Managed IT · Budgeting
The categories to include, what published benchmarks say about spend, and a fill-in template for businesses with 10 to 100 employees.
Seven categories every budget needs
What benchmarks say, and their limits
A per-employee template you can copy
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A small business IT budget should be built bottom-up from seven categories: support, software subscriptions, hardware replacement, security, backup, connectivity and one-time projects. Count your users, devices and locations, price each category, then add a contingency of about 10 percent. Use percentage-of-revenue benchmarks only as a sanity check. Avasant’s 2025/2026 IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks put median IT spending at 2.9 percent of revenue across its sample, but the study warns the figure varies widely by industry and its respondents are mostly larger firms. The template below gets you to a defensible number faster than any benchmark.
Owners often ask what share of revenue should go to IT. The honest answer is that published benchmarks are mostly built from larger organizations. Avasant’s survey covers companies with at least $1 million in IT spending or revenue, and its small-organization tier means IT operating budgets under $10 million, which is far bigger than a 30-person office. Avasant itself says the composite figure should be used to see trends, not to benchmark a specific company.
Revenue also moves for reasons that have nothing to do with technology. A distributor with thin margins and high revenue will look like it underspends. A law firm with 20 people and high billing rates will look like it overspends. A per-employee view is more useful for a business with 10 to 100 people, because most IT costs scale with headcount: licenses, laptops, support and security tools.
Benchmarks still help in one way. They show where spending is heading. Avasant reports that security has grown to 5.4 percent of the average IT budget, AI already takes 1.9 percent, and capital spending has settled at about 13 percent of IT budgets. In plain terms, budgets are shifting from buying equipment to paying for subscriptions and services.
Copy these lines into a spreadsheet. Fill each one with your own quotes and invoices, not with averages.
A worked example for 30 people: 30 users on a $150 support fee and $22 suite comes to $5,160 a month, or about $61,900 a year before hardware, security add-ons and projects. The numbers are illustrative. Your quotes will differ, which is the point of building it yourself.
If you want an outside view before you start, our free Technology Health Assessment takes 30 minutes of data collection and gives you a plain-language report the next day, including a rating of your technology spending and a short list of next steps in order. The report is yours to keep, with no obligation.
JLB USA provides managed IT for businesses with roughly 25 to 100 employees, priced on users, locations, systems and support needs, so the support line in your budget stays predictable. If security is the line you are least sure about, see our cybersecurity services, or read our guide to what managed IT costs per month.
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There is no reliable single number for small businesses. Avasant’s 2025/2026 benchmark reports a median of 2.9 percent of revenue, but its sample is mostly larger firms and it varies widely by industry. Build the budget per employee and use the percentage only as a sanity check.
Add the monthly per-user costs (support, productivity suite, security and backup), the yearly share of each person’s devices, and their share of location and project costs. The total depends on your support model, your industry and the condition of your systems.
That is an accounting and tax decision to make with your accountant. For planning, spread hardware over its expected life so the budget shows a steady yearly cost rather than spikes.
Build it once a year and compare actual spending to plan every quarter. Review it sooner when you add a location, hire a group of people or replace a core system.
Restore testing, security training, end-of-support upgrades, backup internet connections and subscriptions people bought on their own cards. Each deserves a line.
