or $74 a month billed yearly, with a 24-month forecast horizon and 5 saved scenarios. Growth is $599 or $299 billed yearly and extends the horizon to 36 months with headcount and revenue planning. Scale, at $1,999 or $999, forecasts 60 months across up to 5 companies.
Related planning modules
- QuickBooks budgeting software Next year's budget drafted from QuickBooks Online actuals.
- Cash flow forecasting The weekly and monthly cash view in more detail.
- Scenario planning Compare hiring, pricing and collection cases side by side.
- Headcount planning Test each planned hire against cash before the offer goes out.
See your runway before you connect QuickBooks
Enter a few numbers to see the month cash gets tight, then connect QuickBooks Online for a forecast that updates after every close.
Forecasts and scenarios are estimates based on your data and assumptions, not financial, investment, tax or accounting advice.