Budgeting Is a Team Sport: How to Build Financial Accountability

Most agency owners approach budgeting with good intentions but little enthusiasm.

I’m sure you know the scenario. November rolls around, you block out a weekend, open Excel, and torture yourself creating next year's financial projections. You plug in revenue targets (ambitious, naturally), estimate some costs (probably too low), and produce a beautiful document that gets filed away and never looked at again.

By February, it's already outdated. By June, it's totally irrelevant.

But here's what we've learned working with fast-growing agencies: the budget itself is not always the point. The budgeting process is the point. And that process only works when it stops being a solo sport and becomes a team game.

Why Your Solo Budgeting Approach Is Failing

Founders often take budgeting on themselves because it feels quicker, easier, or simply “the way it’s always been done.”

But when the team isn’t part of shaping the plan, some predictable challenges show up:

·         Your team doesn't understand the goals because they weren't involved in creating them.

When you announce, "We need to grow 40% this year," it lands as pressure rather than a shared objective.

·         Your projections are disconnected from reality because the people who actually manage clients and deliver work didn’t take part in the process.

·         Nobody feels ownership over the financial outcomes because the budget was handed down from above.

·         Financial understanding across the agency is limited because the team is never exposed to how the business actually works. They don't understand why decisions get made, what drives profitability, or how their work connects to business outcomes.

The Shift: From Document to Process

Here’s the mindset shift we’ve seen work repeatedly across agencies: budgeting is less about the final spreadsheet and more about building a planning discipline and shared ownership.

When you bring in your team into this process, several things happen:

·         The plan becomes more accurate because it's informed by the people closest to the work. Your account managers know which clients have growth potential.

·         Engagement increases because people own what they help create. When your senior team participates in setting revenue targets, they're not just giving input - they're committing to outcomes.

·         As team members learn to think about client profitability and project margins, they make better decisions independently.

·         Team culture strengthens because you've replaced financial mystery with financial clarity.

What This Actually Looks Like

We’ve supported agencies where the founder carried financial planning alone for years. When we introduced a collaborative approach, the change wasn’t just in the numbers - the team became more confident, more proactive and more commercially aware.

Of course, collaboration doesn’t replace leadership. As the owner, you still set the direction - the vision, the ambition and what ‘good’ looks like for the year ahead. Your role is to bring the team into the process once those guiding intentions are clear. When people understand where you want to take the company, they can help shape a plan that supports it.

Here’s how we see it work:

1)      Start with financial basics. Before you can collaborate, your team needs to understand the difference between revenue vs profit, what drives profitability in agencies and how project pricing works. The key is that they understand these concepts in plain language and that questions are encouraged.

2)      Invite the team into planning. Bring account managers into client growth projections. They know which clients are budget-constrained, which have expanding needs, which relationships are at risk. When they help set growth targets for their accounts, they own them. It's no longer "the number you gave me" - it's "the number we agreed I can achieve." Similarly, involve sales and marketing in new business projections. Work with delivery leads on capacity planning. When your team understands the cost structure, they make smarter decisions about when to outsource, when to build in-house and how to manage project budgets.

3)      Create project-level accountability. Every team member involved in delivery should understand how projects are scoped and priced and the implications when projects go over budget. When an account manager books a freelancer, they should understand the impact on profitability. It’s not about pressure or creating anxiety; it’s about helping everyone see the full picture.

Building the Right Culture

Many agencies involve the team in budgeting but still struggle because the culture around financial conversations remains guarded.

What doesn't work: blame culture, secrecy, top-down mandates after asking for input, and inconsistent accountability.

What does work:

·         Psychological safety. People should feel comfortable raising concerns early, whether it’s a client at risk or a project margin that’s drifting.

·         Transparent communication. Share financial performance openly (appropriately filtered for different levels). Celebrate wins. Have honest conversations when you're off track. Involve teams in problem-solving.

·         Learning mindset. When a project goes off track, the conversation isn't "who messed up?" but "what can we learn to prevent this in the future?"

Keeping It Alive

A good budget is your starting point, but your forecast is your living tool.

The agencies that get this right bring their leadership team together regularly (monthly or quarterly) to look at what’s changed, update assumptions and make decisions as a team.

Scenario planning is especially powerful, so work with your team to build scenarios: What happens if we lose a major client? What if this new opportunity lands? When your team participates in scenario planning, they're better prepared to respond when circumstances change.

The Signs It's Working

You'll know your approach is successful when you see these shifts:

·         Team members surface financial issues early rather than hiding them.

·         People make trade-offs that balance client needs with financial reality without needing constant approval.

·         Talking about project profitability becomes routine rather than awkward.

·         People talk about "our revenue targets" rather than "the numbers."

·         Senior team members start thinking beyond their function and more like owners.

The Real ROI

Yes, collaborative budgeting takes more involvement up front. You spend time teaching, explaining and discussing. But it pays back quickly through, better accuracy, faster decisions, team accountability, higher engagement and a calmer, more aligned culture.

Most importantly: you build a team that understands how the business works and feels equipped to help steer it.

The budget document will still become outdated. The market will still be unpredictable. But you'll have something better than a perfect forecast: you'll have a team that knows how to think financially, make smart trade-offs, and navigate uncertainty together.

That’s what makes budgeting a team sport. And it’s one of the strongest indicators of an agency that’s built for long-term growth. If you would like some help in creating a more financially aware team, please get in touch to see how we can help.