Planning your IT budget for 2027: what an SME of 15 employees budgets for

November is budget season. This year's figures are on the table, the accountant is asking about next year and somewhere near the bottom of the list sits 'IT'. At most SMEs we work with, that line gets filled in as 'what it cost last year, plus whatever breaks'. That is not a budget, that is an estimate of the damage. Below is the structure we use to build an IT budget for a company of about fifteen employees. Without amounts, because those differ per sector and per situation, but with the order and the lines you keep separate.

Six lines you keep separate

The problem with 'IT' as a single line is that you cannot see what is fixed, what grows and what you can steer. So split it into six lines.

1. Licences and subscriptions: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, the accounting package, the CRM, the back-up solution, the antivirus. This is the most predictable part, and also the part that quietly grows.
2. Hardware with a replacement cycle: laptops, screens, the network (router, switch, wifi) and the server or NAS if you still have one. Not as a single amount, but as a plan spread over several years.
3. Security: MFA, managed devices, monitoring, and an annual cyber scan or audit. Today this is part of the basics.
4. Training and awareness: a short session for the team, a phishing exercise, a workshop for those who work with AI tools.
5. IT partner or management: the fixed contract for support, management and follow-up. Or, if you do it in-house, the hours that go into it.
6. Reserve for incidents and unexpected replacement: a laptop that gets dropped, a service that has to be restored after an incident. Whoever sets nothing aside for this takes it from the other lines and then postpones something else.

Map your replacement cycle

The hardware line is where the biggest surprises sit, and at the same time the easiest to predict. Laptops typically last four to five years, network equipment longer, a server or NAS somewhere in between. All you need is an inventory.

• List every device with its year of purchase. For fifteen employees that is about an hour of work, and it is often already in the accounts.
• Next to each device, note the year it is due for replacement.
• Spread the replacements. If you bought ten laptops at once in 2022, you do not replace them all in 2027, but for example half in 2027 and the rest in 2028.
• Go through the inventory again every November. Then the 'hardware' line is no longer an estimate, but a plan.

Where to save, and where not to

A good budget is not necessarily a lower budget. But at most SMEs there is money that serves no purpose.

• Unused licences: accounts of former employees, duplicate Microsoft 365 plans, a tool only one person still works with.
• Duplicate tools: two ways to share files, three chat apps, a separate solution next to what is already in your platform.
• Hardware that is too expensive for light tasks: not everyone needs the heaviest laptop. Whoever only uses email and Office works perfectly well on a solid basic model.

Where you do not save: back-up, MFA and updates. Those are the three things that make the difference between an annoying week and a company that grinds to a halt. Whoever cuts there moves the amount to the 'incidents' line, just without planning it.

Subsidies, NIS2 and the insurer

Three external factors that influence your budget and that you are better off including than forgetting.

• The Flemish SME e-wallet (KMO-portefeuille) can contribute to advice and training, not to licences or hardware. What exactly you can submit is explained in our article on the four advisory modules of the KMO-portefeuille.
• NIS2: if you fall under it, or if you supply a company that does, demonstrable baseline measures are expected of you. Better planned in the 2027 budget than as an emergency purchase in the course of 2027.
• Cyber insurance: insurers increasingly ask for proof of MFA, back-ups and managed devices before they issue a policy or pay out a claim. What your insurer wants to see therefore belongs in the budget too.

A simple template

You do not need software for this, a tab in your spreadsheet is enough. Three columns per line:

• Fixed: what comes back every month or every year, such as licences, the management contract and the insurance.
• Variable: what depends on usage or growth, such as extra licences for a new colleague or hours outside the contract.
• One-off: the planned replacements from your inventory, an audit, a training.

Add up per line, add up the lines and put the reserve on top. Then you have an IT budget you can still look at in March without flinching. If you want to know how the 'IT partner' line compares to what you do in-house today, also read what an IT partner costs for an SME.