[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":203},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-founder-saas-audit-90-minutes":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"date":193,"description":194,"extension":195,"image":196,"meta":197,"navigation":198,"path":199,"seo":200,"stem":201,"__hash__":202},"blog/blog/founder-saas-audit-90-minutes.md","The 90-Minute Founder SaaS Audit","The InvoiceAgent.ai Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":182},"minimark",[10,14,17,22,25,56,59,62,66,69,75,78,81,85,88,116,119,123,126,151,155,162,165,169,172,175,179],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Most founders avoid auditing their SaaS spend because it sounds like a project — the kind of thing that needs a finance hire, a procurement process, and a free week nobody has. It doesn't. You can get from \"no idea what we pay for\" to \"prioritized cut list\" in 90 minutes. Here's the time-boxed version, built for a founder with a laptop and a billing inbox.",[11,15,16],{},"Set a timer. The constraint is the point — this is a first-pass audit, not a perfect one.",[18,19,21],"h2",{"id":20},"minutes-025-pull-the-billing-trail","Minutes 0–25: Pull the billing trail",[11,23,24],{},"Open your main billing inbox and run these searches one at a time, listing every distinct vendor that appears:",[11,26,27,31,32,31,35,31,38,31,41,31,44,31,47,31,50,31,53],{},[28,29,30],"code",{},"receipt"," · ",[28,33,34],{},"invoice",[28,36,37],{},"payment received",[28,39,40],{},"your subscription",[28,42,43],{},"renews",[28,45,46],{},"free trial",[28,48,49],{},"welcome to",[28,51,52],{},"your plan",[28,54,55],{},"auto-renew",[11,57,58],{},"Then open every card the business uses — company card, your personal card, any employee cards, PayPal, app store billing — and skim the last 90 days for recurring charges. Add any vendor you didn't already catch from email.",[11,60,61],{},"Don't analyze. Don't make decisions. Just collect names. Speed matters more than completeness here; you'll refine in the next pass.",[18,63,65],{"id":64},"minutes-2545-build-the-one-table-inventory","Minutes 25–45: Build the one-table inventory",[11,67,68],{},"Make a single spreadsheet. One row per tool. Columns:",[11,70,71],{},[72,73,74],"strong",{},"Vendor · Monthly cost · Cadence (mo/yr) · Category · Owner · Used? (Y/N/?)",[11,76,77],{},"Fill in what you know fast. Leave blanks where you're unsure — the blanks are findings. Convert annual costs to monthly (÷12) so everything's comparable, but note which are annual; those have renewal leverage.",[11,79,80],{},"When the table's done, add a total row. Look at the monthly number, then multiply by 12. That annual figure is usually the moment the audit becomes motivating.",[18,82,84],{"id":83},"minutes-4560-tag-the-problems","Minutes 45–60: Tag the problems",[11,86,87],{},"Go down the list and flag each row:",[89,90,91,98,104,110],"ul",{},[92,93,94,97],"li",{},[72,95,96],{},"🟥 Cut"," — you can't name why you pay for it, or it's clearly dead.",[92,99,100,103],{},[72,101,102],{},"🟨 Renewal review"," — annual tool renewing in the next 60 days.",[92,105,106,109],{},[72,107,108],{},"🟦 Duplicate"," — overlaps with another tool (two design tools, three AI writers, two project trackers).",[92,111,112,115],{},[72,113,114],{},"❓ Unknown owner"," — nobody knows who bought it or if it's still used.",[11,117,118],{},"Duplicates and unknowns are where founders find the fastest wins. If you're paying for both Linear and Asana, or Cursor and Copilot and a third AI tool, one of them is probably cuttable.",[18,120,122],{"id":121},"minutes-6075-make-the-easy-decisions-now","Minutes 60–75: Make the easy decisions now",[11,124,125],{},"Don't save the decisions for \"later\" — later is how zombie spend survives. While you're here:",[89,127,128,134,140],{},[92,129,130,133],{},[72,131,132],{},"Cancel the 🟥 tools you're certain about."," Send the cancellation emails or start the flows now. (Budget a few minutes — vendors make this harder than it should be.)",[92,135,136,139],{},[72,137,138],{},"Calendar every 🟨 renewal"," with a reminder 30 days out, so you decide with leverage instead of after the charge.",[92,141,142,145,146,150],{},[72,143,144],{},"Assign an owner"," to every ❓ tool. Message the likely owner: \"Do we still need ",[147,148,149],"span",{},"tool","? You're now the owner — can you confirm it's used and own the renewal?\"",[18,152,154],{"id":153},"minutes-7590-build-the-prioritized-cut-list","Minutes 75–90: Build the prioritized cut list",[11,156,157,158,161],{},"For everything you couldn't decide on the spot, rank by a simple formula: ",[72,159,160],{},"annual cost × uncertainty."," A $3,000/year tool nobody can vouch for outranks a $120/year tool you're 80% sure about. Write the top 5 as a cut list with a decision owner and a date next to each.",[11,163,164],{},"That's the audit. In 90 minutes you've gone from invisible spend to a real inventory, a few cancellations done, renewals calendared, owners assigned, and a ranked list of what to investigate next.",[18,166,168],{"id":167},"what-the-90-minute-audit-cant-do","What the 90-minute audit can't do",[11,170,171],{},"It's a snapshot, and snapshots decay. Within a couple of months, new trials convert, seats get added, and a renewal you didn't catch processes. It also only catches what reached the inboxes and cards you checked — a tool on a former employee's account or paid through a channel you don't see stays invisible.",[11,173,174],{},"That decay is the case for making discovery continuous rather than annual. InvoiceAgent runs the email side of this audit on an ongoing basis — scanning billing signals in your connected inbox to keep the inventory current, flag trial conversions and forgotten tools, and surface renewals before they hit. The 90-minute audit is the perfect way to start; a continuous scan is what stops you from needing to redo it from scratch every quarter.",[18,176,178],{"id":177},"just-run-it-once","Just run it once",[11,180,181],{},"The hardest part of a SaaS audit is starting, because it feels open-ended. Time-boxing removes that excuse. Ninety minutes, one timer, a billing inbox, and a spreadsheet. You'll end with a clearer picture of your spend than most companies ten times your size — and probably a few cancellation emails already sent.",{"title":183,"searchDepth":184,"depth":184,"links":185},"",2,[186,187,188,189,190,191,192],{"id":20,"depth":184,"text":21},{"id":64,"depth":184,"text":65},{"id":83,"depth":184,"text":84},{"id":121,"depth":184,"text":122},{"id":153,"depth":184,"text":154},{"id":167,"depth":184,"text":168},{"id":177,"depth":184,"text":178},"2026-05-23","A time-boxed, 90-minute SaaS audit for founders who don't have a finance team. Six steps from billing trail to a prioritized cut list, with the exact searches to run.","md",null,{},true,"/blog/founder-saas-audit-90-minutes",{"title":5,"description":194},"blog/founder-saas-audit-90-minutes","ZuLVXoq0iGsBVUGTcq39EXe9PfvG2m32uMzBW0iiCBE",1780618490277]