Many small businesses have no idea how much they're really spending on software, or how many tools they are actually paying for.
It happens gradually. Someone signs up for a new app on the company card to solve a problem. A team member leaves and you carry on paying for their licences. An annual contract renews in the background at full price because nobody spotted the date coming up.
None of it feels like much on its own, but it can add up to a surprising amount every month. For a growing team, that wasted spend often runs into thousands of pounds a year. Money you could keep, or put towards something that actually grows your business.
The problem is that finding all of this by hand is tedious and slow, so it never gets done. Your finance person has better things to do than comb through card statements, and most small businesses don't have an IT team to keep on top of it at all. You may even be the person filling all of those roles simultaneously!
That's where I come in. I use smart software that connects securely to your accounting system (Xero, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Freeagent*) and your sign in provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra/365, Okta) and then maps every tool, every licence and every pound you spend in one place. From there it does the hard work for you. It scores how much you actually use each tool, benchmarks what you pay, watches for renewals before they hit, and flags software nobody approved for review.
You get a clear, plain English picture of your whole software stack and, more importantly, a short list of the actions worth taking. I help you make sense of it, decide what to cancel, keep or renegotiate, and put the savings back in your pocket.
The longer you leave your software stack unchecked, the more you pay for things you don't need, and the harder it gets to untangle later.I set everything up for you, connect it safely, and review the findings with you so you are not left staring at yet another dashboard. You can have me keep an eye on it month to month and bring you the decisions worth making, or I can hand you a clean picture and a plan to act on yourself.
Either way you stay in control, and nothing changes without your say so.
Find out how I could help you take control of your software spend, book a free discovery call and we can explore it together..
*Freeagent integration is coming soon, CSV import of data is already available
The quickest way is to connect your accounting software and card feeds to a tool that recognises software payments and lists them for you. Doing it by hand means trawling through months of statements and trying to remember what each charge was for, which is exactly why it rarely gets done. I connect everything for you, and within a short time you have a complete list of every subscription you pay for, what it costs, and how often anyone uses it. It's often genuinely surprising what turns up!
More than most people expect. When team members leave or change roles, you might keep paying for their licences. You forget to cancel a trial and it becomes a recurring subscription. Two teams buy two different tools that do the same job. A new tool like an AI notetaker slips into the business by the back door and before you know it you're paying for multiple subscriptions. Many growing businesses waste a decent chunk of their software budget without realising it, often thousands of pounds a year. The only way to know your number is to look, and that is exactly what I help you do.
Shadow IT is any software your team uses and pays for that nobody officially approved or keeps track of. It usually starts innocently, when someone signs up for an app on the company card to get a job done. The trouble is that your team can end up storing company and customer data in tools with no oversight, no security checks and no one responsible for them. Finding that software early lets you bring it under control before it turns into a data protection or security problem.
Suppliers renew annual contracts automatically, and we've all had the experience of forgetting a renewal was coming up until the receipt lands in our inbox, without a chance to review if you're on the right package or review the number of licences. The fix is proactive warnings well ahead of each renewal date, typically around 90, 60 and 30 days, so you have time to review whether you still need the tool, shop around, or negotiate a better rate. I make sure those renewals never catch you out again.
Yes, often more so than for a large one, because every wasted pound matters more when you are smaller. Larger companies have finance and IT teams keeping an eye on this. Most small businesses don't, so no one catches the waste or duplication and it mounts up. The savings from cancelling a handful of unused tools usually cover the cost of the service many times over, and you get back the time you would have spent trying to work it all out yourself.
Your data stays yours. The platform I use is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, your information stays isolated in your own workspace, and nobody else sees it. It reads only the information it needs to identify your software spend. It doesn't move money or make changes to your accounts, and nothing gets cancelled or changed without you approving it first.
Not long at all. Once we connect your accounting software and sign in provider, which usually takes well under an hour, the first insights start coming through almost straight away. You don't need a lengthy onboarding or a technical project. Most businesses see their first savings opportunities within a day or two.
Want to know more?
Give me a call or send me a message...
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form
