Your 2026 Technology Budget

A Small Business Guide to Auditing, Planning, and Optimizing

By Jon Hoehne, CMIT Solutions

For most businesses on a calendar year budget, it’s probably time to start thinking about the 2026 budget. What are the big goals for next year? What market conditions are you expecting to deal with? And among the myriad other questions that go into the budgeting process, here’s one that often gets overlooked: How much does technology really figure into your budget?

The Hidden Costs in Your Tech Stack

Technology costs and savings opportunities can hide in unexpected places. 

For example, when is the last time you looked at your ISP bill? If you haven’t renegotiated with your current provider lately, they may have newer plans with more bandwidth at lower prices. If you’ve got a VOIP phone system, are all your licenses in use or can you trim some of the fat? If you don’t have a VOIP phone system, are you missing out on potential savings of 40-50% compared to traditional phone lines?

And what about all the IT tools and subscriptions your team uses? Did the sales team ask for something really cool, but the productivity savings weren’t there? That “game-changing” CRM might be costing you $200 per user per month while your team still lives in spreadsheets.

Your Step-by-Step Tech Audit Process

All these costs can add up fast, and the right level of spending can vary greatly from business to business. Once you have a clear idea of your business goals for the upcoming year, consider the following steps.

Step 1: Assess Current Value

The potential savings here can either go straight to your bottom line or enable you to more freely explore other technology.

Make a comprehensive list of all your recurring technology expenses:

• Infrastructure: ISP, office phones, mobile phones, email and web hosting, cloud storage
• Managed services: Remote monitoring, endpoint detection and response, backup subscriptions
• Software subscriptions: Applications your employees use to get work done.
• Security and insurance: Are you getting all the discounts you can on business and cyber insurance? Implementing robust cybersecurity controls can often help lower your premiums.

Step 2: Identify Pain Points and Hidden Costs

What pain is your existing technology causing?  Here are some common issues:

• Older devices: Computers over 4 years old can cause productivity losses and pose higher security risks
• Integration issues: When employees complain that program A doesn’t work with program B properly, there’s always extra work in manual data entry or troubleshooting the disconnect
• Network performance: The network is slow, but you’re not sure why. This could be costing each employee productive time daily

Ask your team! They are an invaluable source of ideas and are sure to have their own unique perspective. Consider an anonymous survey to get honest feedback.

Quick Wins for Immediate Savings

Once you start to get data, don’t ignore your quick wins. Look for these opportunities:

• Consolidate overlapping tools: Marketing might use Canva while Design uses Adobe – can you standardize?
• Negotiate multi-year contracts: Lock in bigger savings on core services
• Right-size licenses: Audit user lists monthly—former employees often retain access for months
• Bundle services: Many vendors offer significant discounts for multiple products

Step 3: Building Your 2026 Technology Roadmap

You can’t change everything at once. Use the data you collected in steps 1 and 2 to evaluate your opportunities and build a roadmap that considers your overall business goals. It could be as simple as one initiative per quarter.

What Can an MSP Do for You?

A Managed Service Provider can accelerate this process by analyzing your spending, conducting independent assessments and providing clear options. Once you’ve chosen your path, they can manage and track your assets, as well as lead strategic projects, ensuring proper implementation.

Effective technology budgeting is about spending smarter. The time you invest now in auditing and planning will pay dividends throughout 2026 in improved productivity, reduced costs, and better business outcomes.