Renewal Readiness · Usage Evidence

Prepare for Salesforce Renewal
With Usage Evidence

Most teams walk into a Salesforce renewal with gut feel. SpendReady gives you the artifact instead: the gap between seats you pay for and seats with estimated-active usage today — and, over time, your peak and lowest usage months. Built from weekly read-only audits, forwardable without a Salesforce login.

Read-only OAuth · Lightweight Connected App · No Apex · No write access

The problem

Why Salesforce renewals are hard

The renewal isn't hard because the numbers are complicated. It's hard because the evidence isn't in the room when you need it.

The auto-renew clock runs against you

Salesforce contracts often carry auto-renewal and advance-notice windows. Miss the notice date and you renew at the same seat count — whether or not you still use those seats.

Seat counts only ratchet up

It's easy to add licenses mid-term and hard to remove them. By renewal you're often paying for a peak headcount the org grew past months ago.

Nobody has the usage evidence on hand

Admins know who logs in. Finance owns the contract. But the one artifact that ties seats paid to seats actually used rarely exists when the renewal conversation starts.

Salesforce's own history runs out

Native LoginHistory is roughly a 6-month, current-state view. You can't reconstruct a year of seat utilization retroactively the week before you negotiate.

What admins know vs what finance needs

Two teams, two views of the same org — and a gap between them that only shows up at renewal time.

What admins can see

  • Who has a license assigned
  • Recent interactive logins (last ~6 months)
  • Permission Set License assignments
  • Current org state, right now

What finance needs at renewal

  • Purchased vs assigned vs estimated-active, side by side
  • A dollar figure on the gap, at list or your negotiated rate
  • Usage over many months — not just a snapshot
  • An artifact they can forward without a Salesforce login

SpendReady is the layer between the two: it turns what admins can read into the artifact finance needs to negotiate. See it from each angle on the admin and RevOps page and the CFO and finance page.

Step one · Free

Your first audit: the paid-vs-used gap, as of today

The free audit is a point-in-time snapshot. It shows purchased vs assigned vs estimated-active licenses as of today — a current-state gap analysis, not a trend. It is the fastest way to size the renewal opportunity before you ever talk to your account executive.

First Audit — Snapshot
As of today · Illustrative example
Free
450
Purchased licenses
438
Assigned licenses
289
Est. active users
Estimated gap, as of today161 seats

Illustrative example: purchased (450) minus estimated-active (289). Estimated-active is derived from login activity, not absolute proof of value. The free audit shows this snapshot only — no peak month, no lowest month, no trend.

Want the methodology behind the inactive-seat count? See how to build a Salesforce inactive user report and where Permission Set License waste hides.

Step two · Monitoring

Usage over time: your highest and lowest months

A single snapshot tells you where you are. A trend tells you what you actually need. Monitoring captures a weekly snapshot from your connection date and builds a usage history Salesforce's native 6-month LoginHistory can't reconstruct retroactively.

Peak and lowest months unlock at month 3 — be clear-eyed about this.

These views are not in your first audit and not available on day one of Monitoring. They require accumulated history: your peak-usage month and lowest-usage month appear at month 3 (≈12 weeks of weekly snapshots), with a fuller 26-week trend chart from month 6 onward. SpendReady starts capturing snapshots the moment you connect — so the sooner you start, the sooner the evidence exists.

Peak-usage month

Your highest estimated-active month over the captured window — your usage ceiling. The honest answer to "even at our busiest, did we use all those seats?"

Lowest-usage month

Your lowest estimated-active month over the captured window. The delta between peak and lowest is the documented utilization range you bring to the negotiation.

More on why this history matters for the conversation: preparing for a Salesforce renewal negotiation.

The artifact

The renewal evidence packet

Everything you need to walk into a Salesforce renewal with data — not gut feel — in one forwardable artifact.

Purchased vs assigned vs estimated-active

The headline gap: seats you pay for, seats handed out, and seats with estimated-active usage (derived from login activity — an estimate, not absolute proof of value).

Inactive-seat findings, by name

Users with no interactive login in 90+ days, cross-referenced against API activity to reduce false positives, each with an estimated monthly and annual cost attached.

Permission Set License waste

PSLs assigned to users who haven't been active — identified by name, not just a count, so you can act before the renewal sign-off.

Estimated savings methodology

Every dollar figure shows its math. Enter your negotiated per-seat rate, or fall back to Salesforce public list pricing, and the estimate recalculates.

Forwardable, no login required

Delivered as an HTML email and exportable to PDF on the dashboard — readable by your CFO, VP Finance, or Procurement team without ever touching Salesforce.

Usage trend evidence (Monitoring)

Stay on Monitoring and the packet gains your peak-usage month and lowest-usage month over time — the documented utilization floor that Salesforce's 6-month LoginHistory can't reconstruct after the fact.

A CFO-ready report example

Numbers below are an illustrative example — your figures come from your own org.

Renewal Evidence Packet
Illustrative example · Sample Salesforce org
PDF export
450
Purchased licenses
438
Assigned licenses
289
Est. active users
Peak est-active month (Feb)Monitoring · from month 3
312
Lowest est-active month (Aug)Monitoring · from month 3
241
Inactive seats (90d+)estimated, login-derived
149
Estimated annual savings opportunity$312,900

Illustrative example: 149 inactive seats × $175/mo (Salesforce Enterprise list price). Enter your negotiated rate for a closer figure. Actual savings depend on your contract terms.

Want the cost framing behind the savings math? See Salesforce cost per user in 2026 and a modern Salesforce Optimizer alternative.

Start building your renewal evidence today.

The first audit is free and shows your paid-vs-used gap as of today. Stay on Monitoring and your usage history compounds toward the peak and lowest months you'll bring to renewal.

Read-only OAuth · Lightweight Connected App · No Apex · No write access

Renewal questions, answered

What does the first (free) audit actually show?
A point-in-time snapshot: purchased vs assigned vs estimated-active licenses as of today, inactive-seat findings, PSL waste, and an estimated savings figure. It is a current-state gap analysis — it does not show a trend, a peak month, or a lowest month. Usage-over-time views require Monitoring.
When do the peak and lowest usage months appear?
Peak vs lowest usage months are a Monitoring feature. SpendReady captures weekly snapshots from your connection date, and those views unlock at month 3 (≈12 weeks of data), with a fuller 26-week trend chart from month 6 onward. The first audit cannot show them, because the history hasn't been captured yet.
How does SpendReady connect to Salesforce?
Via a lightweight, read-only Connected App installed from an AppExchange install URL, authorized with standard OAuth. The package contains only the Connected App bridge — no Apex, no business-data access, no write access. A Salesforce admin installs and authorizes once.
What data does SpendReady read?
Read-only access to five objects: User, UserLicense, PermissionSetLicense, PermissionSetLicenseAssign, and LoginHistory. We never read Opportunities, Accounts, Contacts, or any CRM business data.
Is "estimated-active" the same as proven usage?
No. Estimated-active is derived from login activity (interactive logins, cross-referenced with API activity). It's a strong signal for renewal conversations, but it's an estimate of usage — not absolute proof that a seat delivered value. We label it that way everywhere on purpose.
What does it cost?
The first audit is free. Monitoring is $399/month, the one-time audit is $499, and Enterprise is $1,199/month. For reference, Salesforce Sales Cloud lists at $175/user/month for Enterprise and $350 for Unlimited — context for the savings math, not our pricing.