Top 6 budgeting and forecasting tools for mid-market finance teams

1ChatFin

chatfin.ai

ChatFin is an AI agent platform for finance and accounting teams that connects to a company's existing ERP and runs close, AP, reconciliation and reporting work, routing each posting to a named approver.

Best for

Finance teams that keep the budget where it is and want the rolling forecast, variance commentary and a 13-week cash forecast rebuilt from ERP actuals.

What it does

• Rebuilds the forecast every night against actuals and finds the drivers behind each variance.
• Writes budget vs actual and forecast variance commentary in plain English.
• Produces a 13-week cash flow forecast, consolidates cash positions and sends working capital alerts.
• Models scenarios and shows the cash impact of each one.

AI features

Analytics AI

Module for predictive forecasting from live ERP data, trend and anomaly detection, and KPI monitoring with alerts.

Natural language query interface

Listed as an output of the Reporting and Analytics use case: users ask questions of finance data in plain English and drill into the answer.

Connects to

Oracle NetSuite, Oracle Fusion Cloud, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, SAP Business One, SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage Intacct, Acumatica, QuickBooks Online, Workday, Snowflake, Epicor Kinetic, Infor CloudSuite, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.

Analysis runs on ERP and warehouse data queried in place through native APIs, including a Snowflake connector. No connector to a planning tool and no Excel add-in is described.

Pricing

No pricing is published; ChatFin sells through demos, and its free trial page says the trial is open to selected companies only.

Watch out for

ChatFin forecasts and explains variances from ERP actuals. Its pages do not describe budget entry by department owners, driver-based models or an Excel add-in, so the budget itself still needs a planning tool.

2Jirav

Jirav, Inc. (private). jirav.com

Forecasting, budgeting, reporting and dashboarding software that forecasts the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow and builds headcount into the plan.

Best for

Small and midsize companies, VC-funded companies and accounting or fractional CFO firms.

What it does

• Integrated three-statement forecasting (P&L, balance sheet and cash flow) with scenario comparisons.
• Workforce planning (listed in the CFO Enterprise plan for firms), with payroll and HRIS connectors such as ADP, Gusto, Paychex and BambooHR.

AI features

Auto Forecast

Analyses past trends and seasonality and removes outlier events to give a starting forecast that users can adjust or ignore.

Connects to

QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Justworks, BambooHR, Paylocity, TriNet, UKG, Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify, Snowflake.

Pricing

Published for businesses, billed annually: Starter $10,000/year, Pro $15,000/year, Enterprise by quote; implementation and support included.

Watch out for

Jirav's help center says the accounting integration is single-currency (no multi-currency), connects to only one accounting system (no consolidating several), and is one-way, with nothing pushed back to the ledger.

3Drivetrain

Drivetrain (private). drivetrain.ai

FP&A platform for budgeting, forecasting, scenarios, headcount planning and reporting, with numbers traceable back to their sources.

Best for

Mid-market and enterprise teams that are growing quickly.

What it does

• Driver-based budgeting, multi-entity consolidation and scenario planning.
• 816 listed integrations, including 33 ERP and accounting connectors.

AI features

Drive AI agents

Named agents on the homepage: Scenario, Modeling, Formula (explains every formula), Reporting, BvA (budget vs actual), Data transformation and Data classification, plus Plan mode, an audit trail of AI changes and a Slack bot. Drivetrain says it does not train AI on customer data.

Connects to

Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Xero, SAP, SAP Business One, Oracle Fusion Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Business Central, Workday Financial Management, Acumatica, Rillet, Zoho Books, Odoo.

Pricing

Not published.

Watch out for

Not a quick self-serve setup: Drivetrain's own guide puts implementation at around two months with its in-house experts, and no prices are published.

4Prophix

Prophix Software (private, Toronto). prophix.com

Financial performance management platform, Prophix One, with modules for FP&A, close and consolidation, and reporting and analytics.

Best for

Mid-market companies, with industry pages for construction, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, real estate, senior living and utilities.

What it does

• Three modules: Financial Planning & Analysis, Close & Consolidation, and Reporting & Analytics.
• AI matching for reconciliations and AI-written variance notes in reporting.

AI features

Prophix One Agents: Budgeting, Reporting and Modeling Agents

Budgeting Agent guides budget collection and validates submissions and approvals; Reporting Agent analyses performance, flags variances and builds presentation-ready reports; Modeling Agent builds and maintains connected financial models. Announced 23 September 2025; Budgeting and Reporting agents available to all customers from 27 September 2025.

Connects to

Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage Intacct, Sage 300, Deltek, SYSPRO, Viewpoint, Ellucian.

Pricing

No prices published; the pricing page is a general guide to FP&A software costs, and the homepage offers a demo and an ROI calculator.

Watch out for

On PeerSpot (10 reviews, 4.1/5), a Sr.

5Vena

Vena Solutions (private, Toronto; backed by Vista Equity Partners, JMI Equity and Centana Growth Partners). venasolutions.com

Planning, budgeting, reporting and close platform that runs inside Excel and other Microsoft 365 tools.

Best for

Finance teams that want to plan in Excel and the Microsoft stack (Teams, Power BI, PowerPoint).

What it does

• Vena CubeFLEX, an OLAP database built for Excel, centralises data from ERP, CRM and HRIS sources.
• Vena Insights: self-serve analytics and pre-built Power BI dashboards (included in the Complete plan).

AI features

Planning Agent

Generates structured budgets and forecasts in Excel from natural-language requests, with driver-based planning, predictive forecasting and scenario modeling. Launched in open beta on 15 September 2025.

Connects to

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, NetSuite, Sage, Workday, QuickBooks, Salesforce, ADP.

Pricing

No prices published.

Watch out for

Much of the agent lineup is still early: Vena's AI page lists the Analytics Agent as open beta and the Scenario Agent as coming soon, and the Planning Agent launched in open beta in September 2025.

6Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY). workday.com

Cloud planning software for budgeting, forecasting, workforce and operational planning, reporting and close and consolidation.

Best for

Finance teams that want planning kept apart from the ERP.

What it does

• Financial planning with budgeting, scenario planning and reporting, plus workforce planning, operational planning and close and consolidation.
• Average deployment time of 4.5 months, per Workday.

AI features

Planning Agent

Integrates directly into Adaptive Planning and lets FP&A staff, CFOs and operational managers query multi-dimensional models in plain language.

Connects to

Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains), Salesforce, Deltek Vision, Epicor, Sage, Plex, Multiview.

Pricing

Quote-based: both Workday Adaptive Planning and the Close & Consolidation offering show 'Pricing varies' with a Request a Quote button.

Watch out for

On PeerSpot (18 reviews), an Adaptive Planning Manager says integrations 'could be simpler' and take internal IT know-how to set up; other reviewers ask for faster configuration and better performance on large data volumes.