Licences are the quietest line on an IT bill. Nobody rings about them until something stops working, a new person can’t get into Outlook, or a warning says the subscriptions are about to be deleted.
Between 19 August 2025 and 18 August 2026, 15 clients raised 35 tickets about licences or subscriptions, 21 of them new requests and the rest replies. They took five hours. We left out domain renewals, website plans and antivirus, which would push the count higher and muddy the picture.
Adding and changing licences
Most requests were about getting the right licence to the right person. A new user needing an account and licences. Someone moving from an email-only plan to Business Standard. Project added to one person’s account. Teams licences. A new Mac that needed a licence before Outlook would run.
Each is small on its own. Together, they’re why a licence list drifts. People get added in a hurry and are rarely taken off with the same urgency.
Paid add-ons
A handful were for add-ons on top of the standard plans: reporting licences for a person and a service account at one business, a premium security licence installed at a wealth management firm, and a Windows licence for a new tablet.
Add-ons are the licences worth checking at renewal, because they’re often bought for one project and then kept long after it ends.
AI subscriptions
Two newer requests stood out: an email account set up for an AI tool subscription, and a question about AI subscriptions more generally. We expect more of these. Every AI tool someone signs up for with a work email is another subscription, and another place business data can end up.
Subscriptions that nearly lapsed
Four tickets, each at a different client, were about a Microsoft subscription at risk or already gone. Two were forwarded warnings that subscriptions would be deleted or disabled if not renewed by a date. One was a notice that a Microsoft 365 subscription had expired, and one that a subscription had been cancelled.
Those warnings often go to whoever set the account up years ago. If that person has left, or it’s a personal inbox, the first sign of trouble is staff locked out of their email.
The licence audit
One ticket was a licence audit across a construction group’s two trading entities. The ticket records the audit, not what it found, so we won’t put a number on it. Where two entities share staff, it’s easy to pay for the same person twice, so it’s the right place to look.
What a licence review asks
A licence review comes down to a handful of questions:
- Does every paid licence belong to someone who still works here?
- Is each person on the plan their job needs, not a tier above or below?
- Which add-ons were bought for a project that has finished?
- Where do renewal and expiry warnings go, and does anyone read them?
- Which AI and other subscriptions are paid on a card rather than through the main account?
If you can’t answer the last two easily, start there. If you’d like a hand, ask us for a licence review.