Audit Your Toolstack in 90 Minutes: A Practical Guide for Tech Teams

Hook: Stop Losing Hours and Money to an Unmanaged Toolstack

You inherited 40 SaaS subscriptions, half of them overlap, and finance just asked for a cost-cutting plan. Your team is frustrated toggling between five task apps. This is a familiar story in 2026, where faster tool proliferation and AI point solutions mean more choices but also more waste. The good news: you can run a repeatable, 90 minute tool audit that surfaces underused apps, identifies overlap, and calculates real savings with scripts and KPI templates you can reuse.

Why a 90 Minute Audit Works in 2026

In the last two years the market matured: SaaS management platforms added automated usage normalization, identity providers improved telemetry, and finance teams exposed billing exports via APIs. Those improvements make a focused, short audit possible. The goal is not to finalize consolidation decisions in 90 minutes. It is to produce a fact-backed shortlist and an ROI estimate that drives the next step: a phased consolidation playbook.

What You Will Deliver in 90 Minutes

• Inventory snapshot of all active subscriptions and monthly spend
• Usage map showing active users and frequency for each tool
• Overlap matrix highlighting candidate redundancies
• KPIs and savings estimate for quick prioritization
• Next actions with owners and timelines

Before You Start: Pre-audit Checklist (10 minutes)

1. Invite one stakeholder from engineering, one from finance, and one from operations or IT.
2. Get access to billing exports or the corporate credit card feed for the last 12 months.
3. Have identity provider admin access ready for a 10 minute query (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace).
4. Open a shared spreadsheet or a lightweight collaboration doc where you will paste findings.

90 Minute Playbook: Timeboxed Steps

Minutes 0 15: Pull a spending inventory

Ask finance or use your billing API to export subscriptions and amounts for the last 12 months. If you only have a credit card CSV, that works. The aim is to produce a vendor spend list and an estimated run rate.

Quick script to aggregate vendor spend from a CSV export

#!/bin/bash
# aggregate spend by vendor from expenses.csv
# expect columns: date, vendor, amount
awk -F, 'NR>1 {gsub(/"/,"",$2); vendor=$2; amt=$3; gsub(/\$/,"",amt); spend[vendor]+=amt} END {for (v in spend) printf "%s,%0.2f\n", v, spend[v]}' expenses.csv | sort -t, -k2 -nr

Use the internal developer assistant patterns to automate and standardize these scripts.

Minutes 15 35: Fetch usage and active user counts

Most decisions hinge on actual usage. Pull active user counts from your identity provider, and usage logs from the most expensive and most mission critical apps. If apps are federated with your IDP, you can approximate monthly active users from authentication events.

Sample SQL for identity event logs stored in an analytics DB

-- returns monthly unique authenticating user count per app
select app_name, date_trunc('month', event_time) as month, count(distinct user_id) as mau
from idp_auth_events
where event_time > now() - interval '90 days'
group by app_name, month
order by app_name, month desc;

If you use Okta or Azure AD, export sign in logs and run the same aggregation. If you do not have logs, use license assignment vs active license heuristics as a fallback.

Minutes 35 55: Build an overlap matrix

Overlap is tricky because tools overlap functionally and by workflow. Use a simple matrix to score overlap 0 to 3 where 3 means near-functional duplicate in the same teams. Populate the matrix with inputs from stakeholders and usage counts. Start with top 20 vendors by spend. See the practical checklist for tool sprawl audits for overlap scoring examples.

Overlap scoring criteria

• 3 Duplicate core functionality used by the same role and team
• 2 Partial overlap or used by adjacent teams
• 1 Minimal overlap with occasional redundancy
• 0 No overlap

Minutes 55 75: Compute KPIs and savings estimates

Use these quick KPIs to prioritize candidates for consolidation.

