Make project time tracking 100% effortless

7 beste Projektbudget-Software für 2024

Autorin: Madalina Roman

19. April 2024

Wrong estimates, project expenses going through the roof, or resources getting out of hand?

We get it; these are the most frequent issues we hear from PMs. But that’s not the case when you’re using the right tool stack.

So, we made an overview of the 7 best project budgeting software tools on the market to help you regain control.

Image source: Timeular.

What is a project budgeting software?

A project budgeting software is, in essence, a project management software designed to streamline project budgeting. It allows project managers and teams to track project costs and efficiently allocate resources throughout the project cycle.

Needless to say, using project budgeting software is pivotal to ensuring that your projects are delivered within budget and on time. This will lead to an organization’s financial health and profitability.

If you’re curious about a project manager’s roles and responsibilities, dive into our article on this topic.

Why do you need project budget management software?

Starting a project without a solid budget and budget forecasts is like sailing without a compass. The reality is that one in six IT projects are not finished on time and have considerable cost overruns.

In one Harvard Business Review study made on 1,471 IT projects, the cost overrun was 27%, but that’s not even the real tail risk.

One in six of the projects from the sample was a Black Swan with an average of 200% budget overrun, and a schedule overrun of almost 70%.

A Black Swan is an extremely negative event or occurrence that is impossibly difficult to predict. In other words, black swan events are events that are unexpected and unknowable.

Corporatefinanceinstitute.com

However, the widely uncontrollable project budgeting can become more controllable with the right software tools, as that would bring:

Higher data accuracy at higher speed: Project budgeting tools use advanced algorithms and data analysis at a higher speed than you’d be to process data, numbers, and calculations. Software tools can make predictions based on past projects with similar costs or scopes and can estimate with more precision. All these capabilities can significantly reduce the risk of budget overruns.
Clarity on project parameters: By having a dashboard of project parameters and time spent on tasks, as well as budget expenditures, you eliminate data silos and obtain a cohesive and clear workflow.
Anomalies detection: Project budgeting software helps in mitigating financial risks early and alerts you that you’ll run over budget or that you’ll spend more than you initially forecasted on a project.
Friction-free workflow: A budget management software centralizes all project stakeholders within one platform: project managers, team leaders, finance teams, and others. With simple reports generated from the app for budget approvals, you obtain a cohesive workflow.

Escape the Black Swan effect of your projects

With the right software, what seemed widely uncontrollable turns into accurate predictions.

What to look for in project management budgeting tools


Zuverlässige Berichterstattung	Choose a comprehensive time reporting system that allows you to generate automatic, customizable, and interactive reports seamlessly. The app gets bonus points if the reports look visually appealing.
Benutzerfreundliche Schnittstelle	Budget and resource allocation are complicated enough. Choose a tool that simplifies the process as much as possible and reduces errors that may arise with a simple and intuitive interface.
Automation and AI features	With AI on the rise, manual work is about to be ditched, so gain a competitive advantage by carefully picking tools with an automated workflow and even AI capabilities.
Integration capabilities	Choosing incompatible systems causes clashes, so check third-party integrations with existing systems. It might be worth checking compatibility with your project management app, HR stack, accounting, and others.
High data security	Project budget software should protect your data. Make sure you check their data security and privacy policy, whether the app stores data on the cloud or on the local computer, and whether they abide by GDPR regulations, too.
Available across-teams	All teams should be allowed to access and utilize the tool for prolific use.
Scalable	Ensure you’re choosing software that grows with your organization. Customization is important, too, as you might manage unique projects with different requirements.

What are the best project budget software solutions?

Timeular

With budgets under scrutiny more than ever, as a PM, you need a friction-free project time-tracking app loaded with smart, one-click-away features that make a real difference in your work.

The Timeular time tracking app is easy to use, and offers you 360-degree visibility over project progress in real-time, so you can make key financial decisions.

Tracking project time and billable hours can be simple

"Seit wir Timeular nutzen und unsere Zeit erfassen, haben wir keinen Fehler mehr bei der Planung, der Erstellung genauer Angebote oder der Budgetierung für Kunden gemacht. Es ist so einfach zu bedienen." - AC Coppens, Gründer von THE CATALYSTS

Wesentliche Merkmale:

Budget monitoring and recurring budget alerts are triggered automatically based on a simple pre-set ( AKA configure Timeular to notify you when reaching a threshold of 50% or 80% of the time allocated to a project;
Automatic time tracking on projects to get an honest view of why and how estimated costs are impacted in real-time, proactively correct any risks, and eliminate the hassle of manual timesheets;

Customizable time reporting system for a digestible breakdown of activities, tasks, or client projects to gain insights into managing different project components;
Billable hours tracking is done with a click, then based on hourly rates and hours worked, calculated automatically and reflected in your project reports;
Integrations with 3000+ tools such as Trello, Slack, Quickbooks, and Asana to seamlessly navigate between apps and mirror data wherever you need it.

Other facts that make Timeular a great project budgeting tool:

It covers many ways of capturing time spent on projects, from automatic to AI-generated time entries to manual time-tracking;
It’s the only project budgeting software with a physical time tracker, a gadget that, once flipped to another side, captures a different task or activity. It’s loved by teams and managers alike and drives team efficiency due to its high use.

It works both as a PTO tracker and overtime tracking app, which comes as a great help in task assignment and resource allocation.
It includes an AI productivity tracker reflected in an individual dashboard, including apps that sidetrack work efficiency or times you are at peak productivity.

Preisgestaltung:

30 Tage kostenloser Test
Starts at $7.50 per user/month

How Kiwa uses Timeular to optimize processes and remain profitable

Start tracking project’s time in an effortless, smart, and secure way

„ Timeular ist einfach und wirklich leicht zu bedienen, sodass die Teams es sehr schnell angenommen haben. Es macht es uns wirklich leicht zu erkennen, wo wir unsere Zeit und Prozesse optimieren können.“ – Nadiya Eichberg, Leiterin der Batterietests bei Kiwa

Zoho Projects

Project managers wear many hats in their roles and have varied responsibilities. So, they need a project management tool that meets their needs and high expectations. Zoho Projects is one of these tools.

Zoho Projects includes features like managing project budgets, expense management, budget forecasting, and others. As it is an online project management tool, it enhances team collaboration and increases team collaboration on complex projects.

Key features:

Versatile project budget tracking, including the amount allocated, hours spent on projects, milestones, or project tasks;
Budget threshold alerts are sent when the budget exceeds a threshold amount;
Budget forecast status with tags like ‘At Risk,’ ‘Overrun,’ or ‘Surplus’;
Client billing and time tracking features, too.

Limitations:

It doesn’t have a mobile app;
Users cannot create tasks or assign them to other coworkers, which makes task management cumbersome.

Preisgestaltung:

Free: $0 for three users for up to two projects
Premium: $4 for unlimited projects, up to 50 users

Adobe Workfront

Adobe’s Suite wouldn’t be complete without project management software in its stack. It’s a feasible budgeting app for any business role, from marketing, IT, and PMO to services. Besides project budget management, Workfront covers project planning and task management and streamlines asset creation and delivery.