Comparison
Excel served you well. You're ready for something better.
Spreadsheets are great to get going. After 6 missions, 3 clients and 2 years in business, they're what slow you down. Here's why freelancers move to Freelance Budget.
TL;DR
- Excel asks you to maintain everything by hand: projections, VAT, charges, bank reconciliation. Freelance Budget does it automatically.
- Excel has no concept of time: no mission calendar, no runway calculation, no VAT deadline reminders.
- Excel doesn't share read-only with your client. Freelance Budget does.
- Excel doesn't ship with country-specific tax setup. Freelance Budget arrives with URSSAF, CIPAV, VAT and mileage scales pre-configured.
Side by side
Comparison
Freelance Budget
Excel / Google Sheets
Mission tracking (day rate, full and half days)
Excel: build it yourself; recurring handling = formulas + macros
12-month treasury projection
Excel: doable but requires manual upkeep when missions change
Computed health score & runway
Bank CSV/OFX import + auto-matching
VAT declarations (FR/UK/DE regimes)
Shareable mission calendar (client-facing)
Multi-entity, multi-currency
Excel: one file per entity, no consolidated view
Instant what-if scenarios
Mileage scale (official rates built in)
Monthly cost
~ €8 / month (annual)
Free
When to stay on Excel
Excel / Google Sheets
You're just starting, have 1 client and less than 6 months of history. Excel is plenty.
Freelance Budget
You have several clients, social charges to anticipate, a VAT return to prepare, or you just want to stop maintaining a 14-tab spreadsheet. It's time to switch.