IT costs
Software license audit: how to find out which programs your company pays for but doesn't need
Software costs grow quietly: new subscriptions, licenses left with people who changed roles, and tools bought “to try out.” A license audit based on data about actual application usage lets you separate, before contracts renew, the software you need from the software that only generates invoices.
- Author:
- Paweł Rudnicki
- Published:
- Reading time
- 6 min read
- Licenses
- Software costs
- Application usage
Why companies overpay for software
It is rarely one big mistake. License surplus builds up gradually, from many small decisions that nobody reviews afterward:
- licenses assigned to people who left the company or changed departments are not reclaimed,
- a team buys its own tool even though the company already has software for the same purpose,
- an expensive plan bought “just in case” covers people for whom a cheaper one would do,
- contracts renew automatically before anyone checks whether the software is still used,
- the number of licenses is driven by the employee list, not by data on who actually uses the software.
The last point is the key one. Without usage data, every conversation about reducing licenses ends with “but what if someone needs it?” With data, you can discuss facts.
What data you need for an audit
| Source | What it shows | What it does not show |
|---|---|---|
| Invoices and contracts | How many licenses the company pays for, at what cost and until when | Whether anyone uses them |
| Vendor admin portals | License assignment to accounts, sometimes the last sign-in date | How often and how long the software is used; data from each vendor separately |
| Installation inventory | Which computers the software is installed on | Whether the installed software is actually launched |
| Application usage data | Time spent in the software by team and across the company, week by week | The content of work — and that is how it should stay |
The most complete picture comes from combining contracts with usage data: you then know both how much the company pays and how much of it is actually used.
Software license audit step by step
- List of software and contracts. All paid software and subscriptions with the number of licenses, cost, billing model and renewal date. Start with those renewing in the coming months.
- An owner for each program. A person who knows what it is for and can confirm who needs it — for example a department manager, not just IT.
- Collect usage data for at least 4–8 weeks. A shorter period will miss tasks done once a month, such as the month-end close in accounting.
- Group users: regular, occasional and inactive during the period reviewed.
- Decide for each group: keep the license, move to a cheaper plan, use shared or floating licenses — if the contract allows it — or cancel.
- Set a standard and a review cycle. A list of approved software for each department and a review of usage data, for example once a quarter or before every renewal.
Example: a review before a contract renewal
| Software | Licenses | Regular use | Occasional | No use | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAD software | 15 | 9 | 2 | 4 | Renew 11 licenses |
| Office suite | 60 | 57 | 3 | 0 | No change |
| Graphics tool | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | Renew 4 licenses |
| Second messaging app | 25 | 2 | 4 | 19 | Cancel, move to the company standard |
What to watch for when interpreting the data
- Usage time is not the value of work. An hour in accounting software is neither “better” nor “worse” than an hour in a spreadsheet — the data is for license decisions, not for evaluating people.
- Browser-based apps. Tools that run in the browser show up as the browser; their usage only becomes visible in website domain data, if the company has enabled that feature.
- Unusual periods. Vacations, seasonality and one-off projects can distort the picture — hence the recommendation to collect data over several weeks.
- Team view rather than individuals. Department-level summaries are usually enough for license decisions; keep details about individual people to a minimum.
- Transparency. Application usage data is data about employee activity, so the same rules apply as for other forms of monitoring — we describe them in the article Employee monitoring under GDPR and the Polish Labour Code.
How ActiSignal supports a license review
ActiSignal shows time spent in individual applications — for example Teams, Excel, accounting software, CRM or ERP — for teams and the whole company, including week by week. With domain recording enabled, you can also see which online tools the team uses. The Agent records the name of the application and the time it is in use, without window titles and without access to document contents.
This makes it easy to check whether a new tool has been adopted, which licenses have gone unused for weeks and whether teams stick to the agreed software standard. This scenario is described in the ActiSignal use cases, and the full list of views is on the Features page.
Checklist before a contract renewal
- The renewal date and notice period are known and entered in the calendar.
- The software has an owner who confirms the need for it.
- Usage data covers at least several weeks of typical work.
- Users are grouped into regular, occasional and inactive.
- Cheaper plans and the option of shared licenses have been checked.
- The company is not paying for two tools with the same purpose.
- The decision and its rationale are recorded for the next review.
A regular license review is one of the simplest ways to lower IT costs without making working conditions worse. If your company is still choosing a tool to collect application usage data, see the guide How to choose employee monitoring software.