Before a SaaS renewal, upgrade, or AI contract: make the money decision first.
Software buying is easy to start and expensive to reverse. Use this gate when a renewal notice, upgrade request, new AI add-on, seat increase, or vendor shortlist reaches a real budget decision.
The contract is close enough and material enough to justify a structured keep / reduce / consolidate / review / cancel decision.
This calculator uses only the inputs you provide. It does not estimate a universal waste rate and does not guarantee savings.
Where this fits in the money flow
Renewal notice, vendor shortlist, seat increase, AI add-on, usage overage, or CFO approval request.
Turn the spend event into an explicit decision instead of letting inertia become the purchasing process.
Free check for small decisions, $39 self-service for internal teams, or $499 when the decision value justifies a fixed-scope custom audit.
What to inspect before signing or renewing
- Actual active use versus paid seats, credits, tiers, and commitments.
- Duplicate capability across AI assistants, meeting tools, automation, analytics, storage, security, or collaboration products.
- Whether the workflow supported by the tool has measurable operational or revenue value.
- Whether a shorter contract, smaller plan, or phased purchase would preserve flexibility.
- Whether variable AI/token spend has an owner, budget, anomaly threshold, and stop condition.
- Whether the renewal date has a named decision owner and a date before auto-renewal becomes irreversible.
Why this gate matters in 2026
FinOps Foundation's 2026 survey reports that 98% of respondents manage AI spend and 90% manage SaaS or plan to, while G2's 2026 buyer research says evaluation is now the longest stage for 40% of buyers and nearly half reported a CFO reversing an already approved software purchase. The implication is simple: software discovery is easier, but proving value before money commits has become the bottleneck.
Industry context: FinOps Foundation — State of FinOps 2026 · G2 — 2026 Buyer Behavior Report.
Escalate only when the economics justify it
Use the free checklist. If the answer is clearly keep or cancel, stop.
Free checklistUse the $39 kit to structure ROI, break-even, ownership, and prioritization without buying custom work.
$39 kit checkoutUse the fixed-scope $499 audit when overlap, usage, AI cost, renewal timing, or workflow value needs a written decision map.
Start $499 auditGeneral operational decision support only. Not legal, accounting, tax, procurement-representation, regulatory, investment, or cybersecurity advice. Do not send passwords, API keys, payment-card data, raw customer PII, or regulated data.