← The stack
FROM THE BOOK · STEP ONE: EXPOSE THE BLOAT
Cost Audit
Open your accounts software, or a year of bank statements, and list every recurring cost in three columns: software, outside help, manual jobs. Put an honest yearly figure next to each one. Yearly, not monthly. Monthly numbers lie to you.
Then sort it biggest to smallest and sit with it for a minute. There is always at least one line that makes you say out loud, "we're still paying for that?"
Runs in your browser · what you type stays on your machine
Software
£0/yr
Outside help
£0/yr
Manual graft
£0/yr
Total annual cost base
£0
What you pay for
Column
Amount (£)
Billed
Per year
£0
How much do you use?
First instinct (decide later)
Note
The manual-graft column is not a list of people
It's a list of repetitive tasks. Treat the two as the same and you'll do real harm. You're hunting repetition, not bodies. Put the task and roughly what that chunk of work costs across a year.