• License Utilization = active users / licenses assigned
• Cost per Active User = monthly cost / active users
• Unused Spend = monthly cost * (1 - license utilization)
• Overlap Score = sum of pairwise overlap ratings between a vendor and others
• Migration Effort Index = estimated hours * hourly rate + data migration cost
• Net Annual Savings = annualized subscription cost removed - migration cost - lost integrations cost

Formula sample: Net Annual Savings

net_annual_savings = removed_subscription_annual_cost - one_time_migration_cost - annual_integration_loss_cost

When you compute Net Annual Savings also consider carbon and infrastructure impacts; see the carbon-aware caching playbook for ways caching and architecture choices change operational cost assumptions.

Minutes 75 85: Make quick decisions and rank

Use a simple priority matrix: high savings low effort first. Rank candidates into three buckets: Move to consolidate now, investigate further, keep for now. Document owners and a short rationale.

Minutes 85 90: Output and next steps

Deliverable checklist

• Spreadsheet with vendor, monthly spend, MAUs, license utilization, cost per active user, overlap score
• Top 5 consolidation candidates with net annual savings and estimated migration cost
• Action items assigned with 30/60/90 day milestones

Scripts and Templates You Can Reuse

Below are compact scripts and templates to automate the heavy lifting. Save them into your automation repo and run as part of a monthly health check.

1. Consolidated Spend Aggregator

#!/bin/bash
# inputs: expenses.csv with vendor and amount
# output: vendor, monthly avg, annualized
awk -F, 'NR>1 {gsub(/"/,"",$2); vendor=$2; amt=$3; gsub(/\$/,"",amt); spend[vendor]+=amt; count[vendor]++} END {for (v in spend) printf "%s,%0.2f,%0.2f\n", v, spend[v]/count[v], (spend[v]/count[v])*12}' expenses.csv | sort -t, -k3 -nr

2. Active User Extractor for IdP Logs

# python snippet that reads idp log csv and counts MAU by app
import csv
from collections import defaultdict
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
cutoff = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=30)
maus = defaultdict(set)
with open('idp_logs.csv') as f:
    r = csv.DictReader(f)
    for row in r:
        t = datetime.strptime(row['event_time'], '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')
        if t > cutoff:
            maus[row['app_name']].add(row['user_id'])
for app, users in maus.items():
    print(app, len(users))

3. Overlap Matrix Starter in CSV format

Make a CSV with columns vendor_a,vendor_b,overlap_score,and use it to compute pairwise totals.

# simple awk to compute total overlap per vendor
awk -F, 'NR>1 {a=$1; b=$2; s=$3; overlap[a]+=s; overlap[b]+=s} END {for (v in overlap) print v, overlap[v]}' overlap.csv | sort -k2 -nr

KPI Template and Example Calculations

Use this template in your spreadsheet headings. I recommend adding conditional formatting to highlight low utilization and high cost per active user. For decision planes and auditability concepts that inform KPI selection see Edge Auditability & Decision Planes.

• Vendor
• Monthly Cost
• Annual Cost
• Licenses Assigned
• Active Users (30d)
• License Utilization
• Cost per Active User
• Overlap Score
• Estimated Migration Hours
• Estimated Migration Cost
• Net Annual Savings

Worked example

Acme Corp has three task apps: TaskA, TaskB, TaskC. Combined annual spend is 120k. TaskA 50k, TaskB 40k, TaskC 30k. Active users in 30 days: TaskA 400, TaskB 50, TaskC 45. License assignments: TaskA 500, TaskB 200, TaskC 100.

Compute license utilization

• TaskA utilization = 400/500 = 0.8
• TaskB utilization = 50/200 = 0.25
• TaskC utilization = 45/100 = 0.45

Cost per active user

• TaskA CPU = 50,000 / 400 = 125
• TaskB CPU = 40,000 / 50 = 800
• TaskC CPU = 30,000 / 45 = 667

Given overlap analysis shows TaskB and TaskC are duplicates used by the same PM team with overlap score 3. Migration of TaskB into TaskA estimated one time cost 15k. If you retire TaskB, net annual savings = 40,000 - 15,000 = 25,000. Repeat for TaskC: migration cost 8k, savings 30,000 - 8,000 = 22,000. Rank by net annual savings and migration effort you choose TaskB then TaskC for consolidation. Consider on-prem vs cloud migration tradeoffs when planning migration hours; see a decision matrix at On-Prem vs Cloud.

