The Tech Spend Workbook

The free checklist asks the questions. This workbook does the homework, so the meeting can spend its 45 minutes deciding instead of hunting for numbers.

List every tool, contract and service once. The workbook does the rest.

What's in it

• Inventory: one row per tool, contract or service. Enter what each bill costs, and it works out the annual cost, the share of seats actually used, the cost per active user, and what you spend on seats nobody uses. Add the renewal date and notice period, and it tells you the date you must decide by.
• Flags on every row: under-used, no clear outcome, overlaps with another tool, brittle, wouldn't buy again, and "decide soon" when a cancel-by date is close.
• Summary: total spend, spend on unused seats, spend by category, your ten biggest costs and your next cancel-by dates.
• Checkup: the five questions from the 45-minute meeting, with your top ten filled in and a clue from your own numbers beside each question. Room for notes and your one decision.
• Decision Log: what you decided, who owns it, by when, and what it actually saved, ready for the next checkup in 90 days.

It comes filled in with a sample 40-person company so you can see it working before you add your own. Clear the sample in a few seconds and the formulas stay.

Who it's for

Owners, CEOs and finance leads in small and mid-sized businesses who suspect they pay for more technology than they use, and want to know before the next renewal goes through on autopilot.

It isn't a cost-cutting exercise. Some of the best decisions mean spending more, on the thing that's brittle or the tool people love but nobody properly rolled out.

Start with the free 45-Minute Tech Spend Checkup if you haven't. The workbook follows the same five questions.

It's a single Excel file. It also opens in Google Sheets and Apple Numbers.

Renewal coming up? The Vendor Contract Review Checklist covers what to read before you sign or renew, and what to ask for while you still can.