Software spending creeps. A tool bought for one project keeps billing, a price increase slips through, someone leaves and their licence stays. When we review an office's recurring charges, the same nine items come up again and again.
1. Licences for people who left
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and most business apps bill per account. Former staff, summer students and old shared mailboxes often keep a paid licence for months. Match every licence to a current person, and convert mailboxes that only need to be kept into shared mailboxes or archives where your plan allows it.
2. The top plan for everyone
Not every person needs the most expensive Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tier. Someone who only uses email and Teams may not need the plan with desktop Office apps. Assign plans per person, not per office.
3. A separate video-meeting subscription
If you're on Microsoft 365, you already have Teams. If you're on Google Workspace, you have Meet. A separate paid video subscription is often a habit left over from a few years ago.
4. Separate file-sharing and cloud storage
OneDrive and SharePoint, or Google Drive, come with your email plan. Paying for another file-sharing service on top usually means files are split across two places as well as two bills.
5. Full PDF editors for people who only read PDFs
Paid PDF editors are worth it for people who edit and sign documents all day. Many staff only need to view and fill in forms, which free tools handle well. Check whether e-signature is already included in your practice or accounting software before paying for it separately.
6. Legacy phone lines
Traditional business lines and long-distance plans usually cost more than a VoIP system that keeps your numbers, works on mobile, and includes voicemail-to-email and an auto-attendant. See our VoIP systems.
7. A dedicated fax line
Clinics and law offices still fax. A cloud fax service sends faxes to an access-controlled inbox and can replace a physical line and machine.
8. Overlapping backup and security products
Offices that have changed IT providers sometimes pay for two antivirus products or two backup services, with only one actually working. Consolidate into one managed stack and confirm it's protecting everything.
9. Subscriptions on personal credit cards
Design tools, survey tools and AI assistants often start on someone's personal card and get expensed every month. They renew automatically at list price, nobody tracks them, and the data in them leaves with the employee. Bring them onto a company account, or replace them with what you already pay for.
How to find yours
Pull three months of credit-card and bank statements and list every charge that repeats. Next to each, write who uses it and what for. Anything without a clear answer is a candidate to cancel. Or send us the list: our free software and IT cost review goes through it with you, and we handle the switching for anything you decide to change.