The software-spend review, by Kevin Ferron · KFTCDA
Pay for the software you use. Nothing else.
The software-spend review: I go through every software charge your business pays, what your team actually uses and where your tools overlap, then tell you what to keep, cut, downgrade, consolidate or build.
- A decision per tool: keep, cut, downgrade, consolidate or build
- Part of Elite AI Enablement
- You own any code and data
You're paying for someone else's plan.
Business software is priced for the average customer. Each product serves thousands of very different businesses, so each one carries features for all of them. You pay for that breadth whether you use it or not.
Per-seat pricing means every new person costs you again, in every app. The feature you need can sit in a higher tier than the one you'd choose. And the apps don't share their data, so you pay for a connector between them, or copy the details across by hand.
None of this is a trick. If you use most of what a product does, it's good value, and you should keep it. If you use three screens of it, it isn't.
What the Checkup covers.
A written report 5 business days after I have access, then a 45-minute walkthrough call with whoever signs. The quick cuts are made with you on that call, and if a build would pay for itself, you get its fixed price there. The report contains:
- An inventory of every recurring software charge, from 12 months of statements
- Spend and renewal dates
- Seats used against seats paid
- The overlaps
- A decision per tool: Keep, Cut, Downgrade, Consolidate or Build, each with the rule behind it
- Quick cuts, with steps and dollar figures
- Build options at fixed prices, with the payback month
- A 12-month renewal calendar
The report's checks: every recurring software charge in your 12 months of statements is in the inventory, every tool has a decision and the rule behind it, and every number can be rebuilt from the spreadsheet you receive.
Want help gathering the paperwork?
Book a 30-minute intake together call. You share your screen and I pull the exports with you, so the statements stop being the reason you put this off. It's part of the review.
Intake checklist
- 12 months of card or bank statements for every account that pays for software
- A screenshot of each tool's billing page, with the plan and renewal date
- A list of who uses which tool, and who has stopped
- Read-only access where the tool offers it (never passwords)
- Any annual contracts or renewal notices you have on file
Who it's for
Businesses spending about $750 a month or more on software, or owners with 5 or more hours a week of copy-paste between apps. Below that, the calculator's honest "keep what you have" and a free call are the answer.
What happens to your data
- Access is read-only where possible, and I never ask for passwords.
- Statements stay on my machine and are deleted 30 days after the report.
- Nothing goes into an outside service, AI tools included, without your written OK.
How I decide.
The rules are public and printed in every report. The first rule that matches wins.
1. Keep.
Anything on the won't-rebuild list, or a tool you use most of, or need for its certifications or ecosystem.
2. Cut.
Unused for 60 days, or fully covered by a tool you keep.
3. Consolidate.
A tool you keep already does it.
4. Downgrade or switch vendor.
Same job, cheaper plan or product.
5. Build.
Only when the payback on cash alone is 24 months or less, or 25 to 36 months when the time savings are real and you agree.
What are you paying now?
Tick the tools you pay for and enter how many people use each one. The prices are each vendor's published list prices, checked on October 20, 2026. If you pay something different, type in what you actually pay; it gives a better answer. Nothing you enter leaves this page unless you choose to send it to me.
Starter Suite: $25/seat/mo · Source
Starter (billed monthly): $20/seat/mo · Source
Standard: $10/seat/mo · Source
Starter: $16/mo · Source
Basic: $28/mo · Source
Bronze: $34/mo · Source
Basic: $9/seat/mo · Source · 3-seat minimum
Starter: $10.99/seat/mo · Source
Team (editors): $20/seat/mo · Source
Pro, 2,000 tasks: $49/mo · Source
Support Team (per agent): $19/seat/mo · Source
Essential: $29/seat/mo · Source
Essentials, 2,500 contacts (about): $45/mo · Source (third-party source)
Standard: $30/seat/mo · Source
Starter: $19/seat/mo · Source (third-party source)
Starter: $29/mo · Source
Tier
Suggested from what you ticked. Upkeep for Build is $199 a month.
Build starts at $9,999; you can raise it but not go below it.
What people replace.
Usually not a whole product. Usually the few parts of it a small team uses every day.
