SaaS spend growth & shadow IT detection
Maps all SaaS spend, identifies unnegotiated price increases, detects new shadow IT subscriptions, and calculates total software TCO.
83/100ยท๐ MonthlyยทIntermediateFinance AnalystProcurement
Spend analysisSuppliersspendesk_analyze_spendget_payablesget_suppliers
๐ฏ Skill purpose
Maps all SaaS spend, identifies unnegotiated price increases, detects new shadow IT subscriptions, and calculates total software TCO.
๐ What it produces
Top 20 SaaS tools by annualized cost, alerts on increases > 30%, recent shadow IT list, and KPIs (SaaS cost per employee, growth).
โก Benefit
Before
The SaaS portfolio grows opaquely, with undetected price increases and uncontrolled shadow IT.
After
Complete real-time SaaS portfolio visibility, with automatic detection of price drift and shadow IT.
# SaaS spend growth analysis
## Purpose
Map all SaaS spend (monthly/annual subscriptions), identify unnegotiated price increases, detect new subscriptions (shadow IT), and calculate the total software cost.
## Instructions
### Step 1 โ Identify SaaS spend
```
Call spendesk_analyze_spend with:
- groupBy: supplier
- Filter by category: "SaaS", "Software", "Logiciels", "IT", "Subscriptions"
(use the categories available in your Spendesk account)
- Period: last 12 months
OR call get_payables with:
- payableType: subscription (if available)
- Last 12 months
For each SaaS expense: supplier, amount, frequency (monthly/annual), date.
```
### Step 2 โ Calculate the normalized annual cost per tool
```
For each identified SaaS supplier:
If regular monthly payments: annual cost = monthly average ร 12
If annual payments: annual cost = renewal amount
If irregular: total of the last 12 months
Rank by descending annual cost โ get the Top 20 SaaS tools.
```
### Step 3 โ Analyze year-over-year growth
```
Compare for each SaaS tool:
Average monthly cost over the last 6 months (recent period)
vs
Average monthly cost over the previous 6 months (prior period)
Growth = (recent period - prior period) / prior period ร 100
Flag:
๐ด Increase > 30%: likely price increase โ to renegotiate
๐ก Increase 10-30%: to monitor
๐ข Stable or decrease: normal
```
### Step 4 โ Detect shadow IT
```
For suppliers that appeared ONLY in the last 3 months:
List the new subscriptions
For each new one: supplier name, monthly amount, first payment date
Categorize: known market tool? Likely business use?
Shadow IT = subscriptions taken out without central IT/Finance validation
```
### Step 5 โ SaaS report
```
Present:
1. Top 20 SaaS tools by annual cost (table with supplier, annual cost, growth)
2. Price increase alerts:
๐ด Tool | Old monthly cost | New monthly cost | Increase (%)
3. Shadow IT detected:
Tool | First payment | Monthly cost | Cost center
4. KPIs:
Total annualized SaaS: Xโฌ
Growth vs last year: +X%
Number of active SaaS tools: X
SaaS cost per employee: Xโฌ/month (if get_users available)
```
## Points of attention
- SaaS spend categorization depends on the quality of categories in Spendesk
- Some tools are paid via virtual card (not visible via get_payables)
- Annual renewals create spikes in certain months โ normalize over 12 months
## Example prompts
- "What is our total SaaS spend and how has it evolved?"
- "Are there any subscriptions that have increased without me knowing?"
- "List all new SaaS tools that appeared in the last 3 months"
How to install this skill
/
- 1Download the file
s55-saas-spend-growth.mdusing the button above. - 2Place the file in the
.claude/directory of your project (or~/.claude/for a global install).cp s55-saas-spend-growth.md .claude/s55-saas-spend-growth.md - 3Use in Claude Code โ the skill is automatically discovered. Describe your need in natural language and Claude will apply the skill instructions.
๐ก Make sure the Spendesk MCP is configured in your
.claude/settings.json with the tools spendesk_analyze_spend, get_payables, get_suppliers.Similar skills
โ
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