SaaS Exit Worksheet: When to Dump a Tool (Financial & Operational Triggers)

Stop wasting money on underused subscriptions: a pragmatic SaaS exit worksheet to tell you when it’s time to retire a tool

Hook: If your credit card keeps getting charged for apps your team barely touches, you’re not alone. In 2026 the average small business has dozens of SaaS subscriptions, but constrained budgets and tighter scrutiny from finance teams mean every license must earn its keep. This article gives you a practical decision worksheet — a combined scoring model based on usage metrics, cost per active user, redundancy and disruption risk — so you can confidently decide whether to keep, review or retire a tool.

Why now (2026): trends that make a SaaS exit worksheet essential

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated two trends that change how businesses manage their tool stacks:

• Consolidation and ROI pressure — CFOs and founders are demanding tighter SaaS governance as AI- and usage-based pricing models increase variability in bills.
• Integration-first platforms and APIs — more tools expose usage metrics and billing data, enabling automated lifecycle signals, but only if you instrument them.

“Marketing stacks aren’t crowded because of a lack of tools — they’re overloaded with underused, overlapping apps that add cost and complexity.” — MarTech, 2026

What this worksheet does (high-level)

The worksheet combines four signal groups into a single Retirement Score that drives a recommendation (Keep / Review / Retire). Each signal is normalized and weighted so you get an objective, repeatable decision instead of gut calls.

Signals included

• Usage metrics — active users, DAU/MAU, feature adoption
• Cost per active user — monthly or annual spend divided by active users
• Redundancy score — overlap with other tools and feature duplication
• Disruption risk — data exportability, API availability, vendor stability, single point of failure and compliance concerns

How the scoring model works (step-by-step)

1) Define your active user

Before any math, set a consistent definition of active user for your org. Options:

• Weekly active user (WAU) for operational collaboration tools
• Monthly active user (MAU) for CRM or LMS
• Function-based:

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