2027 budget season

This October, budget without the mess.

Budgeting software on your live ledgers.

Budgeting software on your live ledgers. Build 2027 from actuals by entity, cost centre and vendor, lock what the board approves, and let Claude or ChatGPT fill the tedious rows over MCP.

Book a budget walkthrough See how it works
  • Netvisor
  • Procountor
  • Xero
  • QuickBooks
  • + Fortnox, NetSuite, Odoo, Stripe and more
ControlExample Group
FY 2027 budget3 entities · consolidated in EUR
  • Original budgetLocked
  • Latest forecastCurrent
  • Hiring delayScenario
  • In the appBudget grid · Variance · Versionsthe finance team
  • Over MCPClaude · ChatGPT · Codex · your own agentreads the plan, writes after you say yes

Example Group, illustrative data.

Your own agent, over MCP

Three asks in one session. Watch the budget change.

Each ask builds on the last, the way a controller's afternoon does: seed the software licences by vendor, split them across the cost centres, then test a hiring delay. Watch Claude, ChatGPT or Codex work the Example Group budget.

Control MCP

Connected to Control · Example Group. Pick the first ask below.

Seed 2027 software licences by vendor from trailing 12 months, +5%. Skip anything we stopped paying for.

Vendors with actuals on 6540, trailing 12 monthsget_top_counterparties

Checked the last charge from each vendorget_group_transactions_browse

I’ll write 14 vendor lines into the latest forecast, €36,575 a month, and leave Legacy Reporting Suite Oy at 0 (cancelled in June). The locked original stays as it is. Go ahead?

Yes, go ahead

Wrote 14 vendor lines to the latest forecastcontrol_api_request

Checked the account total against the statementget_budget_plan_values

Done. Software licences in the latest forecast now run €36,575 a month across 14 vendors, from the trailing 12 months plus 5%, instead of one unallocated line. Legacy Reporting Suite Oy stays at 0. The 14 changes are in the history and the original is untouched.

Example GroupBudgetsFY 2027 budgetOperating costs · EUR
Account and lineTrailing 12 moApr 27May 27Jun 27FY 2027
Existing team4,870,000395,000395,000395,0004,740,000
Q2 hires · salariesnew24,00042,00060,000486,000
Q2 hires · side costs 21%new5,0408,82012,600102,060
Dunmore Backup Services13,9001,2161,2161,21614,592
Brightline CRM Inc70,0006,1256,1256,12573,500
Kestrel Design Tools57,0004,9884,9884,98859,856
11 more vendors277,10024,24624,24624,246290,952
Legacy Reporting Suite Oycancelled · last invoice June 2026120,0000000
Hourglass BI Consulting Oy372,0000000
Unallocated263,00020,00020,00020,000240,000
Change history1 write · 14 vendor lines in the latest forecast · via ClaudeIllustrative data
  • 01Your own access rightsThe connector signs in with your Control login, so the agent sees and changes only what you can.
  • 02Asks before it writesThe agent proposes each write and waits for your yes.
  • 03Never the locked originalWrites land in the forecast or scenario you name.

Planning 2027 now? In a 30-minute walkthrough we talk through how this would work with your entities, systems and AI tools.

Book a budget walkthrough
Step 1

See where 2026 went off plan.

Actuals against the approved budget or any forecast, monthly or year to date, by entity and for the group. See which accounts and vendors moved, and open any gap down to its transactions.

Variance to dateExample Group · Jan to Sep 2026 · EUR thousandsIllustrative data
Revenue12,360Budget 12,300+60 vs plan
Operating costs6,605Budget 6,280−325 vs plan
EBITDA1,075Budget 1,420−345 vs plan
AccountsBest to worst against plan
AccountActualBudgetvs plan%Variance bar
Marketing1,0201,110+90+8.1%
Revenue12,36012,300+60+0.5%
Travel160210+50+23.8%
Cloud and hosting540525−15−2.9%
Personnel3,9603,900−60−1.5%
Cost of sales4,6804,600−80−1.7%
Software licences420300−120−40.0%
Consulting fees505235−270−114.9%
CounterpartiesVendors · notable · vs last year
  • Hourglass BI Consulting OyConsulting fees312Growing +126.1%
  • Legacy Reporting Suite OySoftware licences96Growing +41.2%
  • Corvid Edge Networks IncCloud and hosting44Declining −38.0%

vs the same months last year

Step 2

Budget 2027 down to the vendor.

A row can be an account total, split by entity and cost centre, or one vendor. Vendors with actuals on the account are suggested, so every recurring cost gets a decision, including the ones you are done paying for.

FY 2027 budgetExample Group · Latest forecast · EURIllustrative data
Software licences 6540Full year · by entity and cost centre
  • Software licences6540438,900
  • Example Finland Oy262,100
  • R&D171,300
  • Sales58,200
  • Admin32,600
  • Example Sweden AB118,900
  • Example UK Ltd57,900
The same account, by vendorFull year · suggested from actuals on 6540
  • Dunmore Backup Services14,592
  • Brightline CRM Inc73,500
  • Kestrel Design Tools59,856
  • 11 more vendors290,952
  • Legacy Reporting Suite Oycancelled · last invoice June 20260

Written by the agent in the demo above. Vendor is a row level of its own.

