What your software stack actually costs
How much am I really spending on software every year?
Most businesses can name their subscription bill and not the other one. The other one is the hours somebody spends moving information between tools that do not talk to each other, and it is usually larger.
This adds both together. Enter the tools you pay for, then an honest estimate of the time spent as the glue between them.
How this is calculated:
Subscriptions are summed monthly and multiplied by twelve.
Manual time is hours per week multiplied by 52, then by the loaded hourly rate you enter. Loaded means salary plus employer costs, not the take-home figure.
The three-year figure assumes today's costs continue unchanged. It does not add growth, price rises, or new tools, so treat it as the floor rather than the forecast.
Questions people ask about this tool:
What counts as glue work?
Re-entering the same record in a second system, exporting a report to reconcile it against another, copying details into an email, or checking whether something synced. If a person is the integration, that is glue work.
Should I include tools we barely use?
Yes, and it is often the most useful line in the list. Unused seats are the easiest saving available and they rarely show up until somebody totals them.
Does this tell me whether to build something?
No. It tells you the size of the problem. Whether building is the answer depends on how ordinary your process is, which is a separate question.