Planning for smoother budgeting in 2026? These are the 4 non-negotiables your finance team needs

You built the budget. You communicated the targets. But somehow, by Q2, you're already 15% over in three departments and scrambling to explain variances that shouldn't exist. So what's gone wrong?

9 min read •

October 2, 2025

When it comes to 'budget drift', it's rarely down to budget. For most organisations, it's because teams try to control spending after it's already been committed. By the time you're reconciling at the end of the quarter, the damage is done.

So how can you prepare for a smoother, easier 2026? We talked with ApprovalMax customers who've mastered spend control and identified four non-negotiables that keep purchase orders on-policy, budgets live, and approvals consistent across the team.

At-a-glance recommendations

• Stop unplanned spending with automated PO workflows and reclaim hours back every month.

• Ensure you have tools that can show you spend against budgets before approval

• Automate your approval workflows to catch duplicates, misinvoicing, and fraud automatically... before they cost you.

Stop budget surprises before they start with purchase orders

Unexpected purchases that fall outside of your established policies are often the root cause of budget surprises. It's likely that these unplanned expenditures slip through the cracks more frequently than you realize. Implementing a system for purchase orders can help bring your spending back under control and keep budgets on track.

Neighbourgood, a next-generation property development company, learned this the hard way. When they started offering short-term stays, they had to order consumables like coffee and soap across 16 different entities.

"We were spending so much money across all the buildings in the city," says Keldohn Swanepoel, Head of Finance at Neighbourgood. "In the beginning, there would be cost creep and overspend, things that happen when you're being very reactive."

Neighbourgood turned to ApprovalMax to help build automated workflows for their entities, introducing POs as standard for expenses. The result? Complete visibility and no more nasty surprises. Budget control starts well before a purchase is made.

Catch overspend before it happens with real-time budget tracking

Having a budget is one thing. Sticking to it is another. Budgets only work when requests are checked against them before approval - not after the money's gone.

As our CFO Dan Schonfeld recently wrote, budgets go out of date quickly. The only way to prevent 'forecast drift' is to catch it in the moment. For many with limiting financial software, this can feel like a pipedream.

But imagine having the controls to see how planned spend is tracking in real time, rather than reconciling at the end of the quarter and getting hit with a variance you can’t fix.

If you are still using spreadsheets to make complicated financial planning, there are easier, safer and much better ways. Modern tools connect your systems so you can see how spend tracks against budgets instantly. This creates a single source of truth and stops the common headache where different department heads see different numbers.

Make compliance automatic with stronger financial controls

Controls only protect you if they are automatic, consistent, and visible. Without these safeguards, costly mistakes and even fraud can go unnoticed.

In our recent survey of 166 finance professionals, only 18% said they were confident in their internal controls. The biggest weaknesses they identified were approval tracking and audit trails. Without these checks, costly mistakes and even fraud can go unnoticed.

KeepCup experienced this firsthand. Without the right systems, errors kept slipping through. Incoming bills were meant to go through an email-based approval process, but sometimes this was skipped. Operations lacked visibility over what was quoted versus what was paid.

"We'd overpay for certain things or were misinvoiced and there was no cross-checking happening," says Alex Andreou, Finance and Operations Manager at KeepCup. "There'd be duplicate payments, or sometimes no payment."

KeepCup worked with ApprovalMax and audited processes to see where the cracks lay. This started with some simple questions:

Approval matrix: Who approves what? Do you need multiple approvers for high-value items?
Segregation of duties: Are people approving purchases different from those processing payments?
Vendor onboarding: Do you have a consistent process for verifying bank details?

Automating these controls takes the "too hard" factor out of the equation. It ensures the team follows the right steps because the system won't let them do it any other way.

Managing multiple entities and dealing with the headache it causes? Read our guide on how to consolidate them (without the headache).

Give back time to finance with AP automation

Once your controls are defined, consider how AP automation can lighten the load. Everything from purchase management to budget checking can be integrated with a little setup time. This reduces the likelihood of costly errors, like duplicate payments or typos, and speeds up the entire cycle.

The benefits of automation always pay off. ApprovalMax has helped Neighbourgood save 57 hours a month for its finance team. KeepCup saves a full-time employee three months a year just by automating AP workflows. That's time redirected from manual tasks to strategic work that actually moves the business forward - real, measurable ROI.

Start planning now for your smoothest budget year yet

It never feels ideal to make big changes to tech or processes right before the new financial year. However, if you’re already in planning mode, it makes sense to review your upgrades now. Looking into ways that can save time and money as well as ease the burden on busy finance teams can pay enormous dividends this fiscal year, and for many more to come.

While you’re reviewing your processes, ensure your systems (ERP, procurement, approval tools) are talking to each other. Manual workarounds become painful at scale. Getting your processes sorted before the new financial year starts will also set you up for success when budgets get tight.

The finance leaders who've mastered budgeting don't rely on willpower or end-of-quarter fire drills. They've built systems that make compliance automatic and visibility constant. The question isn't whether you need these four elements - it's whether you can afford another year without them.

Make 2026 your smoothest budget year yet. Start your free trial or contact ApprovalMax today.

Approvalmax is an all-in-one B2B software platform used by businesses around the world to build robust AP automation, creating multiple layers of internal control. It streamlines the approval process by allowing users to create automated workflows to approve bills and invoices. ApprovalMax integrates with accounting platforms such as Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Oracle NetSuite to unlock powerful efficiencies for accounts payable and accounts receivable functions in any finance team.