Governance Playbook: Keep the Stack Healthy After Consolidation

Consolidation without governance is temporary. Add these controls to prevent re-proliferation.

1. New Tool Request Form with mandatory fields for business case, cost center, overlap check, and security review
2. Quarterly Tool Health Review using the 90 minute audit as a standard playbook
3. Spend Threshold Approval for any SaaS above an annualized amount e g 10k that requires finance signoff
4. Centralized Identity and SSO enforced for all tools to make usage telemetry available — a key outcome of better identity provider integrations
5. SaaS Catalog with owner and roadmap link for each approved tool

Governance wins when it makes the easy path the approved path

Advanced Strategies for 2026 and Beyond

Recent trends through late 2025 and early 2026 change how teams should think about audits and consolidation.

• AI driven recommendations now exist inside some SaaS management platforms. Use them to spot abnormal spend trends but validate recommendations with your teams
• Consolidation as a user experience play is increasingly important. Merging tools can reduce cognitive load and improve onboarding, not just cut bills
• FinOps meets AIOps means your cost telemetry will increasingly be coupled with reliability and performance; factor productivity gains into your ROI calculations. For decision planes and coupling cost to operational signals see Edge Auditability & Decision Planes.
• API standardization for entitlement data became more widespread in 2025 reducing the time to fetch consistent MAU numbers across vendors — the same APIs that power real-time support flows are described in the Contact API v2 launch notes.

Common Objections and How to Counter Them

Objection 1: Losing niche functionality

Mitigate by documenting critical workflows and checking if the target consolidation tool supports them via integrations or custom fields. Reserve a phased pilot for teams that rely on niche features.

Objection 2: Migration risk

Quantify migration risk versus ongoing waste. Use parallel runs or data exports to de-risk transitions and budget for rollback plans. If moving data between on-prem and cloud, consult the on-prem vs cloud decision matrix.

Objection 3: Political resistance

Engage champions in every team early. Show cost per active user metrics and time savings estimates — numbers change conversations.

Case Study Snapshot

FastTrack IT ran this 90 minute audit at a 600 person scale in December 2025. They found 72 active SaaS subscriptions with combined annual cost 1.1m. Within the session they identified 9 high priority consolidation candidates representing 380k annualized spend. After estimating migration cost of 90k they compiled a phased 6 month plan. Result after 9 months: realized savings 290k net, 30 reduction in IT support tickets related to app confusion, and 12 week faster onboarding for new hires because the task toolset was standardized.

Checklist: Run Your First 90 Minute Audit

1. Schedule 90 minute block and invite finance, IT, and a key power user
2. Pull billing export and IdP logs in advance
3. Run scripts to produce vendor spend and MAU lists
4. Fill overlap matrix for top 20 vendors by spend
5. Compute KPIs and net annual savings estimates
6. Assign owners and a 30 day pilot for the top candidate
7. Archive outputs into your governance SaaS catalog

Final Recommendations and 2026 Predictions

Short audits performed regularly beat big, infrequent reviews. In 2026 expect SaaS providers to embed more intelligent migration tooling, and identity providers to deliver richer activity semantics making utilization calculations more precise. Teams that combine a fast audit cadence, automated scripts, and governance will free cash and time to invest in strategic tools rather than reactive tool sprawl.

Actionable Takeaways

• Run this 90 minute audit monthly for the first quarter to build momentum
• Automate the billing and MAU pulls with the provided scripts
• Use cost per active user and overlap score to prioritize
• Lock in governance controls to stop tool sprawl after consolidation

Call to Action

Schedule your 90 minute audit this week. Use the scripts and KPI templates above, assign a finance and IT owner, and produce a top 5 consolidation list. After you run it once, share your anonymized results with your peers to benchmark and improve the playbook. If you want a starter checklist file or a one page ROI template, copy the code blocks above into your automation repo and run them against your billing and IdP logs today.

Related Reading

• Tool Sprawl Audit: A Practical Checklist for Engineering Teams
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• On‑Prem vs Cloud for Fulfillment Systems: A Decision Matrix
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