The end of the year is the best time to do a full sweep and reset of a product team’s tooling and budget. A focused software audit improves operational hygiene, reduces paid-seat bloat and surprise renewals, and helps you plan realistically for budget changes in the year ahead.
This checklist is especially pertinent to technical leaders in smaller organizations who have a lot of autonomy over their software decisions. In larger or more regulated environments that require specific IT and security decisions or finance approval over spend, this practice still provides a great framing for cooperative conversations between departments.
Here’s what to focus on.
1. Compare this year’s spend to last year’s
Start by looking backward.
- Pull total software spend for the last year (or two!).
- Convert costs to a monthly view (particularly annual plans).
- Note meaningful increases or decreases.
- Sort by total cost to focus on the highest-spend tools first.
This helps distinguish:
- Real growth (headcount, scope, usage).
- Pricing changes or vendor plan shifts.
- Quiet drift that has accumulated over time.
As you review your highest-cost tools, pause on your core systems. Long-running relationships may be open to loyalty discounts or renegotiation. At the same time, if a core tool has not evolved with your team’s needs, it may be worth the financial investment to upgrade or switch, optimizing time and improving how your team works day-to-day.
2. Resolve “sneaky creep” with a full seat purge
Unused seats can creep up quietly, even the “harmless” ones.
Roles change. Clients roll off. Projects end. Tools evolve. Licenses don’t always keep up. These conditions make it easy for unused seats to linger.
At end-of-year, do a full sweep:
- Remove unused and duplicate seats.
- Clear unnecessary client access (even unpaid seats).
- Review admin, service, and legacy accounts.
This isn’t only about cost. It’s about system hygiene and returning ownership where it belongs. If a graduated client hasn’t already taken full ownership of their assets and systems, end-of-year is a good moment to hand that responsibility back before the new year begins.
We aim to review and purge seats quarterly, but if that cadence has slipped, this is your reset point. Clean the slate now, then make quarterly reviews your habit going forward.
Keeping only necessary licenses and tools reduces noise, risk, and confusion.
3. Plan for higher AI-driven software costs in 2026
Even without aggressive adoption, AI is already changing software pricing.
Some vendors are:
- Adding AI capabilities to existing products.
- Restructuring plans and tiers.
- Raising prices as AI becomes embedded rather than optional.
That means “same tools” does not necessarily mean “same spend.”
Going into 2026, plan for:
- Higher baseline software costs.
- More intentional AI tool adoption.
- Budgeting space for experimentation, and removing costs once your experimentation is complete.
This isn’t about chasing AI features. It’s about budgeting realistically for how the market is shifting and being disciplined about the costs of experimentation.
A small habit with outsized impact
An end-of-year software audit doesn’t need to be complicated.
Comparing year-over-year spend, doing a thorough seat purge, and planning honestly for AI-related changes creates a clean starting point for the year ahead.
For technical leaders, this kind of audit creates space to focus on product decisions instead of chasing tooling drift or surprise renewals mid-year.
