For 5-50 person agencies and firms
Stop paying for software your team barely uses.
Many small agencies and professional services firms pay for big software suites and use a fraction of them. Send us the tools you pay for and get a free one-page snapshot of what each costs per year and who uses it. If one workflow stands out, the $350 audit tells you plainly whether to keep, repair, switch, or build.
Bay Area based · Works online · Founder: Vaughn English
Four possible answers
- 01KeepThe software earns its cost. Leave it alone.
- 02RepairFix the setup, drop unused seats or add-ons, change plans.
- 03SwitchA simpler off-the-shelf product covers what you actually use.
- 04BuildA small tool you own costs less than the subscription.
- Free first lookYour tool costs on one page in 2 business days
- Honest mathBuild, hosting, and upkeep counted
- You own itYour accounts, your data, exports
- Safe switchParallel run and rollback plan
Who it is for
Small firms paying big-suite prices.
Agencies and professional services firms with roughly 5 to 50 people. You pay per seat for a project management platform, an agency ERP, or a CRM built for much larger teams, and most people use a few screens of it.
- Per-seat pricing that grows with every hire
- Large parts of the product go unused
- Side spreadsheets fill the gaps anyway
- One workflow drives most of the cost
- Renewal is coming up
- A decision-maker can join one call
Start free
The Software Cost Snapshot.
Email the tools you pay for, with rough seats and the number of people who use each. Nothing confidential needed. Within 2 business days you get one page back. It is free, and there is no obligation.
- Yearly cost per tool, from sourced list prices
- Seats you pay for vs people who use them
- 3 questions to ask at renewal
- Then an optional 20-minute call with Vaughn
- Want to see a replacement? A free working prototype, with fake data
The paid next step: the audit
A decision you can use, even if we build nothing.
Pick the workflow
Choose one expensive workflow, such as project intake, time and billing, or client reporting, and the software behind it.
Map the cost
Seats, plan tier, add-ons, renewal terms, and the features your team actually uses day to day.
Compare options
Keep, repair, switch, or build, each with its cost over time and its risks written down.
Get the call
A written recommendation and next steps. If a build makes sense, a fixed-price proposal.
Our build rule
No clear savings.No custom build.
What a custom build is
A small tool your firm owns.
When a custom tool is the better deal, we build one that does the part of the job your team actually needs, for a fraction of the ongoing cost of the suite it replaces.
- Owned: code and data sit in accounts you control
- Small: one workflow, not a rebuild of the whole suite
- Exports: your data comes out in standard formats any time
- Rollback: runs alongside the old tool until you are ready to cancel
Guides
Check your own software costs.
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Who you'll work with
Vaughn English
I'm Vaughn English, based in the Bay Area. I take every call and set prices and direction. An AI-assisted team researches prices and prepares snapshots, prototypes and builds, and every piece is checked before it reaches you.
FAQ
Straight answers.
What is the free Software Cost Snapshot?
You email the tools your firm pays for, with rough seat counts and how many people use each. Within 2 business days you get one page: the yearly cost of each tool from sourced list prices, seats paid against people who use them, and 3 questions to ask at renewal. It is free with no obligation, and Vaughn English offers an optional 20-minute call to walk through it. Nothing confidential is needed.
What is a Workflow Ownership Audit?
It is a $350 review of one expensive workflow and the software your firm pays for to run it. We look at who uses which features, what you pay per seat or per month, and where people work around the tool. You get a written recommendation: keep the software, repair how it is set up, switch to something cheaper, or build a small tool you own.
Who is the audit for?
Agencies and professional services firms with roughly 5 to 50 people that pay for large software suites, such as per-seat project management, agency ERPs, or CRMs, and suspect they use only a fraction of them. The audit works best when one workflow, like project intake, time tracking, or client reporting, clearly drives the cost.
Will you always recommend building custom software?
No. The answer can be to keep what you have, remove unused seats, fix the configuration, or move to a cheaper plan or product. We only recommend a custom build when it is likely to cost less than the software it replaces over a realistic period, after counting build, hosting, and maintenance.
What does it mean that we own the custom tool?
The code and the data live in accounts your firm controls. You can export your data in standard formats at any time, and you are not locked into paying us to keep it running. The tool is kept small and documented so another developer could maintain it.
What happens to our current software during a switch?
Nothing is cancelled on day one. The new tool runs alongside the old one until your team confirms it handles real work, and there is a written rollback plan. You cancel the old subscription only when you are ready.
Do you need our passwords or access to our systems?
Not for the audit. We work from what you choose to show us: invoices or billing pages, seat counts, a screen share of the workflow, and a conversation with the people who do the work. Please do not email passwords or customer records.
Do you work with firms outside the Bay Area?
Yes. Workflow Ownership is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and works online with firms anywhere in the United States.
Start with your tool list
Free snapshot first.
Pay only if you want more.
- Send: each tool, plan, seats paid, people who use it
- Get: one page within 2 business days, free
- Next, if you want it: the $350 audit of one workflow
- The $350 is credited toward a build if we do one
Opens your email app, addressed to vaughn.workflowaudit@gmail.com, with a short template. Please do not include passwords or customer records. Already know which workflow you want checked? Email about the $350 audit.