How to audit your software subscriptions in 30 minutes

A software subscription audit is four questions asked about every tool you pay for: what does it cost a year, when does it renew, how many seats are we paying for, and does another tool already do this? Answer them, give each tool a decision and an owner, and you're done.

With your statements in front of you, the first pass takes about 30 minutes for a small team. You won't finish every cancellation in that time, but you'll know exactly what to cut, what to keep and what renews next.

Below is the order to work in, a decision table you can apply to every line, and a checklist for knowing when you're finished.

What do I need before I start the audit?

Gather everything that could carry a software charge. Most missed subscriptions hide on the card nobody thought to check.

• Card and bank statements for the last 3 to 12 months. Three months shows your monthly tools. Twelve months is the only way to catch annual renewals, which charge once and then disappear for a year.
• Every card the business uses. The company card, the founder's personal card that "temporarily" paid for Figma, the old card that still has two tools attached, and PayPal if you use it.
• App store receipts. Apple and Google bill subscriptions bought inside apps under their own name, so open the subscriptions page in each account.
• Your inbox. Search for "receipt", "invoice", "renewal" and "your plan". It turns up tools billed to a card you forgot about.
• A list of who is on the team today, contractors included. You'll need it to check seats.

How do I run a software subscription audit?

Work through it in this order. The times assume a small team with statements already downloaded.

That's 30 minutes. The cancellations themselves take longer, but they're now a short to-do list instead of a vague worry.

How do I find annual renewals?

Annual charges are easy to miss because they show up once. A $600 yearly plan never appears in last month's statement, and nobody remembers it until it hits.

Look through 12 months of statements for any software charge that doesn't repeat monthly. Then search your inbox for "annual", "yearly" and "renews on". For each one, note the renewal date and divide the price by 12, so you can compare it with your monthly tools on equal terms. A $180 yearly plan is $15 a month, and seeing it that way makes the decision clearer.

How do I check seats against people?

Open the admin or billing page of every tool billed per seat and compare the paid seats with your team list. You're looking for:

• People who left. A designer who finished in March and still holds a $15 a month seat costs $180 a year.
• Contractors on full seats who could be guests or viewers instead, if the tool offers that.
• Spare seats bought "for when we hire." Remove them; you can add a seat the day someone starts.

Seat creep is the most common leak in small teams, because adding a seat takes one click and removing one needs someone to remember.

How do I spot duplicate tools?

Group every tool by the job it does. Duplicates usually come from different people solving the same problem at different times. Common pairs:

• Two video tools, such as a paid Zoom plan alongside the meetings that come with Google Workspace.
• Two password managers, one the founder set up and one a new hire brought along.
• Two file stores, like Dropbox and Google Drive.
• Several AI assistant subscriptions, paid by different people for the same kind of work.

For each pair, keep the one more people use, and check what moving costs: shared links, stored files, integrations. Then pick a date to switch and cancel the other one after it.

Should I keep, downgrade, cancel or move to yearly?

Every tool gets exactly one decision. This table covers most cases:

On yearly billing: many tools charge less if you pay for the year. A tool at $12 a month is $144 a year; if its yearly plan is $120, you save $24. Only move a tool to yearly if you'd bet on using it for the next 12 months, because many vendors won't refund the unused months if you stop.

When a tool is a close call, ask whether you'd sign up for it today at today's price. If the honest answer is no, it's a downgrade or a cancel.

Who should own each subscription?

The owner is the person who decides at renewal, not necessarily the person who pays. For a design tool that's your lead designer; for the accounting app, whoever works with your accountant. One name per tool. "The team" isn't an owner.

Owners do two jobs: answer "do we still need this?" before it renews, and remove seats when people leave. For a fuller approach, SaaS ownership for small teams covers how to hand out tools and keep the list current. If you run an agency or a growing team, see how Subly works for teams.

How do I keep renewals from surprising me?

Put every annual renewal on a shared calendar two to three weeks before it charges, with the owner invited. That leaves time to compare options, downgrade or cancel before the money goes. Some contracts require notice before they renew; for those, set the reminder before the notice deadline, not the renewal date.

Then carry the yearly totals into your plans for next year. Knowing that $2,400 of renewals land in January changes how you plan the quarter. The guide to budgeting for 2027 shows how to fit them in, and the cash flow guide explains why the timing of a charge matters as much as its size.

How often should I repeat the audit?

Once a quarter. After the first pass it's a 15-minute check of the last three months: anything new, any price rises, any seats for people who left. Run a quick seat check whenever someone leaves the team, too, since that's when unused seats appear.

Your audit is done when you can tick every line: