Answer

How often should I audit SaaS licenses?

Short answer

Continuously for tier-1 apps (Slack, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, GitHub) and at least 30 days before every renewal for everything else.

Details

Point-in-time audits catch a moment; continuous audits catch the pattern. A user who logged in once last week to check a message isn't active — usage over 30 days is the honest signal.

The 30-day pre-renewal audit is the single highest-ROI cadence: it gives procurement time to reclaim seats before a true-up locks in the wasted spend.

Automate this with SeatMap.AI

The audit path above works. It also takes hours per month per tool. SeatMap.AI runs it on a schedule, stages the reclaim actions for review, and shows you the annualized savings in real dollars.

Related answers