| What you pay for | What you get instead |
|---|---|
| Booking and scheduling (such as Calendly or Acuity) | Booking on your own site that knows your real availability, takes a deposit, sends reminders and lets customers reschedule themselves. |
| Forms and intake (such as Typeform or Jotform) | Forms that only ask what applies, check the answers and produce the document you need. |
| A simple customer list and pipeline (such as Salesforce or HubSpot, when you use only the contacts and deals) | Your customers and jobs, with just the stages you use, and every enquiry arriving with where it came from. |
| Projects and job tracking (such as monday.com, Asana or Airtable) | A board shaped to how your work actually moves, with the fields you fill in and none you don't. |
| Customer questions (such as Zendesk or Intercom, on a small team) | One shared inbox for customer questions, with your stock answers and AI drafts you sign off. |
| Glue between apps (such as Zapier) | The steps run inside the tool, so nothing sits between apps to break. |
| Enquiry to booking to invoice (such as HoneyBook) | One flow from first enquiry to proposal to paid invoice. Payment goes through your own payment processor. |
| Lists and newsletters (such as Mailchimp) | Your list and simple newsletters inside the tool. Sending still goes through a delivery service on your account (see below). |
| Proposals with an "accept" button (such as PandaDoc) | Proposals your customer reads and accepts online, where a simple acceptance is all you need. |
Product names belong to their owners and are used only to describe what you might be paying for. KFTCDA isn't affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of them. They're good products, and plenty of businesses should keep them.
Software keeps changing. Your setup should too.
Vendors raise prices, move features into higher tiers, change their APIs and launch new products every year. A setup that was right last year can be wrong this year. Upkeep includes a yearly software-spend review of what you still pay for: what to keep, what to cut, and what's now cheaper to build or buy. You have someone watching the landscape for you, who already knows how your business runs.
What I won't rebuild.
Some software is worth paying a specialist for. I'll connect your tool to these, not replace them.
Accounting and payroll.
Tax rules change every year and mistakes are expensive. Keep your accounting and payroll software; I can send it the data.
Payment processing.
Card payments go through an established processor on your own account, at their fees. I build the checkout, not the bank.
Email delivery.
Getting email into inboxes is a specialist job. Your tool sends through a delivery service on your account.
E-signature where compliance matters.
For contracts that must stand up in court, or anything regulated, use a dedicated e-signature provider. I can connect to it.
Sign-in and security.
Logins go through an established identity provider, not something home-made.
Your email, calendar and files.
Keep your workspace suite. The tool works alongside it.
When to keep what you have.
You use most of a tool's features.
Then you're getting what you pay for.
You depend on its ecosystem.
Marketplace apps, ready-made integrations, templates, certified consultants, a community that knows the product. A custom tool has none of that.
You need its certifications.
If your customers, insurer or regulator need a vendor with formal security certifications, or you handle health or card data, keep the certified vendor.
You're still working out how you work.
Off-the-shelf tools let you change your process every week. Build when your process has settled.
You need a support desk around the clock.
You get one engineer who knows your system, not a 24-hour support team.
The numbers don't add up.
If the calculator says it won't pay for itself, believe it.
What it costs.
The review is no longer priced on its own: it is quoted as part of Elite AI Enablement, after a free scoping call. If it leads to a build, the tiers below are what a build costs to run.
Fix, from $999.
One simple tool. A booking page or an intake form on your own site.
Days
Then $99 a month.
Includes a yearly software-spend review.
Build, from $9,999.
Several tools in one. Enquiries, bookings, a customer list and follow-ups, with your data moved across.
Weeks
Then $199 a month.
Includes a yearly software-spend review.
Transform, from $49,999.
The core of how a larger team works. Pipeline, customer questions and projects together, delivered in milestones.
Months
Then from $499 a month, quoted.
Includes a yearly software-spend review.
Upkeep is flat, not per seat. Hosting, backups, security updates, monitoring, fixes when anything breaks, and a yearly software-spend review (a re-run of the assessment), timed before your biggest renewal. Add people without adding cost. Bigger changes are quoted as a Fix. Upkeep is a 12-month commitment, then month to month. You pay your payment processor and email delivery service directly, on your own accounts, at their prices.
Free scoping call · 30 minutes. Bring your monthly software spend and who signs for it. We name the outcome, pick the tier and I follow up with a fixed price in writing. If it is not a fit, I will say so.
Don't cancel anything until it passes.
After the deposit, you pay only for checks that pass. For a replacement, the checks are written in plain words and you can run them yourself:
- Every record you exported from your old tools is in the new one, and the counts match.
- Each task on the agreed list works end to end, on a phone and on a laptop.
- Your team has used it for real work, alongside the old tools, for two weeks.
- You can export everything in it to a spreadsheet, whenever you want.
Your old subscriptions stay on until the last check passes. If the new tool doesn't do the job, you keep your old tools and you haven't paid for the milestones that failed.
I've built this kind of plumbing before: billing, subscriptions, customer support and identity wired into an online game at Electronic Arts, and KruX42, a product of my own with accounts and a keyed public API. More than 30 years shipping software. Director of Engineering at Zynga, CTO at Booyah. You work directly with the engineer doing the work. Full resume →
Questions
What are you paying for that you don't use?
Start with a free scoping call and I'll tell you how the spend review fits your business. I read every enquiry myself and reply within 24 hours. If keeping what you have is the better deal, I'll tell you.
Book a free scoping call →What small-business software costs, with sources · Terms and refunds