Customising your register columns

The register comes with a sensible default set of columns, but every team looks at its estate differently, so you can shape the table to suit you. The Columns button above the register opens a short menu where you choose exactly which columns appear and in what order. Your choice is saved to your own profile, so it survives a reload and follows you from one device to the next (each teammate keeps their own layout).

In the menu, tick or untick a column to show or hide it. Beyond the defaults - Vendor, Owner, Category, Billing cycle cost, Status, Renewal and Expiry in - you can switch on Customer, Business unit, Criticality, Annual cost, Cancel by and Notice. If you assign software to customers or organise it into business units, adding those columns lets you scan the whole estate by account or team at a glance.

To reorder, drag a column by the handle beside its name and drop it where you want it. The table reflows immediately, and the leading Software (name) column stays pinned in place so a row is always easy to read. If you ever want to get back to the standard view, simply switch the optional columns off again.

Two cost columns are worth knowing apart. Billing cycle cost (previously just Cost) is what you actually pay each billing cycle - a monthly figure for a monthly tool, a yearly figure for an annual one. Annual cost takes that same figure and annualises it, so a monthly tool is multiplied up to a yearly run-rate and everything compares fairly on one basis. One-off purchases show no annual cost because they are not recurring.

Cancel by is the column worth adding first if you manage auto-renewing contracts. It shows each tool's cancellation deadline - the last day you can give notice before the contract rolls over - with a pill counting the days to it, and it sorts like any other column, so you can order the whole estate by the date you have to decide rather than by the date you get billed. It is deliberately off by default so that signing in on a new device never rearranges a layout you did not choose.

This column deliberately shows only a deadline you can still act on, which is the same rule the dashboard and the reports use. It is blank when there is nothing to give notice before, so auto-renew is off, no notice period has been recorded, or the tool has no renewal date yet. It is also blank when you have already marked a tool Cancelled or Expired, or recorded that notice was given, because the decision is made and the Status column is the honest answer for that row. And it is blank once this term's deadline has passed: rather than leave a date you can no longer meet at the top of an ascending sort, the register hands that case to the Status column, which shows Notice missed where it matters, and to the tool's own record page, which always shows the date.

The Notice column sits alongside it and shows the notice period in days, which is the figure that explains how far ahead of the renewal the deadline falls. It only shows a value for tools set to auto-renew, because a notice period has nothing to act on when a contract simply ends at its term.

The Expiry in column shows a compact pill counting the days until each tool's next renewal or expiry, so the most urgent tools stand out without you opening anything. Sorting still works on whichever columns you display, and on a narrow screen the register switches to cards that carry the same fields, so your choices are respected on mobile too.