Top 10: Budgeting Tools

Budgeting is a crucial aspect of any finance leader’s arsenal. What most CFOs are best known for, budgeting accounts for how tight the company purse strings remain. 

This listicle ranks the top 10 budgeting tools used by global CFOs for increased financial planning accountability and financial discipline. 

Find out which one we’ve ranked as number one below. 

10. Board International

Company founded: 1994
Based in: Massachusetts, US
CEO: Jeffrey Casale

With more than 2,000 organisations worldwide – including Infosys, KPMG , L’Oreal and Microsoft, Board delivers continuous planning across FP&A, supply chain and merchandising in a single no-code environment. 

Its strength lies in high-performance forecasting and scenario modelling that unify millions of planning points across global operations, enabling finance teams to move from fragmented Excel-based processes to governed, real-time budgets. 

Board’s 2026 Gartner Challenger status in Financial Close and Consolidation underscores its traction among enterprise finance leaders who prioritise agility and explainable decision-making.

9. Cube Software

Company founded: 2018
Based in: New York, US
CEO: Christina Ross

Cube has carved out a niche among mid-market and upper-mid-market finance teams that demand spreadsheet-native flexibility with cloud-grade governance. 

Cube’s AI-powered FP&A platform integrates directly with Excel and Google Sheets, allowing budget owners to build driver-based plans without abandoning familiar workflows.

It operates a no-code spreadsheet connectivity, allowing finance leaders to focus on what they know best without the additional requirement of a steep learning curve. 

Its standout feature is the ability to deliver one governed model across spreadsheets, Slack, Teams and BI tools, ensuring decision-ready data everywhere work happens. 

8. Vena Solutions

Company founded: 2011
Based in: Toronto, Canada
CEO: Hunter Madeley

Vena Solutions has established itself as the Excel-native leader for mid-market to enterprise finance teams.

Its Complete Planning platform combines the familiarity of Microsoft Excel with cloud-based governance, real-time ERP integrations and AI-powered insights via Vena Copilot. 

Businesses such as the WWF, Mitsubishi Chemical Group and Schuh, rely on Vena for structured budgeting workflows that retain finance teams’ spreadsheet fluency while enforcing version control and audit trails. 

Vena Solutions is backed by Vista Equity Partners.

7. Planful

Company founded: 2000
Based in: California, US
CEO: John Herr

Planful serves more than 1,500 finance teams worldwide, offering a unified platform for FP&A, financial close and consolidation that appeals to CFOs. It is trusted by brands such as Bose, Five Guys and the Boston Red Sox. 

The platform’s core advantage stems from its AI features, enabling clients across more than 100 countries to boost productivity, enhance accuracy, reduce cycle times and accelerate financial closes.

With continuous planning workflows and Predict AI modules, finance executives can transition from traditional annual budgeting to dynamic rolling forecasts that respond to market shifts.

6. Prophix

Company founded: 1987
Based in: Ontario, Canada
CEO: Alok Ajmera

Prophix is one of the most established names in corporate performance management, serving more than 3,000 customers, including Skanska, Mission Health and Mercedes-Benz,  across 100+ countries with a unified cloud-native platform for planning, close and consolidation.

With AI agents such as Prophix Copilot and Architect Agent turning governed live data into validated budgeting models in hours rather than weeks, the platform focuses on the value in schedule as well as provide a vital service for budgeting. 

Prophix is best known for its ProphixOne platform that provides CFOs an integrated view of performance for more visibility and control.

5. Pigment

Company founded: 2019
Based in: Paris, France
Co-CEOs: Eléonore Crespo and Romain Niccoli

Pigment has emerged as the AI-native challenger to legacy EPM platforms, approaching US$100m in ARR after doubling revenue for three consecutive years. 

Enterprise customers, including Anthropic, Uber, Unilever, Siemens and Elevenlabs, use Pigment’s unified planning platform. Figma note that the platform aided in its understanding of the business, in addition to keeping operations lean.

Customers also note that forecasting cycles are reduced by 96%, with some quoting hours saved per year reaching 240 for budget variance analysis. 

4. OneStream Software

Company founded: 2012
Based in: Birmingham, Michigan, US
CEO: Tom Shea

OneStream has positioned itself as the “operating system for modern finance,” serving over 1,900 customers – including over 100 of the Fortune 500 – with a unified platform for financial close, consolidation, reporting and planning. 

OneStream’s strength lies in its quantitative, generative and agentic AI approach, which enables finance teams to move from static budgets to continuous, AI-assisted planning while maintaining full auditability.

Trusted by customers such as Nasdaq, KLM Air, CapitalOne, UPS, Toyota and Costco to deliver confidence in results, OneStream has delivered a cut in consolidation timelines and more accurate forecasts. 

3. Anaplan

Company founded: 2006
Based in: Florida, US
CEO: Charlie Gottdiener

Anaplan remains a cornerstone of budgeting, serving more than 2,800 enterprise customers – including nearly half  (48%) of the Fortune 50 – with its Hyperblock in-memory engine and connected planning platform. 

After its US$10.4bn acquisition by Thoma Bravo in 2022, Anaplan has transformed from negative EBITDA to a “Rule of” 55 company, growing ARR from approximately US$600m to over US$1.2bn, as reported by Forbes. 

Its strength lies in multi-dimensional, driver-based modelling that connects finance, sales, supply chain and workforce planning inside a single, continuously updating engine. 

Notable adopters such as JLR, HP, Coca-Cola, Shell and Barclays rely on Anaplan, with the option to compress sales planning timelines, automate workforce budgeting and run complex trade promotion scenarios. 

With a partner ecosystem spanning 250+ firms, Anaplan’s scale and modelling depth make it a default choice for CFOs managing enterprise-wide budgeting complexity.

2. Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud (Oracle EPM)

Company founded: 1977
Based in: Texas, US
Co-CEOs: Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia

Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) suite, including Planning and Budgeting Cloud, remains a bedrock for finance teams seeking tight integration with Oracle Financials and ERP Cloud. 

Oracle EPM’s strength lies in unified planning workflows, multidimensional modelling and scenario analysis that support annual budgeting, rolling forecasts and performance reporting within a governed, audit-ready environment.

Entities such as Royal Bank of Scotland (renamed to be part of parent company banking giant NatWest Group), Dropbox and AdventistHealth trust Oracle for project management across their organisation. 

The company reported a whopping US$67.4bn of total revenue at the end of FY 2026, with revenues only expected to grow by 27-29% for FY2027. 

For CFOs already invested in Oracle’s financial stack, EPM offers seamless data lineage from general ledger to budget, reducing reconciliation effort and accelerating close-to-plan cycles.

1. Workday Adaptive Planning

Company founded: 2003 (as Adaptive Planning)
Based in: California, US
Co-CEOs: Aneel Bhusri and Carl Eschenbach

Workday Adaptive Planning stands as the most financially successful budgeting tool among CFOs, underpinned by Workday’s US$9.552bn FY2026 revenue and more than 11,500 customers worldwide – including over 60% of the Fortune 500. 

Originally founded as Adaptive Insights in 2003 and acquired by Workday in 2018 for US$1.55bn, Adaptive Planning now serves more than 7,000 customer teams with cloud-native FP&A, workforce planning and decision intelligence.. 

With third consecutive Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader status, Customers’ Choice distinction, and a 96% recommendation rate, Workday Adaptive Planning delivers the combination of scale, integration and AI-driven agility that global CFOs demand.

According to Workday, a Global Finance Transformation Leader from Veolia notes that: “The management teams at all of our operations now have the insight and ability to provide accurate budget forecasts for Head Office, so I am now very confident in the quality of data in front of me.”