The UK tax year ends on 5 April. That’s three weeks away. And if you’re like most small business owners I speak to, you’re about to spend those three weeks sorting receipts, chasing invoices, and making sure everything lines up for your accountant.
While you’re in that headspace, I’d encourage you to do one more thing: audit your software.
Not in an “enterprise IT review” kind of way. I mean sit down for an hour, look at every tool you’re paying for, and ask yourself a few honest questions about whether each one is still earning its keep. Most businesses haven’t done this since they signed up. The results are almost always surprising.
The SaaS creep problem
Here’s how it happens. You start your business and sign up for Xero because you need invoicing. Then you need to manage customers, so you grab a CRM. Then Mailchimp for email marketing. Then Slack because your team is growing. Then Monday or Trello for project management. Then Zapier to connect a couple of tools that don’t talk to each other. Then a scheduling tool. Then a form builder.
Each one seemed sensible at the time. Each one costs £10 to £50 a month. Individually, none of them feel expensive. But collectively? You could easily be spending £300 to £600 a month across eight or ten subscriptions, and that’s before you count the time you spend managing them all.
I call this SaaS creep. It’s the slow accumulation of subscription software that nobody ever reviews. Tools get added but rarely removed. And because most of them bill monthly by direct debit, the cost is almost invisible. It just quietly drains from your account every month.
The tax year end is the natural time to stop and take a proper look.
The audit checklist
Here’s a practical, step-by-step process. Set aside an hour. Grab a coffee. Work through it methodically.
Step 1: List every tool and what you pay
Start by going through your bank statements or accounting software and pulling out every recurring software charge. Include everything: the obvious ones like your accounting software and CRM, but also the ones you’ve forgotten about. That design tool you signed up for six months ago. The analytics platform you tried and never cancelled. The premium tier you upgraded to for a feature you used once.
For each tool, note the monthly cost and multiply it out to get the annual figure. Seeing the annual number is important because £15 a month doesn’t feel like much. £180 a year starts to feel more real.
Step 2: Check who actually uses it
Log into each tool and look at the usage. Most SaaS platforms have a settings or admin section where you can see when users last logged in. If you’re paying for five seats on a project management tool and only two people have logged in this month, that’s money being wasted.
Be honest with yourself here. “We might need it later” is the most expensive phrase in software.
Step 3: Identify overlap
Look at your list and ask: are any two tools doing the same job? This happens more often than you’d think. Maybe you’re using both Trello and Monday because different team members preferred different tools. Maybe your CRM has an email feature but you’re also paying separately for Mailchimp. Maybe your accounting software can handle invoicing and expense tracking, but you’re using a separate tool for one of those.
Every overlap is money spent twice for the same outcome.
Step 4: Spot the workarounds
This is where the real cost hides. Look at where you’re using Zapier, manual processes, or copy-and-paste to bridge gaps between tools. Every workaround represents a place where your tools aren’t doing their job properly.
Common examples:
- Zapier automations that move data between your CRM and your invoicing tool
- Someone manually exporting a CSV from one system and importing it into another
- Copy-and-pasting customer details from emails into a spreadsheet
- A weekly “sync” meeting where someone updates three systems with the same information
These workarounds cost you twice: you’re paying for the tools, and you’re paying staff to manually compensate for the fact that the tools don’t work together. I’ve written about this before in 5 signs your business has outgrown its software, and these workarounds are one of the clearest red flags.
Step 5: Evaluate fit
For each tool that survives the first four steps, ask one final question: is this tool still right for my business at its current size?
The CRM you chose when you had 50 customers might not make sense now that you have 500. The spreadsheet that tracked jobs for a two-person team might be creaking under the weight of a ten-person operation. If you’re finding that a tool that used to work fine is now causing friction, it’s probably because your business has outgrown it.
Your audit template
Use this table as a starting point. Copy it into a spreadsheet and fill it in for every tool.
| Tool | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | Active Users | Last Used | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xero | £36 | £432 | 3 | Today | Keep |
| Slack (Pro) | £58 | £696 | 8 | Today | Keep, review plan |
| Monday.com | £36 | £432 | 2 of 5 seats | Last week | Downgrade |
| Mailchimp | £25 | £300 | 1 | 6 weeks ago | Cancel or review |
| Zapier | £42 | £504 | N/A | Automated | Review what it connects |
| Scheduling tool | £20 | £240 | 1 | 3 months ago | Cancel |
| Design tool | £12 | £144 | 0 | Never | Cancel |
| Total | £229 | £2,748 |
That example shows a fairly typical small business software stack. The annual total is nearly £3,000, and at least £384 of that is going to tools that are barely being used. In practice, the real number is usually higher because most people forget a few subscriptions entirely.
