Is Your IT Budget Ready for 2027?
A budget is ready when you write down next year’s licenses, devices, security work, and a small reserve before January. Most firms are not there in November. They have last year’s invoices and a hope that nothing expensive breaks.
Ready does not mean a thick binder. It means a one-page list a manager can defend: what you will keep, what you will replace, what compliance or insurance will ask for, and what you will not spend until a project is scoped.
What “not ready” looks like in January
A laptop out of warranty dies the second week of the year, and no replacement is on order. A Microsoft 365 renewal lands at the new list price because no one reviewed seats after the July 2026 commercial increase. A cyber-insurance form asks for MFA coverage, endpoint detection, and a tested backup restore — and the answers are and the answers exist only in someone’s memory.
None of those are surprises in the useful sense. They are calendar items that were never put on a calendar.
Four lines that belong on the page
Licenses and contracts. Microsoft 365, backup, security tools, phone service, and internet. Mark renewal dates and unused seats. After July 1, 2026, Business Basic list price is $7 per user per month, and Business Standard is $14. Business Premium is held at $22. Your current rate lasts only until the next renewal.
Device refresh. Anything past warranty, or older than the replacement cycle you already claim to have, is a 2027 line — not an emergency purchase in February. Include the firewall, the switch in the closet, and UPS batteries. Those fail on a holiday more often than new laptops do.
Security and compliance work. MFA evidence, endpoint coverage, backup tests, and any HIPAA, CMMC, NIST, or PCI work that actually applies to you. Insurers now ask for the same proof. If a control is missing, budget the work. Don't budget on the hope that the form will be shorter this year.
Contingency. Set aside funds for a failed disk, a missed license, or a short project. Firms that skip this line still spend the money. They spend it as overtime and rush freight.
What this is not
It is not a percentage-of-revenue rule you have to hit. Industry ranges exist; your mix of healthcare records, card data, or federal contracting will move the number more than a benchmark will. It is also not a shopping list. Copilot, a new phone system, and a server refresh can wait until the keep-or-cut list is honest.
A November check that takes one meeting
Print last year’s software, phone, and internet invoices.
Export current Microsoft 365 seats and mark who still works there.
List devices older than four years or out of warranty.
Write the date of the last successful file restore.
Put the cyber-insurance or auditor questionnaire on the same pile, if you have one.
If those five items fit on one page, you can set 2027 numbers in a single sitting. If they do not, the work is the sitting — not a new platform.