Top-notch Budget Tracking Software for Managers to Keep Business on Track

Let’s Talk About Budgeting

Software Advice survey has revealed that “52% of respondents say that 1 to 10% of their projects are unsuccessful.” This is caused by companies not being able to meet project deadline and financial requirements. Time and budget have always been the biggest challenges for managers. Especially, when scope creep happens and things go in the wrong direction.

Budget is one of the crucial elements that have to be determined prior to starting a project. And monitoring it is important to keep the project on track and make sure people are going through every phase successfully. Managers may have a hard role monitoring time and budget when they have to oversee complex projects which require lots of resources, the involvement of many teams, and managing tasks with subtasks.

However, implementing the right practices can help prevent scope creep and keep the budget (and time) under control. Here are the best practices according to Software Advice:

First of all, you need to understand the needs and requirements of your stakeholders or clients. You all need to agree on the final outcome of the project. In order to do that, you need to gather all requirements, necessary information, and communicate for transparency.
Plan and break work down into smaller tasks so that you can focus on every stage of a project. It will also help you allocate resources and connect every task with the next steps you have to take.
Visualize to show your stakeholders why things need to be done a certain way, how, and when. It will help them understand the entire process of delivering the project. You can either use tools to visualize your project or create a detailed plan.
Monitor and control the project’s progress with the use of budget tracking software or project management software (or use one to do both). Show the data to stakeholders and keep them informed about the progress.

👉 Read also about time budgeting that can help you in planning tasks.

What Is The Best Budget Tracking Software for Managers?

The right approach is important but it’s not the only thing that’s necessary to keep your business (and projects) on track. To be able to monitor the budget, you need budget tracking software for managers. It will help you oversee the processes, control project in the real-time, and prevent scope creep from happening.

It’s crucial to choose the right tools that will meet your organization’s needs and will keep your team productive and on top of work.

We prepared a short list of the top-notch budget tracking software for managers and divided them into 4 categories. Choose the one that most corresponds to your needs.

👉 Read how to keep track of business expenses.

TimeCamp

Best for tracking budget and project hours

With TimeCamp you can accurately and automatically count time spent on tasks. As a manager, you can define the budget for particular tasks and verify both profitability of the lasting project and the level of the budget expenditure. You can react faster to changes in the project wen you see all the information on how many hours have already been spent on the project and how much money is left.

Time and budget are the most common causes of project failures. TimeCamp helps you avoid that with many useful features:

You can accurately bill your clients
Know how many hours you spend on non-billable projects and other work-related or not related to the project
Calculate the exact cost of an employee
Forecast time and costs for future development projects
Justify time to your client, and adjust your rates for specific projects
You can budget in money or in time
Calculate income
Use time entries to bill your clients or to measure project profitability
You can easily create invoices based on time entries
TimeCamp also allows you to automatically track work hours
Powerful integrations, for example with accounting software, make work seamless between different apps and tools
GPS tracking

Genius Project

Best for project cost management

This is another best budget tracking software for managers. It’s an advanced tool with many helpful features. You can use it also as a general project management software as it allows users to plan, communicate, and collaborate with teams. It helps to measure cost and productivity through the life-cycle of a project.

In terms of project cost management, the most important features include:

Time, expenses, products
Multi-currency capabilities
Multi-rate
Cross-charging support
Cash & calculation
Easy detailed & customizable project budget
Detailed dashboards to follow cost, budget, and margin
Automatic calculation of actual and re-estimated costs

Celoxis

Best for monitoring project budget

Celoxis is also a tool for project management which allows you to monitor and control simple and complex projects. It’s suitable for any type of business and it helps to keep track of the project budget. With this tool, you can easily forecast budget, monitor it, and manage scope creep. You can see profits and losses, and make changes to your project on the basis of budget level.

Here are some of Celoxis main features helpful in monitoring project budget and budget allocation:

Project request tracking to match demand with capacity and choose projects that maximize business value
Scheduling tools to plan every aspect of the project
Resource management
Real-time visibility into budget
Profit and margin tracking
Revenue forecasting
Custom financial KPIs
Tracking time, costs and billing with integrated timesheets and expense module

Tiller

Best for spreadsheet management

It’s one of the best budget tracking software for managers for those who prefer to track the budget in spreadsheets. It’s best for small teams and individuals who don’t need sophisticated software to track and control budget. Tiller automatically updates Google Sheets and Excel each day with your spending, transactions, and balances so you can easily manage your money.

Its main features include the following:

Automatic import and categorization
Templates for budgeting, tracking spending, paying off debt, tracking net worth, and running a business
Daily updates
Data is protected with 256-bit AES encryption

Final Thoughts on Budget Tracking

When you combine the best practices with the best budget tracking software for managers, you will take your business to the next level. You will have everything under control and your projects will always be delivered on time. Another thing is that it will be a tremendous help in dealing with scope creep if it happens. You will be able to easily relocate, readjust, and optimize resources.

At the same time, you should remember that project management software does not provide features you can find in budget management software. These tools fall into the same category but their options may significantly vary. Budget management software may be particularly useful for large organizations whose projects costs substantial sums of money or have really large, complex projects.

Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to implement tools and apps to enhance the work of managers and employees.

PS. Happy to announce digital.com awarded us as Best Business Management Software! 🎉