The hidden costs beyond subscriptions
The subscription fees are only the beginning. The bigger cost, the one that doesn’t show up on your bank statement, is the time your team spends working around software that doesn’t fit properly.
Context switching. Every time someone jumps between tools, there’s a mental cost. It takes time to switch from your CRM to your project tracker to your invoicing tool and back again. Studies consistently show that switching between tasks and applications eats into productivity far more than people realise.
Manual data entry. If your team spends even 30 minutes a day copying information between systems, that’s 2.5 hours a week. Over a year, that’s 130 hours, more than three full working weeks, spent on work that software should be doing automatically.
Errors and missed information. When data lives in multiple places, things go wrong. A customer’s phone number gets updated in one system but not another. An invoice goes out with the wrong details because someone copied from an outdated spreadsheet. These errors cost time to fix and can damage your reputation.
Training and onboarding. The more tools you use, the longer it takes to bring new team members up to speed. If a new starter needs to learn six different platforms and the workarounds that connect them, that’s days of unproductive time.
If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking that your spreadsheet has become the backbone of your business and that can’t be right, this is why.
What to do with the results
Once you’ve completed your audit, you’ll likely have a clear picture of where the waste is. Here’s what to do about it.
Cancel what you don’t use
This sounds obvious, but it’s the step most people skip. That design tool nobody has logged into for four months? Cancel it today. The premium plan you upgraded to for a feature you used once? Downgrade it. Don’t tell yourself you might need it later. If you haven’t used it in three months, you won’t miss it.
Consolidate overlapping tools
Where two tools are doing similar jobs, pick the better one and commit to it. Move everyone onto the same project management platform. Use the email features built into your CRM instead of paying for a separate tool. Less is almost always more when it comes to business software.
Consider whether custom software could replace the patchwork
This is the step that most businesses don’t consider, but probably should.
If your audit reveals that you’re paying for five or six tools, connecting them with Zapier, and still spending hours on manual workarounds, you might be better off with a single system built around how your business actually works. Not a generic platform that does 60% of what you need. A tool that does exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.
I’ve written about this in more detail in why small businesses need custom software. The short version is that custom software used to be something only big companies could afford. That’s genuinely changed. AI-accelerated development means it’s now realistic for small businesses, and the ongoing cost of a managed software service is often comparable to what you’re already spending on a stack of disconnected SaaS tools.
The tax year angle
There’s a practical financial reason to do this audit before 5 April, beyond just cleaning up your costs.
Software is a legitimate business expense. If you’re self-employed, your SaaS subscriptions are allowable expenses ↗ that reduce your taxable profit. Make sure you’ve captured all of them.
If you’re a limited company, software costs typically fall under capital allowances ↗. And if you’re investing in new software (whether off-the-shelf or custom-built), the Annual Investment Allowance ↗ lets you deduct the full cost of qualifying items in the year you buy them, up to £1 million.
What this means in practice: if your audit reveals that you need to invest in better software, doing it before the end of the tax year means you can offset that cost against this year’s tax bill. It’s worth a conversation with your accountant, but the timing works in your favour.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I audit my software subscriptions?
At least once a year, ideally at the end of the tax year when you’re already reviewing your finances. Some businesses do it quarterly, which is even better. The key is to have a regular schedule rather than letting subscriptions accumulate unchecked for years.
Is software a tax-deductible expense for small businesses?
Yes. Software subscriptions are generally allowable business expenses for self-employed people and limited companies in the UK. Custom software development can also qualify under capital allowances. Always check the specifics with your accountant, as the rules depend on your business structure.
How do I know when it’s time to replace multiple SaaS tools with custom software?
The clearest sign is when you’re spending more time connecting tools together than using them. If you’re relying heavily on Zapier, manual data entry, or spreadsheets to bridge gaps between platforms, the patchwork is costing you more than a single integrated system would. I cover this in more detail in when to move from spreadsheets to proper software.
What’s the difference between managed software and just hiring a developer?
With a traditional developer, you pay for the build and then you’re on your own for hosting, security, updates, and maintenance. With a managed software service, all of that is included. Someone looks after the technology so you don’t have to. I’ve written about who manages your app after launch if you want the full picture.
Make the most of the next three weeks
The tax year end is a natural checkpoint. You’re already digging through your finances. Adding a software audit to the process takes about an hour and can save you hundreds, potentially thousands, of pounds a year.
Start with your bank statements. Work through the checklist. Be honest about what you’re actually using. And if the audit reveals that your tools aren’t working as hard as you are, that’s useful information.
If you want to talk about what custom software could do for your business, or if you’d just like a second opinion on whether your current setup makes sense, get in touch. No sales pitch, just a straightforward conversation about what’s working and what isn’t.