See what your software really costs. We find it in your books.

How it works#

1. 1

   Bring the vendor totals

   Export the last twelve months from QuickBooks Online or Xero.

2. 2

   See the ranking

   Each software line, ranked by yearly cost and how replaceable it is.

3. 3

   Pick what to switch

   The old tool keeps running until the new one has done a real month of work.

4. 4

   We help you switch

   A cheaper plan, open-source software or a small custom tool, built with you.

How we rate them#

• Easy

  The data leaves in standard formats, a close substitute exists, and nothing else depends on it. Doable in an afternoon.

• Moderate

  A real project: shared links, integrations or security around it. Weeks, with a parallel run.

• Hard

  It holds a process the company runs on, or sits beside the ledger. Start by narrowing what it is used for.

Free calculators#

Annual or monthly, how many seats, rent or build: the arithmetic behind each decision, with your own figures. They run in your browser and send nothing anywhere.

• CalculatorAnnual vs monthly billingWhat paying a year up front really costs: the premium for monthly, the break-even month and the interest rate the discount works out to.
• CalculatorPrepaid software releaseJournal entries for an annual software subscription: the payment, then the monthly release, with the last month absorbing the rounding.
• CalculatorUnused seat costPaid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
• CalculatorRenewal uplift & notice dateWhat a renewal price increase costs over the contract, what capping it saves, and the last day to give notice.
• CalculatorCancel mid-term costCancel an annual plan early: what is left unused, what you get back, and what cancelling really stops.
• CalculatorSelf-hosting vs SaaS costThe honest yearly cost of running open-source software yourself, set against the bill it replaces, with the seat count where it stops paying.
• CalculatorBuild vs buy break-evenBuild a small tool or keep paying for one: the cost of each over your horizon and the month the build breaks even.
• CalculatorSoftware spend per employeeTotal software spend turned into a yearly figure, a cost per person and a share of revenue, with what a trim is worth.

How-to guides#

Find the software in your books, connect what you choose to, move off the big ones without breaking links, and cancel on the contract's terms.

• GuideFind it in QuickBooks OnlineRun the vendor-totals report in QuickBooks Online, export it, and see every software line ranked by cost, in minutes and without connecting anything.
• GuideFind it in XeroUse Xero's expenses-by-contact reporting to total spend by supplier, export it, and rank your software lines. No connection; nothing leaves your browser.
• GuideCancelling without penaltiesHow to end a software subscription cleanly: find the term and notice window, cancel in writing, export your data, and avoid paying for an unused year.
• GuideConsolidating into one suiteFind overlapping jobs across your tools and check what the suite you already pay for includes, using only the published plan pages, before buying more.
• GuideDropbox migration, in depthA start-to-finish plan for leaving Dropbox: inventory, destination, pilot, copy and verify, shared links, cutover, cancellation and how the books treat it.
• GuideOpen-source licenses for foundersMIT, Apache, MPL, GPL and AGPL in plain English for founders who run open-source software instead of paying a license, and what each asks you to do.
• GuideVendor register and renewal calendarThe fields a vendor register needs, how to seed it from your QuickBooks or Xero vendor list, and a monthly review that catches renewals early.
• GuideSoftware approval policyA one-page software approval policy a ten-person company can adopt: who may buy, card and trial rules, an owner per tool, and a checklist.

All 24 guides, by step

How we get paid#

The audit is free. If you ask us to replace a tool, we are paid a share of the saving we can show in your own bills, and nothing if there isn't one. The terms are in writing before any work starts. How a saving is counted

Ground rules#

What we will and will not do, so nothing on these pages can be read as more than it is.

• Names, not logos

  Product names appear as plain text. We are not affiliated with any company named, and use no vendor logos or screenshots.

• Sourced or left out

  A price, plan or license is stated only if we read it from the vendor's or project's own page, with the page and date beside it.

• Your data, your accounts

  We work with data you export or access you approve. We do not scrape, get around paywalls, or touch an account that is not yours.

• Written from scratch

  A custom replacement is written from scratch for the narrow job you use. We do not copy a vendor's code, screens or text.

• Licenses read, not assumed

  Open-source tools are shown with the license the project reports, and what it asks of you.

• Contracts first

  We plan exits around your contract's term and notice window. We never help break an agreement.

• Personal data

  Moving customer or employee data means checking where it may live and the new provider's terms. We flag it wherever it applies.

• No promised numbers

  Savings are measured against your own bills, net of what the replacement costs to run. We promise no figure and publish no average.

General information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.

Terms#

The words this section uses, in plain English. The accounting side of each lives in the glossary.

License

A paid right to use software, usually per person or per unit, for a term. A subscription is a license that renews. Cutting spend starts with knowing which of the two each charge is.

Seat

One person's paid access to a product. Seats are bought when someone joins and rarely given back when they leave, which is where most per-seat waste comes from.

Shelfware

Software the company pays for and nobody, or almost nobody, uses. The cheapest saving is ending it at renewal.

Software sprawl

Many overlapping tools bought team by team over the years. Each is cheap; together they are a line item, and two of them often do the same job.

Consolidation

Doing the work of two or three tools in one that the company already pays for, or in a single replacement, so fewer vendors are paid.

Notice window

The date after which a contract renews on its own, and the notice you must give before it. Missing it is the most common way a saving is lost. Prepaid expense

Self-hosting

Running open-source software on servers you control or have someone run for you. There is no license fee, and you take on hosting, backups and updates.

Copyleft

A license that lets you use and change software on condition that changes you share stay under the same terms. The AGPL extends that to software offered over a network.

Run cost

What it costs each year to keep the replacement running: hosting, backups, any paid component and the time to patch it. A saving is the old cost minus this. Expense

Verified saving

The old annual cost from your own bills, minus the replacement's annual run cost, counted only after the old charge has stopped.

System of record

The system whose record is the one that counts when two disagree. Replace a tool only after you know whether it is a system of record for anything the books depend on. General ledger

Clean-room build

A replacement written from scratch to do the same job, without copying the original's code, screens, text or branding. Internal-use software

Data export

A file or set of files that lets you take your data out of a product in a standard format. Check what you can export before you cancel, because access can end with the plan.

Common questions#