Most small businesses do not need vendor-management software. They need one living page they will actually open before a renewal hits the card. Below is the exact sheet I use. Copy it into a doc, spreadsheet, or Notion page. Keep it ugly and current.

The rule that makes the sheet work

If a vendor is not on the list, it does not get paid without a five-minute review. That sounds harsh. It is how surprise SaaS charges die. New vendors get added the same day you sign — not “when we have time.”

Copy this sheet

VENDOR LIST — Owner: ____________________ Last reviewed: __________ For each vendor, one row: 1. Vendor name 2. What we use it for (one sentence) 3. Owner (human name, not “team”) 4. Login location (password manager vault / SSO) 5. Monthly or annual cost 6. Renewal date (calendar date) 7. Notice period to cancel (days) 8. Critical? (Y/N) — would a 48-hour outage stop revenue? 9. Backup option (who else could do this job) 10. Notes / contract link Example row: Acme Backup Co. | Nightly file backup | Maria Lopez | Vault > Infra | $49/mo | 2026-11-12 | 30 days | Y | Backblaze export + local drive | Contract in Drive/Legal

How to fill it in 40 minutes

  1. Export the last 90 days of card and bank charges. Highlight anything that looks like software or a service.
  2. Open email search for “invoice,” “renewal,” and “your subscription.” Add anything missing.
  3. Walk your phone home screen and browser password manager. App icons lie; vault entries do not.
  4. Assign an owner per row. If nobody claims it, mark Critical = N and schedule cancellation research.
  5. Put renewal dates on a shared calendar with a 14-day reminder.

Monthly 20-minute review agenda

Do not rebuild the sheet every month. Ask only: What renewed or will renew in 30 days? What had an outage or complaint? What has no login in 60 days? What price changed? End by updating three fields max per changed row. Long reviews are how the habit dies.

A vendor list is not paperwork. It is a decision log you keep before the credit card decides for you.

When to graduate to software

If you have more than roughly twenty critical vendors, multiple legal entities, or procurement approval chains, a lightweight tracker may help. Until then, one page beats an unused “vendor portal.” I have watched teams buy vendor tools and still miss renewals because nobody owned the list.

Fields people skip (and why they matter)

Notice period is how you stop paying for a month you already decided to leave. Put the number of days next to the renewal date, then set the calendar reminder earlier than that number. Backup option is not a second vendor you already use. It is a sentence: “We could export CSV and run payroll in the accountant’s tool for two weeks.” If you cannot write that sentence for a Critical = Y row, you have a single point of failure, not a vendor relationship.

Owner must be a human. “Ops” or “the office” means nobody will cancel on time. When that person leaves, transferring rows is part of offboarding, same as email.

A quarterly cut list

Once a quarter, sort by cost descending. For the top five spend lines, ask: did we use this in the last 30 days, and would a 48-hour outage stop revenue? If both answers are no, it is a candidate to pause. Pausing with a revisit date is kinder than a dramatic purge you will reverse in a panic.