How to Track and Manage Business Subscriptions
Business subscriptions can quickly become a significant and often overlooked expense. As companies adopt more SaaS and AI tools, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of what is being paid for, who is responsible for each subscription and whether it is still being used. Without a clear process, unused licences and forgotten subscriptions can continue running for months or even years. A simple approach to ownership, payment and regular reviews can help businesses reduce unnecessary spend and keep their software stack under control.
1. Assign clear ownership
Every business subscription should have a clear owner within the company.
Whether it is HubSpot, Freshdesk, Claude or another SaaS platform, assigning responsibility to a specific employee makes it easier to understand why the subscription exists, who is using it and whether it is still required.
Subscription owners should also have visibility of the associated budget and understand the process for approving, reviewing and cancelling tools.
2. Keep subscriptions linked to individual payment methods
Virtual business cards can make it easier to manage recurring software payments.
Assigning a separate virtual card to each subscription gives finance and operations teams greater visibility over spending. It can also make cancelling a subscription easier if a supplier's standard cancellation process is difficult to navigate.
This approach also reduces the risk of subscriptions being hidden among larger company-wide card payments.
3. Review software regularly
Tracking subscriptions is only useful if they are reviewed regularly.
A quarterly or biannual software audit can help identify:
Subscriptions that are no longer being used
Unused or underused licences
Duplicate tools serving the same purpose
Tools that have increased in price
Subscriptions that are no longer aligned with business requirements
Where possible, usage data should be reviewed alongside the cost of each tool to understand whether the subscription is delivering sufficient value.
4. Consider SaaS management software
As a business grows, manually tracking every subscription can become increasingly difficult.
Dedicated SaaS management platforms can provide a central view of software spend, licences, renewal dates and usage. Tools such as Cledara, Zylo and Torii can help businesses gain greater control over their SaaS estate.
For smaller businesses, a well-maintained spreadsheet may be enough. The important thing is having a central record that includes the subscription owner, cost, renewal date, payment method and cancellation process.
5. Make cancellation part of the offboarding process
Employee offboarding is another opportunity to review software subscriptions.
When an employee leaves, any tools or licences assigned to them should be checked. Some subscriptions may need to be transferred to another employee, while others can be cancelled altogether.
Building this into the offboarding process helps prevent unused licences from continuing to generate costs after they are no longer required.
Where Ooodles fits
Software is only one part of managing business IT costs. Hardware can also become an unnecessary expense when devices are purchased without a clear lifecycle plan.
Ooodles helps businesses manage the full lifecycle of their employee devices, from sourcing and deployment through to repairs, collection and secure disposal. This gives IT, HR and operations teams greater visibility over their hardware and makes it easier to manage changing employee requirements without relying on spreadsheets and disconnected processes.
By taking a more structured approach to both software and hardware, businesses can reduce unnecessary costs and make IT management easier to control as they grow.
Frequently asked questions
How often should business subscriptions be reviewed?
A quarterly review is a good starting point for most businesses. Larger organisations with a high number of subscriptions may benefit from more frequent monitoring.
What should a business track for each subscription?
At a minimum, track the name of the software, subscription owner, cost, payment method, renewal date, number of licences and cancellation terms.
How can unused SaaS licences be identified?
Review licence usage data where available and compare the number of active users with the number of licences being paid for. Employees who have left the business should also be checked as part of the review.
When is SaaS management software worth using?
Dedicated SaaS management software can become particularly useful as the number of tools, employees and subscriptions increases. For smaller businesses, a central spreadsheet may provide enough visibility without adding another platform to manage.
