Thinc insights
Are you juggling 2026 planning, while aiming to finish the year strong? Here's how a ‘planning technology toolkit’ can help, and how to make one.
As the summer winds down and businesses gear up for the final quarter of the year, many are looking at two things: how to finish 2025 strong, and how to plan effectively for 2026. What’s more, with the UK Autumn Budget on the horizon and technology trends moving fast, now is the right time to plan.
At Thinc, we know that planning takes many forms – from financial forecasting and IT investment to stock management and reporting. The good news is that if you’re already using solutions like Sage 200 or SAP Business One, you already have powerful tools to support you. Consider Thinc’s wider partnerships, and you’ve got access to a complete software eco-system. From that eco-system, we’re encouraging our customers to put together a technology toolkit to help you plan for what’s ahead.
With the summer holiday period over, it’s now up to businesses and their teams to focus on making the right moves to finish the year well. But the most proactive of businesses are managing this while also looking at next year. They’re asking themselves – where should investment be directed?
So, what’s in your current solution that can help you plan? And what else should you add to your toolkit to make sure you’re ready for 2026? Here’s some of the things that we’re advising our customers to consider:
Your ERP system, whether that be a solution such as Sage 200 or SAP Business One, will already provide you with strong core reporting and forecasting capabilities. Couple this with reporting solutions from Roveel and you can really make those financial insights clear and actionable across the business. We’d then recommend looking into leveraging BPA Platform for systems integration from Codeless Platforms to integrate all your financial and commercial processes.
Together, these solutions will give you a financial planning toolkit that’s accurate and built around real-time data. Collectively, they’ll give you access to tools that help you to plan for the allocation of resources, create budgets based on accurate data and identify opportunities for finishing the year strong and starting 2026 with a bang.
Once again, Sage 200 and SAP Business One both provide really strong stock management functionality, ensuring you can plan around supply, demand and the varying seasonality that comes with the wider supply chain. With modules from Sicon for Sage 200, and modules from Boyum IT for SAP Business One, you can go one further with your planning toolkit, managing manufacturing, warehousing and distribution more effectively.
With this toolkit, your stock control will be more efficient and your cost control more effective. You’ll be able to reduce waste and avoid overstocking, allowing you to plan inventory to meet customer demand next year.
Within Sage 200 and SAP Business One, you’ll be able to flexibly forecast growth and how these external pressures may affect the business in areas such as cashflow, profit margins and investment plans. With bespoke dashboarding from Roveel and systems integration with Codeless Platforms, those shifts become much easier to understand across the business. Finance teams can model ‘what if’ scenarios, helping leadership to decide whether to hold back investment, increase efficiencies or pursue funding support.
With this toolkit, SMEs can stay agile. Instead of waiting weeks to react to fiscal changes, your business can adjust budgets and keep in control of funding and long-term planning.
As AI and automation continue to dominate technology trends, now is the time to assess your IT roadmap. We’ve been advising our customers to work with IT to ask – is the business cloud ready? Is the current setup flexible enough to adapt to new technologies? When was the last time you checked the security of your devices and systems?
Cyber risk is a huge one to plan for. SMEs in particular can be vulnerable if gaps go unnoticed. That’s why we’ve been offering a free cyber health check – a practical way to spot flaws in your current setup and strengthen your defences. Another consideration is acquiring Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. Not only is it becoming a requirement for certain industries, such as dealing with the government or public sector, but it also provides your business with the confidence that you’re protecting against the common cyber threats.
As part of your plans for IT infrastructure, consider which areas of IT you can outsource. Outsourcing key IT services through Thinc’s managed services can ease the pressure on in-house teams, giving them more time to focus on strategy rather than firefighting. From monitoring and maintenance to security and user support, our managed services provide a reliable backbone for your operations. As you plan and scale into 2026, this approach ensures your IT infrastructure remains resilient, cost-effective and ready to grow with your business.
We can help you identify the steps needed to gain these accreditations, so your IT investments aren’t just smart for today, but resilient and compliant for tomorrow. With this complete IT toolkit, you’ll have something to work with when starting to plan your IT infrastructure’s next steps.
When it comes to using the different technology toolkits that we’ve covered, your best way to plan is to follow these three steps:
The businesses that thrive are the ones that plan efficiently. With the right technology toolkit, powered by a central ERP system such as Sage 200 or SAP Business One and Thinc’s wider ecosystem of module addons and solutions, you can take control of planning for financials, stock, funding and IT infrastructure.
Start by asking yourself – what’s in your toolkit, and what’s missing? Is it ready to carry you into 2026 and beyond? If you need to fill in the gaps, get in touch – we’re here to help.
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