The Software Bill Audit

Subscription creep is real money

Fifty bucks a month doesn't hurt, which is exactly the problem. A dozen fifty-buck subscriptions is over $7,000 a year, quietly, forever. Most trade software stacks grow exactly that way. One got signed up for a single job. One came with a rep's demo and never left. One was going to fix the invoicing, back in 2023.

The test isn't whether the software is any good. It's whether you used it. "Can't remember" is an answer: it means the subscription is a donation. The rule of thumb: if nobody's touched it this month and nobody can say what breaks when it's cancelled, cancel it. It's the easiest money in this whole toolkit. No pricing courage required, no customer conversations, just a cancellation email.

Then the reverse question, which is where the real money usually is: the tools you are paying for almost certainly do things you're still doing by hand, like the same job typed into three systems. Fewer tools, actually used, talking to each other, beats a long list every time.