Guide · Cutting costs

How to find wasted spending in QuickBooks

Most small businesses lose a few percent of revenue to spending nobody is watching: subscriptions that renew forever, suppliers who quietly raise prices, and charges coded to "Miscellaneous." Here's how to find it yourself in an afternoon.

Written for QuickBooks Online. Report names can differ slightly by version and region.

1. Rank every vendor by what you paid them

Run Reports → Expenses by Vendor Summary for the last 12 months and sort by total. The top 20 vendors usually cover most of your spend, so that's where to look first.

For each one, ask two questions: do we still need this, and when did we last check the price? Any vendor you can't answer for is a candidate for a call.

2. Look for price creep

Open Transaction List by Vendor for your biggest suppliers and compare what you paid for the same item or service a year or two ago against today. Price increases often arrive one invoice at a time, so nobody notices until you line them up.

A 15% increase on a supplier you buy from every month adds up fast. Even a partial rollback is worth a phone call.

3. Find subscriptions nobody uses

Filter your expenses for recurring software and service charges. In QuickBooks, check Recurring Transactions, then search the bank and card feed for monthly charges from software companies. List each tool, its monthly cost and who owns it. Then ask each owner how many seats are actually in use. Unused seats and overlapping tools (two video-call apps, two file-sharing services) are the easiest money to recover.

4. Catch duplicate payments

Sort bills and expenses by vendor and amount and scan for the same amount paid twice within a few weeks. Duplicates usually come from an invoice that arrived by email and by mail, or a bill paid by check and then again by card. Most vendors will refund or credit a duplicate when you ask.

5. Clean up "Miscellaneous" and "Uncategorized"

Run a Profit and Loss report and click into Uncategorized Expense, Ask My Accountant or any "Misc" account. Spending you can't categorize is spending nobody owns. Coding it properly often reveals a vendor or habit you'd stop if you saw it clearly. It also matters if you ever sell the business: buyers discount numbers they can't trace.

6. Check whether you're paying too early or too late

Run A/P Aging and compare when you pay against each vendor's terms. Paying too late can cost late fees and goodwill. Paying a bill with early-payment terms (such as "2/10 net 30," meaning 2% off if paid within 10 days) on day 30 means leaving a discount on the table. On large recurring suppliers, that discount can be worth more than most savings accounts pay.

Make it a quarterly habit

Put an hour on the calendar each quarter to repeat steps 1, 3 and 5. Leaks come back, so the businesses that stay lean are the ones that keep looking.