RunSmart

Jirav

The Best Small Business Financial Planning Alternative

Choosing between Jirav and RunSmart comes down to your role and how you use financial data. Both platforms work with accounting and operational data, but they are designed for very different users and workflows. This page helps explain those differences so you can decide which approach fits your needs.

How Jirav and RunSmart Are Fundamentally Different

The Core Question:

Do you primarily need collaborative financial planning and modeling, or practical financial decision support built for operators?
That distinction explains nearly every difference between the two platforms.

Who Each Platform Is Built For

Each platform is designed for a different type of user and workflow. Understanding who it’s built for is often the fastest way to determine which one fits your needs.

When Jirav Is the Better Fit
Jirav is best suited for users who:
Operate in a corporate finance-led or FP&A-led workflow
Build collaborative budgets and forecasts across departments
Need driver-based models for planning
Coordinate planning inputs from multiple stakeholders
Are comfortable working inside structured financial planning tools
Jirav excels at:
Budgeting and forecasting collaboration among multiple stakeholders
Driver-based financial modeling
Department-level planning inputs
FP&A-style workflows
If you have a dedicated finance function and your primary goal is to build and manage structured planning models across teams, Jirav is often the right choice.
When RunSmart Is the Better Fit
RunSmart is better suited for users who:
Are small business owners or operators, not corporate FP&A teams
Want help deciding what to do next, not just building models
Need to evaluate real operational decisions, such as:
Hiring employees
Increasing marketing spend
Taking on debt
Prefer guided insights and health indicators instead of managing planning models manually
RunSmart emphasizes:
Forward-looking forecasts 
Forward-looking planning
Scenario-based decision making
Ongoing business health assessments
Operational planning tied directly to forecasts
If your primary goal is to understand where your business stands today and make confident next-step decisions, RunSmart is typically the better fit.

Key Difference: Planning Models vs Decision Support

Jirav
Jirav’s Orientation
“How should this be modeled?”
“What assumptions drive this forecast?”
“How do departments collaborate on the plan?”
RunSmart
RunSmart’s Orientation
“Is my business financially healthy right now?”
“Can I afford this loan?”
“How much marketing spend is sustainable?”
“What happens if I hire now?”
Both approaches involve planning — but they serve very different decision-makers.

Operational Planning Is Where the Tools Diverge Most

One of the clearest differences is how each platform supports real-world decisions.

Jirav
Jirav
Strong modeling and budgeting framework
Focuses on building and maintaining planning structures
Primarily answers “how should this be planned?”
RunSmart
RunSmart
Includes planners specifically for:
Workforce (hiring & payroll impact)
Marketing spend
Loans and debt
Models how those decisions affect:
Cash flow
Profitability
Financial health over time
This makes RunSmart more useful when financial planning needs to translate directly into day-to-day operational decisions for a small business

Business Health: Metrics vs Interpretation

Another difference is how insight is delivered:

Jirav
Jirav
Jirav provides structured plans and forecasts that require interpretation by finance users.
RunSmart
RunSmart Approach — Model Decisions Before You Make Them
RunSmart translates financial signals into business health assessments that highlight risk, stability, or improvement over time.
This distinction matters most for owners who don’t want — or don’t have — the time or expertise to interpret planning outputs themselves.

Summary Comparison

Decision Factor

Choose Jirav If…

Choose RunSmart If…

Primary User

Corporate finance team, FP&A

Business Owner / Accountant

Main Goal

Budgeting & modeling

Planning & decisions

Comfort with Finance

High

Low to moderate

Collaboration Needs

Multi-department planning

Single business planning

Output Style

Structured financial models

Actionable guidance

Planning Focus

Assumption-driven modeling

Operational decisions

Final Thought

Jirav and RunSmart are not substitutes in the traditional sense — they reflect two different planning philosophies:

Jirav helps corporate finance teams build and manage collaborative financial plans required for larger companies
RunSmart helps business owners and accountants make better, data-driven decisions about what to do next

Understanding that difference usually makes the choice clear.

