What is a SaaS audit?
Empirica's SaaS audit is a fixed-price review of your software subscriptions, security and system architecture. We give every subscription a recommendation: keep, cut, consolidate or replace. If we move on to implementation, the audit fee can be credited against it.
Microsoft partner · Claude Partner Network member
Fixed price
agreed in advance
Four recommendations
keep, cut, consolidate or replace
Fee credited
if implementation starts within 60 days
Contents
What does the audit include?
The audit runs in three phases: first we bring together all of your company's software subscriptions and their costs, then we analyse overlaps, security and architecture. Finally, we present the results to management. We review every subscription and license, including services bought on company cards (so-called shadow IT), along with their utilisation and contract terms. On the security side we check who has access to which system, whether two-factor authentication is in use and how integrations and API keys are protected. We also map out where your company's data is stored.
The audit runs in three phases
- 1
Discovery and data collection
kickoff, data request and interviews with management, finance and admin, and operations
- 2
Analysis, security and architecture
overlaps, oversized licenses, access management, two-factor authentication, API keys, GDPR and target architecture
- 3
Reporting and final presentation
finalising the report and roadmap, and a wrap-up session with management
Outcome
What do you get from the audit?
The audit gives you four outputs: a SaaS cost matrix, a security and GDPR risk index, an architecture map and a prioritised roadmap. Every subscription comes with a reasoned recommendation, so you know what to do next. The results are yours to keep, and you can implement them with anyone.
SaaS cost matrix
Every application with its monthly cost and users, plus the immediate savings: licenses to cancel or downsize.
Security and GDPR risk index
Gaps found, rated with a traffic-light model (red, amber, green), with suggested fixes.
Architecture map
Current and target state as a diagram: how scattered systems are connected into one coherent whole.
Roadmap
Tasks in order of priority (quick savings, cuts, integration) with cost and savings estimates.
AI tools add new security questions to your subscription list. See our AI security checklist for small and mid-sized companies.
Recommendations
How are the recommendations made?
Each recommendation rests on three things: how widely the subscription is used, whether it is critical to the business and what it costs in the long run. We only recommend replace if a custom application, maintenance included, costs less in the long run than the subscription with its price increases. Otherwise the recommendation is keep. The aim is not to reduce subscriptions for their own sake but to make sure each one is worth what it costs. Services that work well are worth keeping.
Keep
Widely used or critical to the business, and a custom application would not be cheaper in the long run.
No action, renewal date noted
Cut
The license has been unused for more than 90 days, or the subscription has no owner.
You do it yourself, savings start right away
Consolidate
Two tools for the same purpose, or a paid tier that is more than you need.
You do it yourself at the next renewal
Replace
Only a small share of features is used, the price grows with headcount, data is locked into the service, or work is done manually on the side.
Empirica implements it as a scoped project, source code is yours
Replace or keep? We compared costs and maintenance in custom AI solution vs. off-the-shelf tool and explained what makes up the price of a custom implementation.
Savings
How much does the audit save?
Cutting licenses typically saves a small or mid-sized company €3,000–10,000 a year directly, and manual work disappears on top of that when poorly fitting tools are replaced. There are no public statistics in euros on what Finnish companies spend on SaaS. According to Statistics Finland, 79% of companies with at least ten employees used paid cloud services in spring 2025. According to Zylo's 2026 SaaS Management Index, median SaaS spend is $9,455 per employee per year, and on average 36% of licenses go unused. As these are international figures, for a Finnish SME we assume a third of them: about €3,000 per person and 12% waste.
Source: Zylo, 2026 SaaS Management Index (published 29 January 2026) and Statistics Finland, Use of information technology in enterprises 2025 (published 27 November 2025).
10-person company
about €30,000
SaaS spend per year
about €3,600
Unused licenses per year
30-person company
about €90,000
SaaS spend per year
about €10,800
Unused licenses per year
The estimate is based on €3,000 per person and 12% waste. The actual figures come from the audit's cost matrix.
Who it's for
Who is the audit for?
The audit suits small and mid-sized companies whose software costs have grown gradually. Typically subscriptions have piled up across teams, some of them are barely used, and the same information sits in several tools.
Growing software costs
Subscriptions have piled up across teams, and nobody knows how much they cost in total.
Scattered data
The same information sits in several tools and is moved by hand from one system to another.
Before contract renewals
Annual contracts are about to renew, and you want the decision to rest on facts, not habit.
When data is moved by hand from one system to another, the answer is often an integration. We compared when Zapier, Make or Power Automate is enough and when you need a custom API integration.
Is the bigger question which manual work is worth automating? Read about the automation assessment.
Price
What does the audit cost and how does the credit work?
The audit has a fixed price that is agreed before it starts and does not change along the way. If implementation starts within 60 days of the audit, the audit fee is fully credited against the price of the implementation project. You can carry out the cut and consolidate recommendations yourself without us, so the audit pays for itself with those alone.
Fixed price
agreed before the start, no hourly billing
Four outputs
cost matrix, risk index, architecture map and roadmap
Fully credited
if implementation starts within 60 days
Questions
SaaS audit FAQ
Do we have to implement the recommendations with Empirica?
No, you don't. You carry out the cut and consolidate recommendations yourself, usually when the subscription next renews. Replace recommendations cover cases where a custom application or integration costs less than the subscription. We can implement those as a scoped project. You always get full rights to the source code, so you don't swap one vendor lock-in for another.
Who maintains the replacement application?
When a subscription is replaced with your own application, someone has to take over maintenance from the SaaS vendor. That is why maintenance is a named service for us: AIRO development monitors the application, updates it as the business changes and reports monthly. When we compare your own application with the subscription, we include maintenance in the application's cost. That way the application never looks cheaper on paper than it really is.
What is the difference between the audit and the automation assessment?
The automation assessment looks for repetitive manual work in your processes that can be automated. The SaaS audit starts from your software subscriptions and works out what to drop, what to consolidate and what to replace. If you are not sure where to start, a short call will settle it.
How the automation assessment works →Start with your subscription list
Tell us how many applications you use, and in 30 minutes we'll go through whether the audit is worth it for you. The call is free and doesn't commit you to anything.