Most businesses know what they spend on rent, salaries, stock, and fuel. Fewer know exactly what leaves the bank account every month for software.
There may be Microsoft 365 licences, antivirus subscriptions, cloud storage, accounting add-ons, design tools, online booking platforms, and apps purchased by employees. Each charge may be small on its own. Together, they can become a noticeable monthly cost.
The issue is not only wasted money. Forgotten software accounts can still hold business documents, client information, financial records, and login access. If nobody knows who owns an account or who can access it, it can also become a security risk.
How Unused Subscriptions Build Up
Unused software usually does not come from one bad decision. It builds up as the business changes.
An employee needs a tool. Someone starts a free trial. A team buys an app for a short-term project. Later, the employee leaves, the project ends, or another system replaces it. The original subscription continues because nobody notices the renewal.
This is common in small businesses because software is easy to buy. A staff member can sign up online in minutes, often with a company or personal card. The tool solves an immediate problem, but there may be no process for reviewing whether it is still needed six or twelve months later.
Common examples include:
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licences still assigned to former employees.
- Antivirus, cloud-storage, remote-access, or password-manager subscriptions with unused licences.
- Multiple tools doing the same job, such as two file-sharing platforms, several video-meeting tools, or separate customer-management systems.
- Software registered to an employee’s personal email address.
- Business subscriptions paid from a personal bank card and claimed back as an expense.
- Free trials that quietly became monthly or annual paid subscriptions.
- Accounting, payroll, e-commerce, or point-of-sale add-ons that are no longer used.
A R200 monthly subscription may not seem important. A handful of forgotten subscriptions can easily add up to several thousand rand a year.
It Is Also a Security Issue
An unused subscription can still be an active business system.
A former employee may still have access to email, cloud storage, shared files, a customer relationship management system, or a design platform. A forgotten account might contain customer details, quotes, invoices, passwords, contracts, or business documents.
This does not mean former employees will misuse access. The risk is that unmanaged accounts are easy to overlook. Passwords may be old or reused. Multi-factor authentication may not be enabled. Nobody may notice if an account is compromised.
The table below is a practical guide to what should be checked during a software review.
| What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Current software subscriptions | Identifies monthly and annual costs that may no longer be needed |
| Active user licences | Prevents the business from paying for accounts assigned to former staff or inactive users |
| Business purpose of each tool | Makes duplicate or unnecessary systems easier to identify |
| Who owns the account | Prevents critical systems from being tied to one employee’s personal email address or card |
| Access to the tool | Helps remove unnecessary access to business and client data |
| Renewal dates | Gives the business time to cancel, consolidate, downgrade, or renegotiate |
| Payment method | Reveals software charged to personal cards or old business cards |
| Data stored in the tool | Identifies systems that may need stronger access controls, backups, or secure offboarding |
NIST recommends that organisations maintain an inventory of their software, services, and systems. For a small business, this does not need to be complicated. A spreadsheet that lists the tools you use, who owns them, who has access, and when they renew is a practical starting point.
A Simple Quarterly Review
You do not need a large finance team or a complicated procurement process to get control of software spending. A quarterly review is usually enough.
Start by reviewing the previous three months of bank statements, credit-card statements, supplier invoices, and accounting records. Look for recurring payments to software providers, online platforms, app stores, domain providers, cloud services, and digital payment providers.
Then create one central software register.
For each subscription, decide whether to:
- Keep it if the tool is actively used and properly managed.
- Downgrade it if the business needs the tool but not the current number of licences, storage level, or feature package.
- Consolidate it if another approved system already performs the same job.
- Cancel it if there is no longer a valid business purpose.
- Investigate it if nobody can explain the charge, account owner, or reason for using the system.
If no one can identify the owner, users, purpose, information stored, and renewal date of a subscription, it needs attention.
This review should also be part of staff changes. When someone leaves, review their email account, software licences, shared folders, password-manager access, remote-access tools, and third-party applications. Collecting their laptop is not enough.
Keep Business Systems Business-Owned
Important systems should belong to the business, not to one employee.
An accounting platform, domain registration, cloud-storage account, social-media page, website login, email platform, or client portal should not be registered only to a staff member’s personal email address. The business should be able to access and manage these systems if that person leaves.
It is also sensible to make sure at least two trusted people have administrator access to critical systems. This helps prevent the business from being locked out when an employee is unavailable, leaves unexpectedly, or loses access to their account.
Renewal dates should be recorded in the same place. Many subscriptions renew automatically, and some require notice before cancellation. A simple register gives you time to reduce licences, compare alternatives, or cancel services before another annual charge goes through.
Where Bridgelytic Fits
I work with SMME businesses and regulated professionals in Ballito and surrounds who want a clearer view of the technology they are paying for and relying on.
That can include reviewing recurring software costs, identifying inactive licences, documenting account ownership, checking access to important systems, and creating a practical software register for the business.
The aim is simple. Reduce unnecessary costs, remove access that is no longer needed, and give you a clear picture of the systems your business depends on.
A quarterly software review can take only a few hours. It may reveal forgotten costs, duplicate tools, and security gaps that would otherwise remain unnoticed.
Got questions about what your business is paying for each month, or who still has access to your systems? WhatsApp me or send an email, and let’s get it sorted.
Sources
NIST, Cybersecurity Framework 2.0:
https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework
NIST, Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 Small Business Quick-Start Guide:
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.1300.pdf
NIST, Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 Implementation Examples:
https://www.nist.gov/document/csf-20-implementations-pdf
CISA, Secure Your Business:
https://www.cisa.gov/audiences/small-and-medium-businesses/secure-your-business