Presenting the IT budget for approval

The budget is built; it still has to be approved. KANAP makes the presentation easier with configurable reports that show the different facets of the budget in a visual, pragmatic way. Once the budget is approved, KANAP locks the columns involved so nothing moves afterwards.

Ready-made reports

The Reporting section offers ten preconfigured reports, each with a summary table, a chart and exports. Nothing to build: you choose, you run. A line puzzles you? In the top reports, a line’s name opens it in a new tab; in the grouped reports, a group’s name opens the list of the lines behind it.

Where do we land, what goes up?

“Budget column comparison” puts Budget 2026, Expected landing 2026 and Budget 2027 side by side. The gap between budget and landing measures the quality of the forecast; the gap between landing and 2027, the effort asked for next year.

“Top increase / decrease” then names the lines that explain the gap. Often the most interesting slide of the deck.

Finally, “Top lines” shows at a glance the largest lines of your budget, where the budget is usually decided.

These reports, and the others you will explore, are fully configurable and quickly produce solid figures and charts to support your budget presentation.

How many people, at what cost?

In committee, the question about contractors always comes up. Part 1’s quantity × price lines answer it with no extra work.

“Staffing by month” shows FTEs month by month, grouped by cost center, supplier, line or analytics dimension, with the year’s average and peak. “Cost per FTE” compares up to four columns side by side, for example the 2026 landing and the 2027 budget, and switches to the daily rate in one click. If the external team goes from 12 to 9 FTE while the average daily rate rises 6%, the sentence reads straight off the table.

The budget reports also have a “Measure” selector: Amount or FTE. Top increases, budget comparisons and column comparisons then read in people.

Who pays what?

“Global chargeback” and “Company chargeback” convert part 2’s allocations into totals by company and/or department, based on the chosen metrics (headcount, turnover, and so on). Both reports open on OPEX and can include CAPEX lines. Ever been asked “how much does department X’s IT cost us?”. This time the answer is ready: in absolute value, as a percentage, and per user.

Even if your company does not charge costs back, these reports are a gold mine for spotting the hidden costs of IT, and for showing management the cost of niche solutions that stay invisible in the budget’s top 10.

In finance’s own structure

Finance reads the budget through its own chart of accounts. “Consolidation accounts” groups the budget by account of the consolidation chart, whatever the company and its local chart of accounts. The figures you present are the ones the controllers will find in their own tables.

“Analytics dimensions” gives another reading: the split by nature, by domain, or by any other dimension you have defined. See Analytics dimensions: what security really costs IT.

OPEX and CAPEX, side by side

Most reports open on All lines, with OPEX and CAPEX tabs, and “Budget comparison” covers the whole budget or one type. Operations and investments are presented in the same meeting, with the same tools and the same exports.

Export

Every report exports: table as CSV, chart as PNG, full page as PDF. The deck comes together without screenshots, and you can even adjust a report live to answer ad-hoc questions.

And for the question no report anticipated, Plaid, the built-in AI agent, queries the same data in plain language: “2027 budget total by supplier”, “budgeted FTE by cost center”. The answer names lines by their reference (BL-12, BL-3), which you find in the list right away.

The review phase

A budget is rarely approved on the first pass. That is what the Revision column is for: enter the working versions of the trimmed lines there (or, who knows, the reinforced ones), then fill the empty cells back from the budget, with the same mechanics as in part 2.

In a few clicks you build a complete variant of the budget, which can then be copied (overwriting, this time) to the Budget column once approved.

Lock

Budget approved? In Administration, “Freeze / unfreeze data” locks columns. Freeze the 2027 Budget column, OPEX and CAPEX. Frozen columns turn read-only everywhere: entry, CSV imports, copies. The figures approved in committee will not move again, and become the reference for the next cycle. Freezing the default column also freezes the year’s FX rates: amounts converted to the reporting currency will not move either.

Across three parts we covered a full budget cycle: a reliable landing, the 2027 budget, the key figures and the presentation, the review, the lock.

Everything is ready for the next cycle.