In August 2025, I asked my LinkedIn network how they tracked SaaS accounts. The problem was familiar: dozens of accounts, multiple logins, different administrators, and billing cycles that a spreadsheet struggled to keep up with.
The subscription bill is one part of SaaS sprawl. The more consequential questions concern ownership, access, data, and the workflows built around the tools. An inexpensive application can become critical to the business without anybody formally deciding that it should.
I would start a SaaS review with that operating reality. The aim is to understand what the company depends on and then make deliberate choices about cost and complexity.
Build an inventory that includes responsibility
A list of vendors and monthly charges is useful but incomplete. Record the business owner, administrator, active users, renewal terms, data held, integrations, and the workflow the tool supports.
Find out who controls the account and how the company would recover access if that person left. Check whether employees use personal accounts for company work. Confirm what happens to the data when a subscription ends.
Use finance records, approved identity systems, expense records, and department interviews as appropriate. Respect access permissions and avoid collecting more employee information than the review needs.
Distinguish duplicate capability from duplicate use
Two applications with similar features may support different business needs. Before consolidating them, understand the workflows, users, and dependencies.
A team may have selected a tool because the approved platform could not handle an important task. Another subscription may exist simply because nobody knew a comparable capability was already available. Those situations call for different decisions.
For each proposed removal, identify what replaces the workflow, what needs to be migrated, who will train the users, and what can break. A license saving should be compared with the cost and disruption of the change.
Bring renewals into the operating cadence
Renewal decisions are easier before the cancellation window closes. Assign an owner and review date for meaningful commitments. Include usage, current business need, terms, and available alternatives.
Check the unit of pricing. A subscription billed per user can grow differently from one billed by transaction volume or stored data. Understand the assumptions behind the next year's budget rather than extending last month's invoice.
Keep contract terms and notice requirements attached to the record. An intended saving is still an estimate until the commercial commitment changes.
Review access when the organization changes
Hiring, departures, reorganizations, and acquisitions all change access requirements. Connect the SaaS inventory to those events so the company knows which accounts and privileges need review.
During post-merger integration, resist consolidating tools before understanding why each business uses them. Early priorities may include preserving access, identifying owners, and understanding data movement. The target operating model can then guide the consolidation choices.
The same discipline applies to AI tools. Determine what information employees can use, how outputs enter business processes, and whether the product's terms and controls fit the intended work.
Give the inventory a job to do
An inventory becomes stale when it has no connection to a decision. Use it for onboarding, access review, renewals, budgeting, integration planning, and incident recovery.
I would assign a person to maintain the process and ask department leaders to own the accuracy of their records. A manageable recurring review is better than a large cleanup that must be repeated from scratch a year later.
Measure confirmed spending changes separately from proposed savings. Also track improvements in account ownership and visibility into critical workflows. The business may reduce risk even when a particular subscription remains necessary.
SaaS sprawl is a useful diagnostic because it exposes how the company makes decisions. A well-run review can simplify the bill, clarify accountability, and remove several sources of daily friction at the same time.
Source note: Inspired by my LinkedIn post dated August 20, 2025. This expanded article is newly published on the website in October 2026.
Related reading: Post-merger integration and When to hire a fractional CTO.