Official skill · Finance

SaaS spend review

v1.0.1 · Updated 4 November 2026

Reviews SaaS subscriptions: owners, seats used vs paid, overlapping tools, renewal and notice deadlines, and cancel, downgrade or keep with savings. Use it when quarterly or before budget planning.

Works in Claude, ChatGPT, and coding agents. On Team and Business, the official skill in your pod updates itself when we improve it.

When to use it

• Quarterly or before budget planning
• Renewals are coming and nobody knows who uses what

What you give it

• Tool list with plan, price, seats, renewal date
• Usage or last-login data
• Owners and notice periods

What you get

A dated action list, a full tool table with seat use and recommendations, overlaps, and savings.

How it works

1. Normalize the list One row per tool: annual cost (monthly price × 12 if billed monthly; show it), seats paid, seats active, renewal date, notice period, owner. Group duplicate subscriptions for the same tool (2 teams each paying for it).
2. Compute seat use Seat use = active seats ÷ seats paid. Our default: flag a tool under 70% use, and treat a seat with no login in 90 days as inactive. Unused seats × price per seat = the possible saving.
3. Find overlaps Group tools by job (video calls, project tracking, file storage, e-signature, design). Two or more tools doing the same job is an overlap; name which one most people use, from the usage data.
4. Set the action deadline Deadline = renewal date − notice period. Sort the whole list by this date. Anything with a deadline within 30 days goes to the top.
5. Recommend per tool Cancel: no owner after asking, or near-zero use, or fully covered by another tool. Downgrade: seats or plan tier above use. Keep: used, owned, no overlap. Saving = the cost difference, from input prices only; if the lower plan's price isn't given, write "[check: lower plan price]".
6. Write the action list Each action has an owner and the deadline from step 4. Cancelling a tool also needs its data exported and its sign-ins removed; add that as part of the action.
7. Total the savings Total confirmed annual savings, and separately the savings that depend on a "[check: ...]".

The SKILL.md

The whole file, as your AI reads it. Download it

---
name: saas-spend-review
description: Reviews a list of SaaS subscriptions and software tools with owners, seats used vs seats paid, overlapping tools, renewal dates and notice deadlines, and a cancel, downgrade, or keep recommendation for each with the savings. Never invents prices or usage. Use when someone shares a software list, card statement, or SaaS inventory and asks for a SaaS audit, a software spend review, "what can we cut", unused licenses, or renewals coming up.
---

# SaaS spend review

A SaaS review ends with a short list of decisions and a calendar: what to cancel, downgrade, or keep, how much each saves, and the date by which each must be acted on before it auto-renews. Every tool gets one owner, and every saving is computed from the prices and seat counts in the input.

## When to use

- Quarterly, or before budget planning.
- Renewals are coming up and nobody knows who uses what.
- Card statements show tools nobody recognizes.
- Not for choosing a new vendor: use vendor-comparison.

## What you need

- The list: tool, plan, price and billing period, seats paid, renewal date, who pays (card or invoice).
- Usage: active seats or last login per tool, from admin consoles. If usage is missing for a tool, write "[check: usage]" and don't recommend cutting seats on it.
- Owners: who asked for each tool. If unknown, "[owner: unknown]" — finding one is the first action.
- Contract terms: auto-renewal and the notice period for opting out. If missing, "[check: notice period]".

## Steps

1. **Normalize the list.** One row per tool: annual cost (monthly price × 12 if billed monthly; show it), seats paid, seats active, renewal date, notice period, owner. Group duplicate subscriptions for the same tool (2 teams each paying for it).
2. **Compute seat use.** Seat use = active seats ÷ seats paid. Our default: flag a tool under 70% use, and treat a seat with no login in 90 days as inactive. Unused seats × price per seat = the possible saving.
3. **Find overlaps.** Group tools by job (video calls, project tracking, file storage, e-signature, design). Two or more tools doing the same job is an overlap; name which one most people use, from the usage data.
4. **Set the action deadline.** Deadline = renewal date − notice period. Sort the whole list by this date. Anything with a deadline within 30 days goes to the top.
5. **Recommend per tool.** Cancel: no owner after asking, or near-zero use, or fully covered by another tool. Downgrade: seats or plan tier above use. Keep: used, owned, no overlap. Saving = the cost difference, from input prices only; if the lower plan's price isn't given, write "[check: lower plan price]".
6. **Write the action list.** Each action has an owner and the deadline from step 4. Cancelling a tool also needs its data exported and its sign-ins removed; add that as part of the action.
7. **Total the savings.** Total confirmed annual savings, and separately the savings that depend on a "[check: ...]".

