How to set up renewal ownership in a small company

Renewals rarely go wrong because someone chose badly. They go wrong because nobody chose at all. The person who signed up has moved on, the renewal email went to their old inbox, and the charge lands on a card that pays for thirty other things.

An owner is the person who answers one question before each renewal: do we still need this, at this price? Not a team, not “finance”, one person. When two people own something, each assumes the other will deal with it.

• Pick the person who knows whether it is used. Usually the lead of the team that uses it most: design owns the design tool, sales owns the CRM. The person who pays the bill is often the wrong owner, because they can't tell whether it is still needed.
• Shared tools still get one owner. Email, chat and the office lease belong to everyone, so give them to whoever runs operations.
• Contractors and retainers count. A bookkeeper on a monthly retainer or a three-month agency engagement renews just like software. Give each one an owner too.
• Owners don't need to be admins. They need to hear about the renewal in time and say keep or cancel. They don't need access to billing.

Ownership only works if everyone knows what the owner may decide alone. Keep the rule short enough to remember, for example:

• The owner can keep or cancel anything below an amount you set.
• Above that amount, the owner recommends and the founder or finance lead approves.
• Anything that renews for a year or longer gets a second look, whatever it costs.

Write the rule down where people will find it, and write down each decision with who made it and when. Next year, that note answers “why do we still pay for this?”

Vendors send renewal notices to whoever is set as the billing or account contact, often the person who signed up. Some send them only to admins of the account. If that person leaves, the warning goes nowhere.

• Make sure more than one person, or a shared address, receives billing and renewal emails for every vendor.
• Keep at least two people with admin access to each important account, so canceling never needs someone who has left.
• Keep your own record of renewal dates and notice periods, so you are not relying on the vendor to remind you at all.

Add three lines to your leaver checklist:

• Reassign every vendor they owned to someone who stays.
• Replace them as billing contact and account admin with each vendor.
• Check whether any vendor was paid on a card in their name, and move it.

• Monthly: look at what renews in the next 60 to 90 days, and make sure each owner knows.
• Before each renewal: work through what to do 60 days before a contract renews.
• Quarterly: check that every vendor still has an owner who works for you.

A spreadsheet is enough to start. Our free vendor tracker template has a column for the owner.

• An owner on every vendor. The owner is a team member, or an owner tag: a name and, if you want, an email, for someone who never logs in, such as your bookkeeper. Admins set owners, and on a computer can set one for many vendors at once.
• Alerts belong to the workspace. Every renewal alert goes to all the Admins as well as the owner. When an owner leaves, the Admins still hear about every renewal.
• Decisions are recorded. Owners answer Keep or Cancel from the alert email, and the owner or an Admin can record Renew, Renegotiate or Cancel on the vendor. Each decision shows who made it and when.
• Escalation, on the Business plan. If an owner doesn't answer in time, the Admins are told.
• Unlimited seats. Invite every owner at no extra cost, or use owner tags for people who should never need a login. Admins can also choose that Members see only the vendors they own.