The invention discloses a battery management system and balance method with a parallel balance function. The battery management system comprises a battery pack with 24 lithium ion batteries, six single chip microcomputer-based battery monitoring modules, a main controller, six single battery gating modules, an active balance module, a communication module, a charge-discharge protection apparatus and a battery module. By virtue of the battery management system, monitoring and control for 24 batteries can be realized, and functions of monitoring the working parameters of the single batteries, and performing passive balance, active balance, parallel balance, charge-discharge overcurrent protection and upper computer communication and the like of the battery pack can be realized; meanwhile, the size of a balanced current also can be regulated, and intelligent balance can be realized; by virtue of the system, a switch matrix driver and a common power supply switch controller can be omitted; the driving of an MOSFET transistor of each single battery gating module is completed by the battery monitoring module; and the driving of an MOSFET transistor of the active balance module is completed by the main controller, so that the intelligent charge-discharge function of the balanced current controlled by software is realized.