Build a realistic co-op technology budget

A technology budget should explain what it costs to keep the co-op working for a full year. Licence charges are only part of that cost. Setup, migration, training, support, backups and the time members spend maintaining services can change which option is affordable.

Build the budget around services and responsibilities. Include email, documents, website, membership administration, finance tools, devices and any specialist operational systems. Use current supplier quotes for real decisions and keep a note of what each figure includes.

Build a service-by-service worksheet

For each service, record its purpose, owner, supplier, billing frequency, quantity, unit cost, annual cost, renewal date and notice period. Add separate columns for one-off work and internal time. Identify whether tax is included and use a consistent basis appropriate to your co-op's accounting position.

• Recurring charges: subscriptions, hosting, domains, storage and support agreements.
• One-off work: setup, migration, configuration, cleanup and training.
• Operational time: administration, user help, content maintenance and supplier management.
• Continuity: backups, restore tests, documentation and contingency arrangements.
• Lifecycle: device replacement, service retirement, export and future migration.

Annualise monthly charges by multiplying by twelve, and make changing quantities explicit. If you expect more active users halfway through the year, calculate the periods separately. Check minimum commitments and whether reducing users changes the current bill or only the next renewal.

Work through an illustrative example

The following figures are deliberately invented for planning practice. They are not supplier prices, OpsHelp quotes or predictions for your co-op.

• Eight collaboration accounts at an illustrative £10 each per month: £960 per year.
• Website hosting and related service charges: £360 per year.
• Backup service: £180 per year.
• Routine technical support allocation: £1,200 per year.
• One-off setup and migration: £900 in year one.
• Internal administration: three hours per month, valued for planning at £20 per hour, or £720 per year.

The recurring external total is £2,700. Year-one external cash cost becomes £3,600 after setup. Adding the illustrative internal-time value gives £4,320 of planned resource use. If you choose an illustrative £360 cash contingency, year-one cash provision is £3,960 and the combined resource figure is £4,680.

Keep cash and internal-time values visible separately. Volunteer time is not automatically an invoice, but treating it as costless can hide an unsustainable workload. Do not add the same work twice if a support agreement already covers it.

Check what the price actually covers

The NCSC shared-responsibility guidance is useful when checking what remains your responsibility in a hosted service. Ask who handles user changes, permissions, updates, recovery and incident assistance. Convert exclusions into either an internal time allocation or a separate supplier cost.

For maintained applications, allow time for testing and recovery as well as installing updates. The WordPress update documentation recommends a backup beforehand; that work needs an owner even if the update itself is automatic.

Check charity or nonprofit eligibility directly with the supplier. Co-operative status does not automatically establish eligibility for a discount. Record a confirmed offer's conditions and renewal basis rather than building a long-term budget around an assumed concession.

Use the budget to make decisions

1. Prepare a baseline for the services you run now.
2. Prepare a proposed option using the same categories and time horizon.
3. Identify which costs change with user count, usage or storage.
4. Check the effect of losing a key volunteer or needing paid migration help.
5. Agree who may approve spending and how renewals are reviewed.
6. Compare actual spend and time with the plan after a representative period.

Use the platform comparison for user requirements and the hosting guide for operating responsibilities. An inexpensive service that creates recurring confusion can be poor value, while a more expensive option still needs evidence that its benefits matter.

Build your own annual worksheet with the technology budget tool.