## Output format

```markdown
# SaaS spend review — [date]

**Total annual spend reviewed:** [amount] across [n] tools
**Savings:** [amount] confirmed + [amount] pending checks

## Act before these dates
| Deadline | Tool | Action | Saving per year | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [date] | [tool] | [cancel / downgrade to X / keep] | [amount] | [name] |

## All tools
| Tool | Owner | Annual cost | Seats paid / active | Use | Renews | Notice | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [tool] | [name] | [amount] | [n / n] | [%] | [date] | [days] | [action and why] |

## Overlaps
- **[Job]:** [tools] — keep [tool] because [usage reason]; move [n] users from [tool]

## Checks needed
- [Tool]: [what's missing]
```

## Example

**Input:**

> Today: 2 September. Tools:
> - Zoomly Pro, 18 seats × 15 per month, monthly, renews 1st of each month, owner Lina, active seats 7
> - MeetSpace Business, 25 seats × 12 per month billed annually (3,600), renews 15 Oct, 30-day notice, owner unknown, active 22
> - Taskboard Team, 30 seats × 10 per month billed annually (3,600), renews 20 Sept, 60-day notice, owner Ravi, active 29
> - SignFast, 1 seat, 40 per month, monthly, owner Lina, last used 5 months ago

**Output:**

```markdown
# SaaS spend review — 2 September

**Total annual spend reviewed:** 10,920 across 4 tools
**Savings:** 480 confirmed + up to 3,240 pending [check: cost of 4 added MeetSpace seats]

## Act before these dates
| Deadline | Tool | Action | Saving per year | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passed (22 July) | Taskboard | Keep; renews 20 Sept | 0 | Ravi |
| 15 Sept | MeetSpace | Find an owner; keep | 0 | [owner: unknown] |
| 1 Oct (next billing) | Zoomly Pro | Cancel; export its data, move 7 users to MeetSpace | up to 3,240 [check: minus 4 MeetSpace seats] | Lina |
| 1 Oct (next billing) | SignFast | Cancel; export signed documents first | 480 | Lina |

## All tools
| Tool | Owner | Annual cost | Seats paid / active | Use | Renews | Notice | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoomly Pro | Lina | 3,240 (15 × 18 × 12) | 18 / 7 | 39% | monthly | [check: notice] | Cancel: overlaps MeetSpace |
| MeetSpace | [owner: unknown] | 3,600 | 25 / 22 | 88% | 15 Oct | 30 days | Keep: most-used video tool |
| Taskboard | Ravi | 3,600 | 30 / 29 | 97% | 20 Sept | 60 days | Keep |
| SignFast | Lina | 480 (40 × 12) | 1 / 0 | 0% | monthly | [check: notice] | Cancel: unused 5 months |

## Overlaps
- **Video calls:** Zoomly Pro and MeetSpace — keep MeetSpace (22 active vs 7); MeetSpace has 3 free seats, so 4 more are needed for Zoomly's 7 users [check: price of 4 added MeetSpace seats, subtract from saving]

## Checks needed
- MeetSpace: who owns it? Deadline to opt out is 15 Sept.
- SignFast: does anyone still need e-signature? If yes, which tool replaces it?
```

## Checks before you send

- [ ] Every annual cost shows how it was computed from the input price.
- [ ] Seat use = active ÷ paid, and no seat cut is recommended without usage data.
- [ ] Every tool has an owner or "[owner: unknown]".
- [ ] Action deadlines are renewal date minus notice period, sorted soonest first.
- [ ] Savings use only prices in the input; the rest is "[check: ...]".
- [ ] Every cancel action includes exporting data.

## Common mistakes

- Missing the notice window. A tool renews for a year if the opt-out date passed.
- Cutting a tool used by a few people for a critical job (payroll, e-signature) because use is low.
- Counting the full cost of a cancelled tool as saved when users must move to paid seats elsewhere.

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Changelog

• v1.0.1 · 4 November 2026 · Example: Taskboard's notice deadline is 22 July (20 September minus 60 days), not 21 July; the action list is sorted soonest deadline first, SignFast's annual cost shows its sum, and the Zoomly cancel includes exporting its data.
• v1.0.0 · 4 November 2026 · First release.