The idea behind it
SaaS sprawl is the build-up of software subscriptions bought by separate teams, often on a corporate card or an expense claim, without central review. Each purchase is small and renews automatically, so the total spend, the number of tools doing the same job and the licenses nobody uses stay hidden from IT and finance. The usual result is several tools for one capability, such as two team messaging products or three project trackers, and renewals that roll over without anyone deciding to keep them.
Showback is the practice of reporting technology costs to the teams that consume them without billing them. Chargeback goes further and moves the cost into each team's budget. Showback comes first because it needs only an accurate inventory and an agreed way to assign each tool to a team, with no change to budgets or the ledger. Team leaders who see their own spend have a reason to cancel overlaps and unused seats. Both practices come from IT financial management and FinOps, where showback is usually treated as the step before chargeback. A spreadsheet inventory is the starting point. SaaS management platforms automate discovery later from single sign-on, expense and accounts payable data.
What's inside
- A SaaS Inventory sheet with 30 rows: tool, owner, team, monthly spend, renewal date, primary capability, overlapping tool, duplicate flag, active users and status.
- Annual spend and cost per user calculate from the monthly spend and user count.
- A Showback by Team sheet that you fill in by hand from the inventory: tools, monthly and annual spend, duplicates and a recommended action per team.
- A sample sheet with 20 tools for a fictional company, with duplicates flagged and statuses such as Review, Remove and Consolidate.
Format: Excel workbook.
Who uses it
- IT and software asset managers, to build the first list of SaaS tools and their owners.
- CIOs and IT finance leads, to show each team leader what their SaaS footprint costs.
- Procurement teams, to see upcoming renewals and overlapping tools before notice periods pass.
- Department heads, to see which of their team's tools duplicate another team's.
When to use it
- A budget review asks IT to cut software spend and nobody has a full list of subscriptions.
- Expense reports show recurring software charges that procurement never approved.
- A merger or reorganization brings two sets of tools for the same jobs.
- A large renewal is due and a team using a competing tool has not been consulted.
- Finance wants teams to see their technology costs before chargeback is introduced.
How to use it
Fill in the inventory, total it by team on the showback sheet, and take the duplicate list to the next renewals review.
- On the SaaS Inventory sheet, fill in one row per tool: tool name, owner, team or business unit, monthly spend, renewal date, primary capability and active users. Annual Spend and Cost per User calculate from formulas.
- Name any overlapping tool in the Overlapping With column, then set Duplicate? to Yes, No or Unknown from the dropdown.
- Set each tool's Status from the dropdown (Active, Review, Remove or Consolidate) and record the reason in Notes.
- On the Showback by Team sheet, enter the number of tools, monthly and annual spend and number of duplicates for each team, by hand or from a PivotTable on the inventory.
- Add a Recommended Action for each team and send each team leader their row.
- Sort the inventory by Renewal Date and take the tools marked Review, Remove or Consolidate to the renewals review.
You leave with: A single list of SaaS tools with owners, renewal dates and duplicates flagged, and a per-team spend summary to share with team leaders.
Where it goes wrong
- Building the inventory only from IT's contracts. Tools bought on corporate cards and expense claims get missed, and they are often the duplicates.
- Marking two tools as duplicates because they share a category. One may stay for a feature the other lacks, as the sample's note on document rights management shows.
- Missing cancellation notice periods. A tool marked Remove still renews if notice is not given in time.
- Reading cost per user as a verdict. A high figure can mean a specialist tool or an under-used license, and the active-user count tells which.
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Questions
What is SaaS sprawl?
SaaS sprawl is the uncontrolled growth of software-as-a-service subscriptions across an organization, usually bought team by team without central review. It leads to overlapping tools, unused licenses and renewals nobody decides on. It is a common form of shadow IT.
What is the difference between showback and chargeback?
Showback reports each team's technology costs to it without moving any money. Chargeback bills the cost to the team's budget. Organizations often start with showback so the cost allocation is accepted before money changes hands.
How do you find all the SaaS tools a company uses?
Start with accounts payable and corporate card data for recurring software charges. Add the apps connected to single sign-on and the contracts held by procurement, then ask each department head to confirm their team's list. A SaaS management platform can automate discovery once the list outgrows a spreadsheet.