What are you paying for twice?
A one-page ledger of every tool, its owner, cost and renewal date, with the overlaps named before the next renewal.
Why tools pile up
Tool sprawl happens when three teams solve one need in different quarters and nobody owns the list. That list is : one row per tool with its owner, monthly cost, seats, the clients it serves and its renewal date, and a public request form so nothing new arrives without a name. The free Stack audit gives you the totals from numbers you paste, in the browser and with no account; keeps the ledger behind them.
Read the ledger, not the total
In our example agency, Meridian & Co. (example data), 66 tools in use cost $48,383 and MX$33,410 a month, each currency totalled on its own. The total is not the useful number; the overlaps are. In , the ledger is grouped by category, with owners and costs, and any product entered twice is flagged, so two tools sharing a job and an owner are one conversation away from one cancellation.
Cost by client matters too: when a tool's cost is split across the clients it serves, an overlap shows up as a line on a client's real cost, not as overhead nobody reads.
Cancel on evidence
Cancel after a month with the tool switched off, not the day you spot the overlap. Keep the tool the team already reaches for under pressure. The saving is usually smaller than a budget deck promises and lasts longer: a clear ledger held for a quarter beats a round of cuts you reverse the next.