Track renewals without surprise charges
An email alert at 30, 15, 7, and 1 days before each annual renewal. Each window has a job; together they make missed renewals rare.
TL;DR
- Missed renewals are the most expensive SaaS mistake you can make. A $4,800 annual that nobody canceled becomes $4,200 of avoidable spend, plus a difficult Slack conversation.
- CostLens sends an email alert to the subscription's owner at 30, 15, 7, and 1 days before each charge. Each window has a specific job; together they make it hard to miss a renewal.
- No bank access, no card issuance. You enter each subscription once with an owner assigned; the alerts fire automatically from the renewal date.
Built for
- The founder who already got burned by one surprise annual renewal and doesn't want it to happen again
- The finance lead at a 10-30 person startup with 20-40 annual SaaS subs renewing across the year
- The ops person tracking multiple client portfolios with different renewal calendars
- Anyone who inherited a SaaS spreadsheet that hasn't been updated in two quarters
Four windows, four different jobs
- 30 days out
- Negotiate or replace. Thirty days is enough time to email the account manager for a better rate, or to start onboarding a replacement tool if you've decided to switch. Too early and you forget; too late and you've run out of runway to do anything meaningful.
- 15 days out
- Reality check. Did the team actually use this tool last month? If the owner checks and nobody logged in, this is where the cancel decision gets made, not at the 7-day deadline.
- 7 days out
- Cancel logistics. Most vendor contracts require 7 to 14 days of notice to cancel. If you're past this window, even a committed cancel decision means paying for one more cycle. Use this alert to check whether the paperwork is done.
- 1 day out
- Last line of defense. By now every meaningful decision should already be made. The 1-day alert is a final sanity check: the charge is hitting tomorrow, is the subscription still something we want?
Four alerts per annual subscription sound heavy, but each email takes 30 seconds to read and the large majority are "yes, keep it." The four-window schedule exists for the small share that aren't.
What to do when an alert fires
The alert lands in the owner's inbox. One of four decisions follows.
- Keep.The tool is used, worth the cost, and the price is reasonable. Mark the alert handled in CostLens; it stops firing at the remaining windows for this renewal cycle.
- Renegotiate.Keeping the tool, but the per-seat rate feels high or the annual commitment isn't getting a discount. Email the account manager at the 30-day window and ask whether they'll discount the annual terms. They usually come back with a number.
- Downgrade.Drop from Pro to Basic, or from 40 seats to 15. The tier above what you actually use is a common source of waste. Handle this before the 15-day window so the cycle renews at the new tier.
- Cancel.Nobody uses it, or you have a replacement. Export data, submit cancellation through the vendor portal (not by email), confirm the cancellation email arrives. Update CostLens to mark it canceled.
No integration, no onboarding call
CostLens doesn't connect to your bank, card feed, or Gmail. You enter each subscription with four fields — vendor, cost, cycle, renewal date — and assign an owner. From that moment the alert schedule runs automatically.
Adding 20 subscriptions takes about 15 minutes. You can do it in one sitting or spread across a week as you work through your card statements.
If you want the full background on the four-window schedule and the process around it, the renewal-tracking guide covers it end to end.
Frequently asked
How does CostLens know when a subscription renews?
You tell it. When you add a subscription, you enter the renewal date (for monthlies, just the day of the month; for annuals, the full date). CostLens calculates the alert windows backwards from there. No bank feed, no card scanning — the date comes from you.
Why four alert windows instead of just one?
Each does a different job. 30 days gives you time to negotiate or find a replacement. 15 days is a reality check — did the team actually use this last month? 7 days handles cancellation logistics (most vendors need 7-14 days of notice). 1 day is the last line of defense against a charge you forgot to address. Four windows make it hard for a renewal to slip through every single one.
What about monthly subscriptions? Four alerts is overkill.
It is, and we handle that. Monthly subs get a single 3-day warning by default. The 30/15/7/1 schedule is for annuals — where missing the cancel window costs you 12 months of unused spend instead of one.
Who gets the alerts?
The owner you assigned when you added the subscription. One sub, one owner, one email address. No shared inbox that nobody checks. If the owner leaves the company, reassign the subscription to keep the alerts going to a real person.
What do I do when an alert fires?
Three options at the 30-day window: renew (keep the tool), renegotiate (email the account manager for a discount), or plan to cancel (kick off the replacement or consolidation). By the 7-day window you should have a decision made. The 1-day alert is sanity-check only — everything should be handled by then.
Can I snooze or customize alerts per subscription?
The four windows are the default across all annual subs. You can mute a specific subscription (if you've already handled its renewal and don't want the closer alerts) or change the owner mid-cycle. Per-sub schedule customization (different windows for different subs) is a roadmap item; ping [email protected] if it matters to you.
What if my renewal date is wrong?
Edit it. The alert schedule recalculates from the new date. If you're not sure of the exact date, check your last invoice or card statement; the renewal is usually one year (or one month) after the last charge.