It comes around every year at the same time, and no matter what you do, it never seems to be any less challenging of a process. We’re not talking about getting the kids back to school or preparing for the holidays. We’re talking about budgeting season. 

Sure, budgeting season is a great time to reframe priorities, reallocate funds to drive growth and promote resilience, and get an overall pulse check on your org’s performance. But that doesn’t make it any less complex. You’ve got inputs from every department across the company on top of year-end close, on top of year-end audits, and it’s all just a recipe for some serious overwhelm. 

We won’t tell you not to worry, but we will tell you there are steps you can take to deliver an accurate and achievable budget that’s also ready for the future. Let’s dive in.

Reimagining the Budgeting Process for 2026

Budgeting in 2025 for 2026 will undoubtedly contain more volatility in the form of inflationary pressures, interest rate uncertainty, tariff fluctuation, and shifting market conditions. Of course, budgeting and forecasting for a year are never a one-and-done: They’re re-evaluated and adjusted several times throughout the year, usually on a quarterly basis. 

So if you want to be more forward-thinking in your 2026 budgeting process, you can’t just improve the process; you have to reimagine it. Consider rolling forecasts, driver-based models, and scenario planning. AI planning tools can also help by uncovering anomalies, fast-tracking insights, and finding recommendations that a traditional spreadsheet might not surface on its own.

Five Keys to Building An Effective Budgeting Plan

A successful effective budget plan is built on a solid foundation.

1. 1. Well-defined, realistic objectives. This starts with understanding your business’ strategic goals and priorities, then relating them to the budget. The clearer the objectives, the better the budget can allocate funding, and the better the accountability for the budget process and its results. 
   2. Wide and deep collaborative approach. Believe it or not, budgeting does not only involve the finance team. A really good budgeting process involves collaboration with other teams like operations, marketing, and sales so that the budget accurately reflects each department’s priorities.
   3. Robust data and analysis. Supporting that informed decision-making requires a solid data foundation. Be sure to include historical data, market trends, and any other relevant information that will help your team build the most realistic forecasts.
   4. Scenario planning. Very rarely do things go exactly as planned. Scenario planning can help decision makers account for risks and uncertainties that could impact the budget by identifying ranges of potential impacts and outcomes. Overall it will help improve your budget’s resiliency—and that of your whole organization.
   5. Regular reviews and adjustments. Nothing will stay the same in the business across the span of a year, so your budget shouldn’t stay static either. Take regular looks at the budget to check that it’s based on the latest data, assumptions, and business environment.

Using Tech to Improve the Process

You don’t want to merely survive the budgeting process; you want to thrive in it and create a 2026 budget that helps the organization thrive as well. So don’t let your team get bogged down with manual tasks when technology can take the load off and streamline your process. 

• Real-Time Data Integration: The system you’re building your budget in must integrate with all the other software that provides data to help inform the budget, such as your ERP. Real-time integration keeps everyone on the same page, reinforcing collaboration.
• Driver-Based Budgeting: What are the key drivers of your business’ performance? Your budget should quantify and measure the impact of those drivers on the financials. 
• Add in AI: AI can make it easier to analyze large amounts of data to look for patterns, trends, or anomalies that might predict future outcomes.
• Embrace Automation: Whether you’re looking at tools to automate the budget approval process or populate templates, automation will speed up the budgeting process while promoting consistency and cutting down on errors.
• Use Real-Time Reporting and Analysis: Having to-the-moment information is key for budget success. With real-time reporting, your analytics and dashboards will always have the latest data to help monitor budget versus actuals.

Support Your Next Budgeting Cycle with ExtendInsights

Budgeting season takes time and attentiveness—along with technology—to build the right framework for the upcoming fiscal year.

By the way, this doesn’t mean leaving behind your “old faithful” favorite financial tool: Microsoft Excel. You can actually use a connected spreadsheet with the help of data integration that empowers you with to-the-moment data in your spreadsheets.

Integration solutions such as ExtendInsights are purpose-built to help you keep working where you and your teams are most comfortable and familiar—Excel—while making it simple and efficient to pull data from NetSuite saved searches, HubSpot reports, Chargebee subscription data, and more into a dynamic spreadsheet. This means that siloed forecasting can quickly become a thing of the past, and you can move forward with more accurate budgets and forecasting.

See how ExtendInsights can improve your budgeting and forecasting. Try it FREE today.