  • Populate from actualsSeed any account from prior actuals. Nothing is written until you confirm.
  • Entity allocationSpread a shared cost across entities and see each entity's total before and after the allocation.
  • Excel still welcomeDepartment heads can keep sending their workbooks. The Budget assistant reads them in.
Step 3

Three statements. One plan.

Add the balance sheet to the plan and the cash flow follows. Balance-sheet drivers tie receivables and payables to the P&L.

A bank loan funds the marketing push. Growth brings the cash back.Month-end cash · EUR thousands

Month-end cash in EUR thousands: 1,330 in January 2026, falling slowly, then 2,640 in June after a 1.5 million bank loan, and 2,515 in September, the last month in the ledger. The latest forecast ends 2026 at 2,380. The plan reaches a low point of 1,975 in June 2027 at the end of the marketing push and ends the year at 3,214.

Source: ledger to September 2026, latest forecast to December, FY 2027 plan thereafter. Illustrative data.
FY 2027 planExample Group · EUR thousandsIllustrative data
P&LFY 2027
Revenue
18,900
Cost of sales
−7,180
Gross profit
11,720
Operating costs
−9,210
EBITDA
2,510
Depreciation
−330
Taxes
−436
Net income
1,744
Balance sheet31 Dec 2027Balanced
Cash
3,214
Receivables
2,510
Fixed assets
1,910
Total assets
7,634
Payables
1,160
Loans
1,250
Equity
5,224
Liabilities and equity
7,634
Cash flowFY 2027
Net income
1,744
Depreciation
330
Change in receivables
−460
Change in payables
110
Operating cash flow
1,724
Investing
−640
Financing
−250
Opening cash2026 year-end forecast
2,380
Ending cash
3,214
Cash flow ties to the balance sheet.The hiring-delay scenario in Step 4 starts from this ending cash.
Step 4

Lock what the board approves. Reforecast in versions.

The number the board signed off never moves, so every forecast and every month of actuals is measured against the same baseline.

VersionsFY 2026 plan · full-year EBITDA · EUR thousandsIllustrative data
  1. Original budgetApproved · 12 Dec 20251,900
  2. Forecast 03/26Actuals to March
  3. Forecast 06/26Actuals to June
  4. Forecast 09/26Current · actuals to September1,525−375 vs original
Every change is logged, and any snapshot can be restored.
ScenariosFY 2027 · month-end cash · EUR thousandsIllustrative data
  • Original budgetApproved · Locked3,214
  • Hiring delayScenario · from the demo above3,272+58

Month-end cash in EUR thousands. Both versions match until March. From April the hiring delay keeps more cash: 23.2 more in April, 40.7 in May and 58.1 from June. The June low point is 1,975 in the original budget and 2,033 with the hiring delay.

Leading teams across industries run their finance on Control.

They already automate variance analysis, copy and paste less, and spend more time working with the business.

The best companies run their finance on Control
Case studyCase studyCase study
Connects to
  • Procountor
  • Netvisor
  • Fortnox
  • Xero
  • QuickBooks
  • e-conomic
  • Tripletex
  • Xledger
  • NetSuite
  • Odoo
  • Stripe
  • + many more
Customer story

“The data was quite messy.”

Tiina Hong, Head of Finance, Singa

Now every ledger and billing platform lands in one view of the group, without an ERP project.

  • 3entities in different systems
  • 34countries with customers
  • Day onerevenue data, not 5 to 7 days later
Read the Singa story
This season

Start in October. Lock it in December.

  1. OctoberStep 1
    Connect and compareYour accounting and the 2026 budget, side by side.
  2. NovemberSteps 2 and 3
    Build and testBuild 2027 and test the what‑ifs before the board sees it.
  3. DecemberStep 4
    Approve and lockThe board signs off, you lock it, and forecasting starts in January.
“The initial setup was super fast.” Tiina Hong, Head of Finance, Singa
Questions

What finance teams ask before budget season.

Ask us about your budget
Do we have to replace our accounting system?

No. Control connects to the accounting systems you already use and reads every entity from them, in any currency, with FX translation and elimination rules built in. Your ledgers stay where they are. Budgets, forecasts and scenarios live in Control, beside the actuals. Live data in under two hours from the first call, with no implementation fee and no consulting hours.

Can we budget by cost centre and by vendor?

Yes. Step 2 shows the rows a budget can hold, by entity and cost centre or down to the vendor, and the demo shows your own agent filling the vendor rows over MCP.

How do department heads give their numbers?

In Excel, as today. Attach the workbook and approve what the Budget assistant proposes, or let your own agent import it over MCP.

Which AI tools work with it?

Claude, ChatGPT and Codex over the Control MCP (Model Context Protocol) connector, as in the demo above. Other MCP clients can connect the same way. Inside Control, the Budget assistant works on the budget you have open.

Where is our data, and how is it secured?

In the EU, on Google Cloud in Finland, encrypted in transit and at rest. Control is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified, with SSO and MFA. Details at trust.control.dev.

See how budget season works with AI.

In a walkthrough we show how finance teams handle budgeting, budget vs actuals and reporting with AI, and how it could work in your company. Or start for free and try it yourself.

Book a budget walkthrough Start for free
  • From €249 a monthBudgeting included.
  • 30-day free trialNo credit card and no lock-in.
  • Hands-on supportFrom the Control team, whenever you need it.