Adding a tool: autocomplete, autofill and what each field means

To add a tool, choose Add software and start in the Product Name box. As you type, StackTrackr suggests matches from a built-in catalogue of around 60 common products, and recognises common former names and synonyms too (type Office 365 and it finds Microsoft 365, or G Suite and it finds Google Workspace). Pick one, with a click or with the arrow keys and Enter, and it autofills the website, vendor, category and a short description for you. Pressing Enter without moving to a suggestion keeps the name you typed, so a tool that is not in the catalogue is never swapped for one that is. If you type a name that exactly matches a product, the same details fill in automatically. You can reopen the list and choose a different product at any time, and anything you have already typed by hand is kept rather than overwritten.

The name and the website are both required when you create a tool. The website just needs the domain (for example slack.com); StackTrackr tidies up whatever you paste, stripping https, www and any trailing path. On the tool's page, a Website link next to the vendor name opens the tool's website in a new tab, so the vendor's billing or account page is one click away when a renewal comes up. The Vendor defaults to the supplier: the product name for most tools, since the two usually match, or the parent supplier for products that share one (Jira fills in Atlassian, Tableau fills in Salesforce), so your spend groups by supplier. You only change it when it differs. Description is a one-line note on what the tool does.

Category, Status and Criticality classify the tool. Category groups it (SaaS, Security, Infrastructure, Finance and so on). Status is what you set by hand - Trial, Active, Notice given, Cancelled or Expired - while StackTrackr derives the finer states such as Due soon and Notice window from your dates. Criticality (low, medium, high or critical) feeds the dashboard breakdown and helps you triage.

Ownership and commercials share one section. You can record a Business unit and assign an Owner from the active people on your account, so it is always clear who is accountable for the tool, alongside the licence type, an optional licence key, the number of seats, the cost, its currency and the billing cycle (monthly, quarterly, annual or one-off). If you leave cost blank it is stored as zero. Business units are the list you manage under Settings, and picking one can pre-fill the owner with that unit's default owner.

The Dates and termination section is where the renewal intelligence lives. Enter the purchase date, the renewal date and, if it helps, the payment date (when payment is made or falls due, which is not always the day you bought the tool). If you leave the renewal date empty but enter a payment date on a monthly, quarterly or annual tool, a suggestion appears under the Renewal date box reading Use followed by the payment date plus one billing cycle; select it to fill the renewal date in, or ignore it and type your own. If the renewal date is still empty while reminders are on, an amber note under the box warns that the tool can't send alerts without one, and suggests adding a date or turning reminders off if it doesn't renew. It is a warning, not a block, so you can still save; it does not appear for a one-off purchase, or for a perpetual or open-source licence with nothing billed each cycle, because those never renew. Then tell StackTrackr whether it Auto-renews and how many days of notice the contract needs. From those, it shows a read-only Calculated renewal date - the next renewal, today or later, rolled forward by whole billing cycles for an auto-renewing tool - and it works out your cancellation deadline as the renewal date minus the notice period. You can also paste the relevant termination clause for reference.

Reminders are on by default. StackTrackr emails you ahead of each renewal on a set of day offsets that start at 90, 60, 30 and 7. On Team and above you can change the list to suit the tool; the Starter plan uses a fixed 30 and 7 day schedule. Either way you can turn reminders off for one you do not need chasing. There is a Notes field for anything else worth keeping with the record.

When you are creating a tool you can also queue documents - a contract, invoice or terms, up to 25 MB each - and StackTrackr uploads them the moment the tool is saved. Select Create software to save, and you land on the tool's page ready to review it or add more detail (unless you ticked Add another tool after saving, which keeps the form open).