You don't need a project plan for this
I've seen companies spend weeks planning a SaaS audit. They form committees. They schedule kickoff meetings. They create a shared doc with color-coded sections. And then nothing happens becuase the whole thing felt too big before it even started.
Here's the thing: you can do a meaningful SaaS audit in one afternoon. It won't be perfect. You won't catch everything. But you'll find waste, and you'll find it today. That's better than a perfect audit that never happens.
According to MarketsandMarkets research, companies are spending more on software asset management every year, partly because the SaaS sprawl problem keeps getting worse. But you don't need to buy anything to get started. You just need a couple of hours and access to your billing data.
Pull your subscription list together
Start with your credit card and bank statements. This sounds almost too simple, but it's the fastest way to get a complete picture. Every SaaS tool hits your card or your accounts payable on some regular cycle. Go through the last three months of transactions and write down every recurring software charge you find.
You'll be surprised. Most people are. I've done this exercise wiht teams that thought they had maybe 30 tools, and the actual number was closer to 70. There are always forgotten subscriptions. The social media scheduler someone signed up for six months ago. The PDF tool that got put on the company card. The second project management app that one team tried and then abandoned.
Don't worry about organizing it yet. Just get the list. Tool name, monthly cost, that's it. You can use a spreadsheet or a notepad. The format doesn't matter at this stage.
Check who's actually logging in
Now comes the part that saves you money. For each tool on your list, log into the admin panel and look at user activity. You're looking for two things: people who haven't logged in for 30 days or more, and people who no longer work at your company.
Start with your most expensive tools. If you're paying per seat for something like Zendesk, that's where the biggest savings will be. Check the agent list. Look at last login dates. I guarantee you'll find at least one or two seats that are either completely inactive or assigned to someone who left months ago.
Do the same for Salesforce if you use it. CRM seats are expensive, and sales teams have high turnover. Those orphaned seats add up fast. Same story with Microsoft 365 licenses. Every unused E3 or E5 license is real money going to waste every month.
For Zendesk specifically, pay attention to the difference between full agent seats and light agent seats. Sometimes people have full agent access when they only need light access, or they don't need access at all anymore. That distinction alone can save you a surprising amount.
Make the cuts
Here's where people hesitate. They find the unused seats but then worry about removing them. "What if that person needs it again?" "What if there's data tied to that account?" These are valid concerns, but they shouldn't stop you from acting.
Most SaaS tools let you deactivate users without deleting their data. The tickets that person handled in Zendesk will still be there. Their files won't disappear. You're just stopping the billing. If they ever need access again, you can reactivate them. This isn't a permanent decision.
For tools where nobody on the team has logged in for 90 days or more, consider canceling entirely. If an entire tool has gone unused for three months, your team has clearly found other ways to get that work done. Cancel it. If someone complains later, you can always resubscribe.
The stuff people miss
A few things that tend to slip through even in a decent audit. First, annual subscriptions. You might not see these in monthly bank statements because they only charge once a year. Check your email for annual renewal notices. Some of the biggest waste hides in annual plans that auto-renew without anyone noticing.
Second, duplicate tools. It's incredibly common for different teams to be paying for separate subscriptions to the same type of tool. Two different survey platforms. Two different video conferencing tools. Consolidating onto one saves you the cost of the duplicate adn usually simplifies things for everyone.
Third, tier mismatches. You might be on an enterprise plan for a tool that only five people use. Or you might have 50 pro seats when 40 of those users only need the basic tier. Downgrading plans is one of the easiest wins in a SaaS audit.
Keep it from sliding back
The audit you do today will save you money this month. But if you don't build some kind of ongoing check, you'll be right back where you started in six months. The simplest approach is a calendar reminder. Set one for the first Monday of every month. Spend 30 minutes reviewing user counts in your top five most expensive tools. That's it. Thirty minutes a month is enough to catch most waste before it accumulates.
For tools like Zendesk where per-seat costs really matter, automated monitoring is even better. That's exactly what we built LicenseTrim to do. It watches your Zendesk account and flags inactive seats so you don't have to remember to check manually. But even without automation, a regular manual check puts you ahead of 90% of companies.
The point is to start. Today. Not next quarter, not after the reorg, not when things calm down. Open your bank statement, make your list, and start looking at who's actually logging in. You'll almost certainly find money you can save, and the whole thing will take less time than you think.