October 28, 2026 · Mitt Patel · 5 min read
You're reconciling the company card and there it is again: a $49 charge for a tool you're pretty sure the team stopped using in the spring. Next to it is a $120 charge for a client's project management software, the kind you're supposed to be billing back to them. You make a note to look into both. You will not look into either.
Why this happens
Agencies run on tools. Design software, project trackers, AI writing assistants, stock photo libraries, scheduling apps, a dozen single-purpose things someone signed up for during a busy week two years ago. Each one gets put on whatever card was handy at the time: the owner's personal card, an employee's reimbursed expense, the main business card, sometimes a client-specific card if you have one.
Nobody owns the full list. The person who signed up for the trial six months ago may not work there anymore, or just forgot. The charge keeps hitting every month, quietly, for $29 or $79 or $199, and it looks small enough that nobody stops to ask what it's for.
Mixed into that pile are subscriptions you're supposed to be rebilling to clients. If you lose track of which tool belongs to which client, you either forget to bill it (you absorb the cost) or you bill the wrong client (you have an awkward conversation).
The cost isn't just the subscription fee. It's what it does to your numbers. If unused tools and unbilled client software sit buried in a general "software expenses" line, you don't actually know your profit by client or by project. You might think a client is profitable when their software costs are quietly eating the margin. You might think you're spending less on tools than you are, because half the charges are scattered across personal cards nobody reconciles carefully.
A worked example
Say you run a 12-person agency with three cards in use: the main business card, your personal card (for a couple of legacy signups), and a card used for one specific client's project.
On the business card, you've got $1,400 a month in software: project management, email platform, design tools, a stock photo subscription, and three AI tools. On your personal card, there's a $49 charge for an old survey tool nobody remembers using. On the client card, there's a $120 monthly charge for software that should be billed straight back to that client.
Without a list, here's what actually happens most months: the $49 charge rolls on because it's on a personal card and never shows up when you review the business account. The $120 client charge gets missed half the time because whoever does the invoicing doesn't know to look for it, so the client doesn't get billed and you eat the cost.
Over a year, that's $588 in a forgotten subscription and up to $1,440 in unbilled client costs if it's missed every month. Neither number is dramatic on its own. Together, and repeated across every client and every forgotten trial, it adds up to real money leaking out in small, invisible pieces.
How to set it up
- Build one master list. Every subscription, on every card, goes on a single spreadsheet or a note in QuickBooks Online: the tool name, the monthly cost, which card it's on, who uses it, and whether it's rebilled to a client.
- Tag each one as internal or client-billable. Internal tools are a cost of running the agency. Client-billable tools should be marked with the client's name so nothing gets missed at invoicing time.
- Move client-billable charges to a card you actually track. If possible, put client-specific software on a card the business reviews monthly, not a personal one, so it shows up in the same place you do your monthly bookkeeping.
- Set up a recurring line item in your invoicing. If you use QuickBooks Online, create a billable expense or recurring line for each client's software costs so it gets added automatically instead of relying on memory.
- Review the list every month, not just the bank feed. Reconciling the card tells you a charge happened. It doesn't tell you whether anyone's still using the tool. The list is what catches that.
- Set a cancellation rule. If a tool hasn't been opened or used in 60 days, or nobody can say who owns it, cancel it. You can always resubscribe if it turns out to matter.
The mistakes that undo it
- Keeping the list once and never updating it. A list built in January and ignored since is barely better than no list.
- Letting personal cards hold client-billable tools. If it's not on a card you review monthly, it won't make it onto an invoice.
- Assuming someone else is tracking it. In most agencies, nobody is, until it becomes a habit for one specific person.
- Canceling without checking who's using it. A quick message to the team before cutting a tool avoids surprises.
- Rebilling at the wrong amount. If a tool's price went up, your rebilling should too. Check the list against actual charges, not what you remember the price being.
Monthly checklist
- Pull every software charge from every card and personal account used for the business.
- Match each charge against the master list. Add anything new.
- Confirm each client-billable charge actually made it onto that client's invoice.
- Flag any tool with no clear owner or no recent login.
- Cancel anything unused for 60 days or more.
- Update the list with any price changes.
Common questions
How many subscriptions does a typical agency actually have?
It varies a lot by size and specialty, but it's common for the real number to be higher than what the owner would guess off the top of their head, simply because signups happen in small moments across different people and cards.
Should client software always go on the business card instead of a client-specific card?
Not necessarily. The point isn't which card, it's that whichever card holds client-billable charges needs to be one you reconcile and review every month without fail.
What's the best way to catch subscriptions on personal cards?
Ask everyone who might have signed up for a tool, even informally, to report it once, and then route future tool signups through one person or one card going forward so it doesn't happen again.
How do we know if a tool is actually unused, not just quiet?
Check the tool's own usage or login history if it has one, or ask the team directly. A quick message asking "does anyone still use this" usually gets a fast, honest answer.
North Hudson Bookkeeping sets up this kind of subscription tracking for agency clients and keeps it current month to month, so fewer charges get forgotten and fewer client costs get missed on invoices. The first call is free.
