2026 FINANCE REVIEW · SESSION 2 OF 2 · LIVE WEBINAR
Year-End Budgeting (build a 2027 budget that holds up)
For nonprofit, SaaS, and agency leaders whose 2026 budget stopped matching reality somewhere around March. A live Q&A on why budgets drift, where AI can actually help, and what to get right before you build 2027. Dec 8 • 9:00 AM PT • 30 minutes
Missed Session 1, AI in Your Books? Register once, and you'll get a link to the library with on-demand recordings of both sessions. Want to join live and ask your questions? Register for each session separately.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
01 · THE PLAN
Every budget starts as a plan. Few survive the year.
“...we did a budget... and tried to line up when income and expenses were gonna hit.”
— Leader, conservation nonprofit
“We're figuring out exactly how we can use [AI] to monitor our budget and be as profitable as humanly possible.”
— CEO, creative agency
At the start of 2026, AI forecasting tools promised a budget that would practically keep itself. Then the budget met the books. Grants, retainers, and revenue landed in the wrong lines, team leads kept their own spreadsheets, and nobody could say what was in each line.
It's not that nobody planned. Most teams did.
02 · THE DIAGNOSIS
The budget wasn't wrong. It just wasn't built to be checked.
“The way that the budget is built, and the way that it's presented in the financial statements is different, and the way that it's presented to the board is different.”
— Finance leader, nonprofit
The usual reasons: it was built from last year's budget instead of what actually happened, nobody checked it during the year, and the budget and the books used different categories. That last one matters more now. AI can't explain the gap between two numbers that were never measuring the same thing. As we covered in Session 1, AI is only as good as what's underneath it.
And a budget nobody trusts costs more than you'd think.
03 · THE COST
A budget nobody trusts puts every decision on hold.
“We are actively soliciting investments from investors and need an accurate P&L/Budget vs Actuals for these conversations. Meetings are on hold until I can get this updated.”
— Operator, investor-backed sports organization
When the numbers don't line up, boards and investors ask questions nobody can answer, and team leads push back on reports that don't make sense. Hiring, programs, and fundraising wait while someone rebuilds the spreadsheet.
So what makes a 2027 budget hold up?
04 · THE CONVERSATION
Your questions. Straight answers. not a sales pitch.
Thirty minutes of live Q&A with an accounting & financial operations expert. Submit your questions when you register, or ask live. We'll cover why 2026 budgets drifted, where AI can actually help with your 2027 budget, and what to get right before you open the spreadsheet.
Amanda Brower
Head of Accounting Services Hiline
Katie Burns
Chief of Staff Hiline
You'll leave knowing:
- Why so many 2026 budgets stopped matching the books
- Where a 2027 budget should start, from restricted funds to runway to pass-through costs
- How AI can help with your budget, and what to fix first so it can
- Whether AI tools belong in your 2027 budget, and who should own it once it's built
Then in January, our 2027 series picks up with how to check your budget against actuals every month, and how AI can help.
05 · REGISTER
Close out 2026. Start 2027 ready.
Can't make it live? Your registration includes on-demand recordings of both sessions.