For companies operating in the IT segment, the time to budget is one of the most important steps and can become a nightmare if the rationale does not cover all the necessary investments. 

In addition to causing financial losses, making mistakes when preparing the IT budget also prevents the company from optimizing its services and improving its infrastructure.

To help you structure a correct IT budget, we have separated the 5 most common mistakes that you should avoid when mapping costs, expenses and new projects! Keep reading: 

The importance of the IT budget

IT is the area responsible for managing systems and improving processes within a company, ensuring greater efficiency for its customers and employees. For that matter, aligning cost planning with the execution of activities is essential to maintain the financial stability of the business.

The IT budget is perfect for this task and, in addition to allowing a better view of costs and expenses, it also assists managers in decision making, anticipating problems and optimizing resources.

Top IT Budget Mistakes

Check out some examples of what NOT to do when preparing the IT budget:

1 - Believing that costs will end after setting the project

A very common mistake among IT managers is to think that calculating expenses and planning the budget considering the start day until the last day of project execution is sufficient. 

On the contrary, not considering the investment for eventual training, maintenance and unforeseen events is a big mistake and can cause an overflow not assumed in the budget.

2 -  Keeping an inadequate infrastructure

Another recurring mistake during the elaboration of the IT budget is to ignore the need to update systems and not to replace old machines.  

Better than anyone, IT professionals know that computers and software age quickly and that if they are not updated they can bring serious consequences for staff productivity, not to mention leaving the company vulnerable to problems ranging from data loss to hacking.

3 - Not investing in training for the team

Many companies tend to neglect spending money on training employees, but good results also require some investment.

Note: a company with a qualified team, who knows programming languages ​​and the different ways of dealing with technology is more likely to stand out among the competition. 

4 - Budget without planning

Implementing the budget on impulse, just to follow trends is another mistake that can hinder the team's productivity and cause financial losses.

In order to prepare the IT budget, the company must consider all the possibilities, assess which is the most adequate and then execute it. No rush!

5 - Not thinking long term

During the preparation of the IT budget, many managers end up ignoring some indispensable steps, such as considering innovation projects, migration to new systems, closing partnerships, among others.

To set up the budget, it is important to consider the need that the company may also have in the medium and long term. Calculating the life cycle of the solutions is the best alternative to not be surprised.

Now that you have come this far and have already understood what are the most common mistakes during the preparation of the IT budget, let's give you one more tip: momentary savings can cost much more going forward. Therefore, when setting up the IT budget, reflect on the consequences that your actions may have in the future and ask yourself if it is the best decision to be made.

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