Year-End Financial Planning: 3 Money Conversations to Save 2026
December can feel strange in business.
Some teams are sprinting to hit year-end targets. Others are quiet, waiting for January to reset. You might feel caught between the urge to slow down and the pressure to push harder.
In all of that noise, it’s easy to miss what December is actually good for.
December is a natural pause in the year — one of the few times you can look at the business with a bit of distance. Used well, it isn’t just about accounting checklists or tax moves. It’s about three simple money conversations that shape your year-end financial planning for the year ahead:
What really happened in the business this year?
What do we want to be different next year?
What are we actually willing to commit to?
You don’t need a planning retreat or a thick strategy binder to do this. You need a bit of honesty, a calendar, and your numbers.
Conversation 1: What really happened this year?
Most owners see their numbers in fragments — a bit from their accountant, a bit from their bookkeeping software, a bit from the bank app.
December is the moment to pull the story together and ask:
What actually happened in this business this year?
You can look at three areas.
1. Revenue and mix
Where did revenue actually come from?
Which services, products, or locations carried the year?
Did anything shrink quietly while you were busy elsewhere?
This isn’t about celebrating a high-level revenue number. It’s about understanding the shape of the year. Sometimes the business becomes more concentrated in one client, one service line, or one delivery channel than you realised.
2. Profit and margin
After paying your team and overhead, did the business truly pay you for the risk you took?
Were there months that were consistently thin, even when revenue looked strong?
If profit isn’t where it should be for the effort involved, that’s important data — and December is the time to acknowledge it, not gloss over it.
3. Cash and personal pay
Did cash feel tighter or steadier than last year?
Did you pay yourself in a stable way, or were you living on what was left?
Profit and cash often tell different stories. December is your chance to understand whether the way money moved this year actually worked — for both the business and your life.
Conversation 2: What has to be different next year?
Once you have a clearer sense of what happened, the next conversation is about direction.
Not every year needs aggressive growth. Sometimes the right move is to stabilise, clean up, or prepare for a bigger change later. December is when you decide which season you’re in.
You can ask:
Do we need a growth year, a consolidation year, or a repair year?
If we could only change three things about how money works in this business, what would they be?
Often the answers fall into familiar categories:
Pricing and margin
Team structure and payroll
Client mix and dependency on a few relationships
Owner pay and boundaries
Systems such as forecasting, reporting, and cash management
You don’t need to solve any of these in one sitting. What matters is naming them clearly.
Examples might sound like:
“We grew revenue, but margin suffered. Next year needs to focus on profitable growth.”
“Cash felt too tight. We need better buffers and a clearer view of upcoming obligations.”
“I cannot keep being the bottleneck. We need to hire or redesign roles.”
December is the right time to say that out loud, in writing, with your numbers in front of you.
Conversation 3: What will we actually commit to?
Ideas are easy in December. Commitments are harder.
It’s easy to say “next year will be different” without doing anything differently. That’s how January fills up with the same problems as last year.
This conversation is about turning reflection into a small set of promises you are genuinely willing to keep.
Ask:
What one or two financial habits will we put in place?
What is one decision we will make in the first quarter instead of postponing again?
Examples of commitments that actually move the needle:
A monthly finance meeting reviewing profit, cash, and runway for 45 minutes
A clear decision on pricing adjustments in the first half of the year
A plan for when and how you will hire, rather than a reactive rush
A rule for owner pay so you aren’t constantly guessing what you can take
The point isn’t to plan the entire year. It’s to choose a few moves that align with what you learned from the year you just lived.
Write these down. Put them in your calendar. Assign responsibility.
If no one owns an item, it won’t happen.
December Is Not a Test. It’s a Checkpoint.
There is a lot of pressure at year-end.
Hit the number.
Close strong.
Make the tax move.
Finalise the plan.
But December isn’t a final exam. It’s a checkpoint in a business you hope will last years.
Used well, it helps you:
Tell the truth about how the year really felt
Decide whether you want next year to look the same
Choose a few clear commitments so next December doesn’t feel identical
You don’t need to do this alone, and it doesn’t need to become a massive project.
You Don’t Have to Make This Decision Alone
Year-end planning combines clarity, numbers, and honest conversations. Feeling uncertain is normal.
At TwentySix Consulting, we help owners:
Review the year through the lenses of revenue, profit, cash, and owner pay
Identify the financial priorities that matter most for next year
Build simple, recurring finance rhythms that create fewer surprises and better decisions
If you want your December reflection to turn into a practical, grounded plan — rather than another set of notes you never look at again — we can walk through the numbers together.