Jun 23, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
Budget planning shapes what actually gets done. Melissa Haire, senior vice president of Customer Success at Q2, talks through how financial institutions can move from a project-by-project mindset to a…
Melissa HaireGuest
Sheryl BrownHost
In your role with Customer Success, you do spend a lot of time, you know, you spend a lot of time working directly with our financial institution customers.
They're the leaders making the kinds of budget decisions that we're going to talk about today.
How have those conversations shaped the priorities that we've included in the budget guide this year?
You know, and I joke about budget guides, but they're critically important to a financial institution's success.
They sort of give line of sight into what the next year might look like as far as decisions and strategy and what their priorities are.
You know, when I think about the conversations that we have with customers today, you know, everyone's trying to do more, more, more with same, same, same, right? They're not getting more resources.
They know that their solutions are being compared to other app providers, other digital banking providers, other financial institutions.
And so they're under tremendous amounts of pressure to make sure that they deliver great solutions for their customers.
So, you know, budgeting conversations, as I mentioned, are really the line of sight to what's most important for our financial institution today.
And, you know, in your blog, you open with this assertion that even though budget planning can look routine on paper, in practice, it really isn't.
And so what do you mean by that? Why does it matter for financial institution leaders to really dig into the strategy behind budget planning? Yeah.
So, you know, when you think about budget, you think about like traditional Excel spreadsheet.
And I don't know anyone other than Jake Rand, who is in our finance department, that loves themselves a good Excel spreadsheet.
In your role with Customer Success, you do spend a lot of time, you know, you spend a lot of time working directly with our financial institution customers.
They're the leaders making the kinds of budget decisions that we're going to talk about today.
How have those conversations shaped the priorities that we've included in the budget guide this year?
You know, and I joke about budget guides, but they're critically important to a financial institution's success.
They sort of give line of sight into what the next year might look like as far as decisions and strategy and what their priorities are.
You know, when I think about the conversations that we have with customers today, you know, everyone's trying to do more, more, more with same, same, same, right? They're not getting more resources.
They know that their solutions are being compared to other app providers, other digital banking providers, other financial institutions.
And so they're under tremendous amounts of pressure to make sure that they deliver great solutions for their customers.
So, you know, budgeting conversations, as I mentioned, are really the line of sight to what's most important for our financial institution today.
And, you know, in your blog, you open with this assertion that even though budget planning can look routine on paper, in practice, it really isn't.
And so what do you mean by that? Why does it matter for financial institution leaders to really dig into the strategy behind budget planning? Yeah.
So, you know, when you think about budget, you think about like traditional Excel spreadsheet.
And I don't know anyone other than Jake Rand, who is in our finance department, that loves themselves a good Excel spreadsheet.
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