Most companies do not overspend on software through one bad decision. They overspend through dozens of renewals that roll over because nobody read the notice clause in time. A contract that auto-renews with a 60-day notice period is effectively decided two months before the renewal date. If the owner only looks at it when the invoice arrives, the price, the seat count and the terms are already locked for another year.
This page collects everything Circuit & Capital has published on renewals and SaaS spend. The guides explain how to read a renewal, how to build a tracker that sorts by notice deadline rather than renewal date, and how to treat software buying as a skill the finance team practices, not an annual scramble. The tools turn that into a worksheet: the software renewal scorecard scores a contract on seat use, price-up caps, notice period, data return, export rights, SBOM access, AI training terms, subprocessors and exit clauses, and tells you whether to keep, renegotiate or replace.
The approach is the same throughout. Start from the contract, not the vendor’s slide. Count active seats over the last 30 days and compare them with paid seats. Look for a written cap on price increases; if there is none, assume the price can rise by any amount. Check whether you can get all of your data out, and how long the vendor gives you to do it. Ask whether the vendor uses your data to train AI models, and whether that is opt-in or opt-out. These are the terms that decide what the next year costs and how hard it is to leave.
Security and spend overlap more than most budgets admit. A vendor that will not send a software bill of materials, list its subprocessors or commit to a patch timeline is a risk you are paying for. That is why several of the briefings below, including the CISA catalog roundups, end with a contract question rather than a technical one.
If you would rather hand the work off, the Renewal Audit reviews up to 25 renewals for a fixed $199 and returns a written report in 5 business days. Every free tool on this page also has a free download you can keep.
Who this page is for, and how to use it
This page is for whoever owns a software budget: a CFO or controller, an IT or procurement lead, or a founder who signs the contracts. Start with the tracker guide if you do not yet have a list of every renewal and its notice date; most savings are lost simply by missing the window to give notice. Then use the scorecard on each renewal due in the next 90 days, and read the renewal guide before the vendor call. The briefings explain why buying software is now an operating process rather than an IT purchase. None of this is legal advice; use it to prepare, then involve counsel for contract changes.
Guides
- How to read a SaaS renewal
- How to build a software renewal tracker
- Software buying as an operating skill
- What belongs in a processor clause
- When cloud repatriation is a finance decision
Tools and free downloads
- Software renewal scorecard · free Excel scorecard
- Vendor claim checker · free checklist
- SBOM request pack · free email template and checklist
Briefings
- Software buying is an operating skill
- Private credit is quietly funding the software roll-up
- Cloud repatriation: when the bill becomes the strategy
- Three exploited bugs, three deadlines: Ivanti, GitLab and Cisco VPN
- CISA added Magento and a compression library. Ask who owns the patch.
Services
- Renewal Audit · $199, up to 25 renewals
- All services
Other topics: Security and vulnerabilities · AI costs · All topics