How to Audit Your Software Stack (and Cut What You Don't Need)

Why Audit Your Software?

Small businesses accumulate subscriptions: a free trial that rolled into a paid plan, a tool bought for one project, two apps doing the same job. A once-a-year audit routinely finds savings and reduces security and GDPR risk from forgotten accounts holding customer data.

Step 1: List Everything You Pay For

Go through your business bank and card statements for the last 12 months and list every recurring software payment. Add anything paid personally, and check your accounting software's bills and expenses. Record cost, billing frequency, renewal date and the owner of each account.

Step 2: Mark Each Tool Keep, Merge or Cut

• Keep: used weekly, clearly worth the cost.
• Merge: overlaps with another tool, such as two scheduling apps or a CRM and a mailing tool doing the same thing.
• Cut: not used in the last 60 days.

Step 3: Check Seats and Plans

Look for paid users who have left, and plans higher than you need. Many vendors will downgrade you on request, and some will offer a discount rather than lose you.

Step 4: Review Data and Access

For each tool that holds customer or staff data, check who has access, remove former staff, switch on two-factor authentication and confirm you could export your data. Cutting a tool? Export first and delete the account properly, so personal data is not left behind.

Step 5: Set Renewal Reminders

Put every annual renewal date in your calendar 30 days ahead, giving you time to renegotiate or cancel inside the notice period.

What Savings to Expect

The biggest wins usually come from unused seats, duplicate tools and plans bought for features never used. Even cutting two or three subscriptions can pay for a better tool elsewhere in your stack. See our guide to calculating software ROI to judge what is worth keeping.