How to find every software subscription in QuickBooks Online

The fastest honest inventory of what a company pays for software is its own vendor report. QuickBooks Online already totals spend by vendor; the only work is choosing the right period and basis and exporting it.

Find the spend · guide 1 of 7 · Reviewed Oct 25, 2026

Run the vendor-totals report

Intuit's help article for vendor totals uses the Expenses by Vendor Summary report. The steps below follow that article as published on the checked date; menu labels can move, so search for the report by name if one is missing.

Find the report
Open the Reports menu and go to Standard reports.
Search by name
Search for “Expenses by Vendor Summary” in the report finder.
Set twelve months
Choose a date range. For a specific window, pick Custom and enter the start and end dates. Twelve months shows annual plans that hit once.
Group by vendor
Set the columns to group by Vendors. Choose Cash to see only payments to vendors, or Accrual to include open bills as well.
Export
Run the report, then open the Export menu and choose Export to Excel. Keep the file; the next steps use it.

Catch what the report hides

A vendor total is only as good as how the payee was recorded. Spend two minutes on the accounts where software usually lands in the chart of accounts and compare them with the vendor report.

Card-charged tools coded to a generic “Software” or “Subscriptions” account may carry the card issuer as the payee. Open the account's transactions and read the memo or description.
Annual plans appear once a year. A twelve-month window catches them; a three-month window does not.
The same tool on two cards, or a personal plan and a team plan, shows as two vendors.
Expenses booked to prepaid expenses are amortizing; look at the prepaid schedule for the underlying vendor.

Rank it

Open the free audit, choose the exported file or paste the vendor and total columns, and it matches the lines to the apps we cover and ranks them by what they cost and how replaceable we rate them. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.

Common questions

Should I run the report on cash or accrual?

Cash shows only payments you made to vendors in the period. Accrual also includes open bills and invoices. For finding software, run it on accrual if you book bills when they arrive, and on cash if you book from the bank feed. If the two totals for a vendor differ a lot, a bill is open or was paid in a different period.

Why is a tool I know we pay for not on the report?

Many software charges are on a company card and are categorized straight from the bank feed with the merchant as the payee, so they appear under that name in the vendor report only if the payee was set. If a vendor is missing, check the card account's transactions for the merchant name.

Does exporting the report send our data anywhere?

Only if you choose to. The report is a file on your computer. The browser audit on this site reads it on your device and sends nothing to a server. Connecting QuickBooks is a separate, optional step and is not open yet.