Most small offices find out their server is out of support the same way: something breaks in December, the vendor says there are no more patches, and the replacement quote lands right when the budget for the year is already spent. A year-end IT review exists to stop that from happening. It takes an afternoon, and it turns next year's IT spending from a surprise into a line item.
If you run a small office in the Viera business district, a practice in downtown Melbourne, or a shop in the Palm Bay industrial corridor, October is the right month to do this. It gives you time to get quotes, order hardware, and schedule work before the holidays eat your calendar.
What should a small business review in its IT budget each year?
Start with four things: what you own, what you pay for every month, what's about to lose support, and what failed or slowed people down this year. Everything else follows from those.
- Hardware age. List every computer, server, firewall, switch, access point, and battery backup, with the purchase date. Desktops and laptops usually earn their keep for four to five years. Network gear often lasts five to seven.
- Warranties and support contracts. A server with an expired hardware warranty is a gamble every time a drive fails.
- Software licenses. Count Microsoft 365 seats against actual employees. Most offices are paying for at least one person who left.
- Operating system support dates. Anything no longer getting security updates is a liability, and it can cause problems with cyber insurance.
- Recurring pain. Ask staff what wasted their time this year. Slow Wi-Fi in one room, a printer that drops off the network, a VPN that disconnects. These are cheap to fix once somebody writes them down.
Why December is the wrong time to find out a server is out of support
Support deadlines don't move, and a few of them are close. Windows Server 2016 reaches the end of extended support in January 2027. After that, Microsoft stops releasing security patches for it. A lot of small offices on the Space Coast still run a 2016 server in a closet doing file sharing, a line-of-business database, or both.
The same goes for workstations. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, and the paid Extended Security Updates program for businesses renews year by year at a rising price. If you still have Windows 10 machines, the question for next year is whether you pay again to keep them patched or replace them. Replacing is usually the better deal once a machine is four or more years old.
Discovering this in December means rushed decisions. You buy whatever is in stock, pay for expedited shipping, and schedule the migration during the one week everyone takes off. Finding it in October means you can plan the move, test it, and do the cutover on a Friday afternoon when nobody's working late.
Looking for reliable IT support in Brevard County? The Electpros serve Melbourne, Palm Bay, Viera, Titusville, and the entire Space Coast with same-day availability. Call (321) 655-PROS or book a free consultation at theelectpros.com.
License true-ups and the monthly bills nobody reads
Subscriptions creep. Over a year, most offices add a few seats, a backup add-on, a second phone system feature, and a trial that turned into a paid plan. None of it is expensive alone, and all of it together can be a few hundred dollars a month.
A true-up is just matching what you pay for to what you use. For a ten-person office, that means checking:
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace seats, and whether each person is on the right plan. Business Premium and Business Standard cost different amounts for good reasons, but not everyone needs Premium.
- Backup storage. Confirm what's being backed up, where it goes, and that a test restore actually worked this year. Our disaster recovery guide for Brevard County businesses covers what a real restore test looks like.
- Security tools. Antivirus, email filtering, and multi-factor authentication should cover every account, including the shared front desk login.
- Phone and internet contracts. Note renewal dates. Carriers rarely lower your rate unless you ask.
If you work with defense or aerospace customers, like the machine shops and engineering firms that supply L3Harris, add a line for compliance. Contract requirements tend to tighten each year, and the tools needed to meet them should be in the budget, not bolted on after an audit request shows up.
How to budget for IT next year
Split the budget into two pieces: what you spend every month to keep things running, and what you spend once to replace things.
The monthly piece covers licenses, backup, security, and support. For a small office using managed IT services, that support is typically $125 to $200 per user per month, and it usually includes monitoring, patching, and help desk. We broke down what drives that number in our post on what managed IT services cost in Brevard County.
The replacement piece comes straight from your hardware list. A simple rule: set aside enough each year to replace about a quarter of your computers, plus a reserve for the server, firewall, and battery backups based on their age. UPS batteries in particular get forgotten. They usually need replacing every three to five years, and here they matter during hurricane season more than any other time.
Security should get its own line. Phishing and ransomware aren't slowing down, and insurers keep adding requirements. Budgeting for cybersecurity for your business up front costs less than paying for cleanup after an incident.
A simple year-end IT checklist
- Export a list of every device with its age and warranty status.
- Flag anything running Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or older.
- Compare license counts to your current staff list.
- Run and document one test restore from backup.
- Check UPS battery dates and firewall firmware.
- List next year's contract renewals with dates.
- Ask staff for their top three IT annoyances.
You can do this yourself with a spreadsheet, or have someone do it for you. We run this review for offices from The Avenue Viera to Titusville and hand back a plain-language list: what to replace, what to cancel, and what it'll cost next year.
Call The Electpros at (321) 655-PROS or book a free consultation. A few hours in October beats an emergency server replacement in December.