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16 Dec Your 2026 Money Map: Build a Smarter Budget by Truly Understanding Your 2025 Numbers

Posted at 16:00h in Blog by

By Jeff Siegel, CPA — Lover of Numbers, Clarity, and Avoiding Budget Disasters

Most businesses start their budgeting process every year with admirable enthusiasm. They pull up last year’s numbers, add 10% (because why not?), shave a little off expenses, and boom—budget “done.”

Of course, that approach works about as well as mapping out a road trip using a crayon drawing of the United States. Sure, you’ll end up somewhere, but it might not be where you intended.

If you want your 2026 Money Map to actually guide you, you need to really understand what happened in 2025—not just the broad strokes, but the little details hiding under the hood.

Let’s walk through it together.

Continue reading to learn more or reach out to Siegel Solutions to help develop your 2026 Money Map.

Start by Digging Into Every Account, Not Just the Totals

QuickBooks can be your best friend here—if you use it for more than just printing profit-and-loss statements five minutes before your accountant calls.

Dive into each account:

  • Drill into every expense line and look at the real transactions.
  • Track down mystery recurring charges you forgot you signed up for (we’ve all been there).
  • Confirm who’s actually providing what—sometimes a vendor you’ve paid for three years turns out to be something you don’t even use anymore.


This step alone can save companies thousands. It’s the financial version of finally cleaning out your garage and discovering you’ve been paying for storage you forgot you owned.

 

Take a Close Look at Your Sales—By Customer, Not Just in Total

Total revenue is fun to look at, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s like reading the back cover of a book—you’ll get the gist, but you’ll miss the plot twist.

Run a Sales by Customer Summary over a few years and ask:

  • Who are your rising stars?
  • Who quietly drifted away?
  • Are you depending too heavily on one or two customers?
  • Which segments are actually fueling your growth?


This tells you where to focus in 2026—and where not to keep throwing time and money.

 

Clean Up Your Cost of Sales to Protect Your Gross Margin

If I had a dollar for every company that accidentally buries Cost of Goods Sold in General & Administrative… well, I could fund a very nice vacation.

But seriously:
Misclassified expenses create a distorted gross margin, and a distorted gross margin leads to a distorted budget.

Take the time to ask:

  • Is labor classified correctly?
  • Are materials or subcontractor costs hiding in G&A?
  • Does COGS reflect what it actually costs you to deliver?


Once cleaned up, your gross margin becomes a reliable foundation instead of a “close enough for now” estimate.

 

Don’t Forget the Balance Sheet—It Drives Your Future

A lot of companies stop budgeting at the P&L because, well… it’s easier. But the balance sheet is where the real grown-up planning happens.

Think about:

  • New equipment or technology you might need.
  • Paying down loans (or taking on new ones—hey, no judgment).
  • Possible expansion.
  • Replacing assets that are, let’s be honest, a little past their prime


These aren’t P&L items, but they absolutely affect your 2026 cash flow—and either support or complicate your plans.

 

Understand the Correlation Between Your Numbers and Your Business Drivers

This is where budgeting becomes strategy instead of arithmetic.

Your numbers are connected. If one moves, something else usually moves with it—kind of like when you touch a spider web and the whole thing reacts.

Can you really increase sales by 20% without increasing your drivers?

Maybe. If you’re magical.
But for the rest of us:

  • More sales typically require more marketing.
  • Or more sales effort.
  • Or a better commission plan.
  • Or more support so customers stay happy.


Growth costs money. Budget for it.

Will a better commission plan increase sales—and at what cost?

A great commission plan can drive revenue, but:

  • Will margins take a hit?
  • Will the extra sales volume justify the extra payouts?
  • Are you motivating profitable behavior—or just activity?


Sometimes changing a commission plan boosts revenue. Sometimes it boosts stress. The numbers will tell you which.

What other correlations hide inside your numbers?

Look for patterns such as:

  • Marketing spend vs. sales growth
  • More billable staff vs. revenue increases
  • Sales volume vs. labor requirements
  • Customer churn vs. support capacity


These relationships are your early warning system. Ignore them, and your budget becomes guesswork. Pay attention, and your 2026 plan becomes grounded, realistic, and more predictable.

 

Use Planning Tools to Bring Your Budget to Life

Once you truly understand your 2025 numbers, the next step is to build a plan… and not just any plan, but one you can actually track and adjust during the year instead of leaving it in a drawer.

That’s where budgeting and forecasting tools shine. Great options include:

  • PlanGuru
  • Reach Reporting
  • Clockwork.ai
  • LivePlan
  • Jirav
  • And many more on the QuickBooks Apps Marketplace


I personally use Reach Reporting and PlanGuru, but honestly, they’re all solid choices. Pick the one that fits how your brain works.

And once your budget is built, you can import it right into QuickBooks for budget-versus-actuals as the year unfolds. These tools also give you dashboards, insights, commentary, and sometimes even the equivalent of financial pep talks.

 

Bring It All Together Into a Clear, Purposeful Plan

A truly smart 2026 budget isn’t about guessing, hoping, or throwing darts at last year’s numbers.

It’s about understanding:

  • What you spent
  • Who drove your revenue
  • What it costs to deliver
  • How your balance sheet supports the future
  • What truly drives your business
  • And how modern tools can help you monitor progress all year


When you see your numbers clearly, 2026 stops feeling like a mystery and starts looking like an opportunity.

 

How Siegel Solutions Can Help (a.k.a. Your Financial Co-Pilot)

If this all feels a little overwhelming—or you’d simply rather work with a team that loves this stuff—we’re here for you.

We can:

  • Analyze your 2025 numbers in depth
  • Identify your true business drivers and correlations
  • Build a realistic, actionable 2026 budget
  • Implement the plan in a tool such as Reach Reporting or PlanGuru
  • Create monthly reporting packages with clear insights
  • Hold monthly review meetings to keep you on track and help you adjust as the year unfolds


Think of us as the GPS for your 2026 Money Map… except we won’t tell you to make a U-turn every five minutes! Feel free to reach out!

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