With rate cuts looking unlikely for 2026, many businesses will be hunting for ways to save a few bucks. Rather than a grand transformation, what about some simple housekeeping first?

Before you reorganise, re-platform, or rebrand, try the business equivalent of shaking out your pockets, checking down the back of the sofa, and cleaning out the cupboards.

Here are five tips for 2026

1. The fastest savings come from the things you forgot you were buying

Software renewals and rolling service contracts are classic culprits. Because businesses don’t plan to challenge these, they creep up on you, leaving no option but to renew.

Suppliers typically build in automatic price increases – often 3-5% annually – that go unchallenged year after year. If your contract has auto-renewed for several years, someone’s winning. And it’s not you.

2. You’re buying things you don’t use, or don’t need

Ever heard about the retailer running cleaning cycles after close and before opening? Both times. Every night. For years. It’s true, and we’ve all done the equivalent.

Think software licences purchased for 500 people but used by 50. Gym memberships for staff that went to the gym twice. Premium service tiers when basic would do fine. Start by auditing usage data on your software subscriptions, reviewing service specifications against actual need, and asking “would we buy this again today?”

Realigning specification and rooting out non-usage are two of the fastest ways to bank savings. Turn it off, save the cash.

3. You probably have multiple suppliers doing similar things for different prices

If you don’t, you’re in the minority. Dual sourcing for resilience? Smart. Paying ten different prices across five different suppliers without knowing it? Not smart, but incredibly common, especially if you’ve got multiple business units or you’ve been through a merger.

Consolidate your spend, leverage your scale, and those savings add up fast.

4. Indirect spend is the low-hanging fruit

Here’s the thing: most organisations focus 80 per cent of their energy on direct spend (the stuff that goes into your product) and ignore the other 20 per cent – the indirect stuff like office supplies, IT services, facilities management, professional services, travel, utilities. Yet this is often where the easiest 5-15 per cent savings sit, with zero operational pain.

Why? Because while these categories are your suppliers’ core business, they haven’t been yours.

You set up a cleaning contract five years ago and haven’t looked at it since. Meanwhile, the market’s moved, new players have emerged, and prices have shifted. Address this quickly and bank real bottom-line improvement. Often within weeks, not months.

5. Get your processes and data sorted so you’re not in the same position in the new year

Tech upgrades, service renegotiations, and breaking lazy habits will save you money now. But the smart move? Put processes and data in place so you’re always ahead of the game.

Create a more commercial culture where everyone feels responsible for what they spend. Start at the top by having an executive chair a weekly spend forum reviewing all expenditure over $X, with similar forums for spend under $X. For every item, ask four simple questions:

Do we need it?

• What happens if we don’t spend it?
• How do we know the price is right?
• How do we know this is the right supplier?

Over time, this challenge forum evolves, and responsibility disperses, but the core principle of accountability for responsible spending remains.

Get granular about what you spend (what, when, with whom, how much), capture your contracts in one place, and track renewals proactively. For more mature organisations, data gets broader and deeper, but that’s next on the to-do list.

This post first appeared on Flying Solo. You can read the original here.

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