Your 2026 Budget Is Complete. Now Is the Right Time to Fix What Made It Hard.

For many bank financial teams, January marks a familiar milestone: the 2026 budget is finalized, approvals are complete, and teams shift their focus from planning to execution. 

But once the pressure of budget season fades, finance leaders often ask the same question year after year: why did the process feel so difficult and why does it seem to be getting harder? 

Budgeting for financial institutions has grown more complex. Interest rate volatility, margin pressure, regulatory expectations, and increasing demand for transparency have raised the bar for finance teams. At the same time, CFOs are being asked to deliver budgets faster, with greater accuracy, stronger accountability from department leaders, and more frequent forecasts—often using the same tools they’ve relied on for years. 

For many institutions, that gap between expectations and capability is where budgeting frustration begins. Looking back at the 2026 cycle, most challenges weren’t strategic—they were structural and tool-driven. Common pain points include: 

• Tools not designed for community financial institutions, making balance sheet and margin planning difficult to model accurately 

• Manual imports from ALM systems, requiring time-consuming mapping, reconciliation, and allocations 

• Heavy reliance on spreadsheets, increasing the risk of formula errors, version control issues, limited auditability, and rework 

• Overly complex planning platforms, which are difficult to maintain and often dependent on a small number of power users 

• Limited forecasting flexibility, where quarterly or monthly reforecasting feels like rebuilding the budget from scratch 

Many CFOs also struggle to achieve the level of detail required by leadership and the board—particularly around staffing, capital expenditures, prepaid expenses, and departmental accountability. 

These issues are rarely caused by lack of expertise. More often, they stem from using tools originally designed for other industries, or for much simpler planning environments. Most banks have adapted by creating workarounds: 

• Shadow models in Excel 

• Manual balance sheet estimates outside the system 

• Offline worksheets to “check” system outputs 

• Reduced visibility at the department or branch level 

While these approaches help teams get through budget season, they also introduce inefficiency, risk, and frustration, especially as expectations for forecasting and scenario analysis increase. Community institutions increasingly need solutions that: 

• Integrate income statement, balance sheet, and margin planning 

• Align directly with ALM assumptions 

• Support scenario modeling without recreating the budget 

• Reduce manual effort while increasing confidence and accountability 

• Are built specifically for banks

Purpose-built financial institution solutions remove friction that finance teams have learned to tolerate but no longer should. 

Too often, institutions wait until the next budget cycle approaches to evaluate new tools making timing a strategic advantage. By then, timelines are compressed and change feels risky. 

The ideal window is now, immediately after budget completion. Starting early allows bankers to evaluate options thoughtfully, gain stakeholder alignment, and implement improvements well ahead of the 2027 budget cycle. 

The best time to improve your budgeting process isn’t during the next budget season. It’s right after the last one. 

Download your complimentary budgeting checklist