Disclaimer

This comparison is based on publicly available information and our understanding of each platform’s intended use cases. Product features and capabilities may change over time.

Real insights. Real decisions.

"What impressed me most is how easy it is. I don't have to build complex models again."
Brad Kingsford
CPA
"I can scan my entire client base and quickly spot where margins are projected to tighten without digging into each set of financials."
Ashley Chen
CPA
"I’m not building models or digging through reports anymore—it’s already laid out for me."
Brian O’Connor
CFO
"I don’t have to rebuild models just to answer basic ‘what happens if this changes’ questions."
Samantha Lee
Bookkeeper
"I save a ton of time on monthly reviews now. Most of the work is already done when I log in."
Daniel Brooks
Accounting Firm Owner
"It’s straightforward and easy to use. I didn’t have to spend time figuring things out."
Michael Patel
Small Business Owner
"Portfolio View is probably my favorite part. I can quickly see what’s going on across all my clients."
Misty Callen
Senior Advisor
"The forecasting alone is a game changer. I don't have to build or model anything manually and its so much more reliable then what I've seen from others."
Kassi Ramirez
Fractional CFO

Frequent Asked Questions

More asnswers to common questions about how RunSmart works and what you can expect.

How do you compare against other financial planning & analysis (FP&A) software?

RunSmart is built specifically for small business owners who need a clear understanding of where their business stands today and how decisions will shape what comes next. While many FP&A platforms emphasize dashboards and complex configuration, RunSmart focuses on turning your QuickBooks data into practical financial intelligence you can act on.

It continuously analyzes historical performance, highlights meaningful financial shifts, and provides a clear view of your current financial health across profitability, cash flow, and growth. At the same time, it generates forward-looking forecasts that help you evaluate the financial impact of hiring, pricing changes, borrowing, or expansion before committing capital.

The result is a platform designed to help you understand your business today, plan confidently for tomorrow, and make informed decisions without the overhead of traditional enterprise tools.

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Do I need a strong background in finance to use RunSmart?

Not at all. RunSmart is designed to be easy to use. We handle all calculations and generate forecasts automatically so you don’t have to. That said, to deliver reliable results, your books need to be clean, up to date, and properly categorized every month. If you’re unsure about your bookkeeping quality, we recommend working with a professional bookkeeper first to get things in order.

What makes RunSmart’s forecasts more reliable than other tools?

RunSmart’s forecasts are built to support real business decisions, not just generate projections. Instead of relying on simplified assumptions, RunSmart uses advanced statistical models that account for seasonality, long term trends, and volatility in your historical QuickBooks data.

By continuously analyzing performance patterns and financial shifts, RunSmart produces rolling forecasts that reflect how your business actually behaves. The result is forward looking projections you can confidently use to evaluate hiring, pricing, borrowing, and growth decisions.

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My small business has been operational for less than 2 years; can I still use RunSmart?

To ensure reliable forecasts, we require a minimum of 2 consecutive years of historical financial data in your QuickBooks Online account to use RunSmart. Anything less than 2 years does not provide enough data to identify seasonal patterns or trends effectively.

Does RunSmart support consolidations or class tracking for budgeting?

No. RunSmart is intentionally designed for single-entity businesses and does not support consolidating multiple companies or budgeting by class.

In many small businesses, consolidating financial data or budgeting across multiple classes can make it harder to clearly identify where issues are developing. RunSmart focuses on analyzing each business independently so trends, risks, and performance changes are easier to detect and address.

These types of consolidation and class-level budgeting tools are typically designed for large finance teams managing complex corporate structures. RunSmart instead prioritizes clear forecasts, financial diagnostics, and decision insights that small business owners and advisors can quickly understand and act on—without the added complexity of enterprise finance features.

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I don’t use QuickBooks Online for my small business. Can I still use RunSmart?

At this time, we currently only support an integration with QuickBooks Online.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Put your financial data to work with a platform built to forecast performance, evaluate decisions, and gain clearer financial direction for your business.

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