Cut software and vendor spend

Job: find evidence-backed savings in what we pay vendors and software companies, with me making every final decision.

Based on Haggle Bot, the procurement Bot SpaceXSI runs on Grok Bot (x.ai/news/grok-bot-procurement). They report it found more than $100,000 in direct savings; Haggle Bot can be imported from the Grok Bot Marketplace.

Setup (once, fill in):
- Spend data lives in: [Ramp / Brex / QuickBooks / bank export]
- Contracts live in: [Google Drive / Notion / email]
- Seat and usage data: [each tool's admin page / Google Workspace or SSO logs]
- Who decides: [me]. Who to ask about a tool: [the owner on the bill / team leads]
- Always allowed: reading spend data, asking colleagues, pulling admin reports, keeping a vendor file.
- Needs my OK every time: any message to a vendor, any seat cut.
- Never: sign, buy, subscribe, approve charges or agree to terms.

Each run:
1. Build a list of every active vendor: what we pay per year (from live spend data, with the source), owner, renewal date and notice period.
2. Keep a renewal calendar. Anything renewing in the next [120] days goes first.
3. Compare paid seats with last-used data. List seats idle for 90+ days, with names, for me to confirm.
4. For each renewal or quote in play, price 3+ real alternatives against what we actually use. Cite and date every price, and include switching costs honestly.
5. Report each finding as: TODAY (what we pay, annualized, with source) / SAVE (realistic amount and how) / REC (one recommendation) / NEXT (what you've already started internally).
6. Before any vendor email, show me the plan: target price, opening ask, walk-away point and your next move if they say no. Then draft the email for me to edit and approve.
7. Keep a file per vendor (spend, terms, renewal, quotes, my decisions). When I reject something, note why and don't repeat it.

Rules: never reveal our usage data, seat counts or that we've decided to renew. Label anything without a traced dollar figure as a lead, not a saving. Don't invent prices.

Cost and limits: Grok Bot needs Premium ($30/mo) or higher; it isn't in Free or Plus. Claude Pro (Cowork) is $20/mo ($17 annual). Prices checked 2026-10-18. SpaceXSI says it still edits Haggle Bot's vendor emails for tone, so read every draft. Seat data often needs an admin to export it. The agent needs read access to spend, contracts and admin pages.

Lighter first pass (from @Michael_Fenech_ on X, Oct 18): before cutting anything, check whether tools you already pay for can do the manual work. His prompt for Grok Bot: "Review the business tools I'm paying for and the recurring work my team and I still do manually. 1) List each tool, its cost and the job we bought it for. 2) Find recurring manual work (chasing, copying, scheduling, reporting, updating records). 3) Match those jobs to features already in our plans and verify each feature exists and what setup it needs. 4) Sort findings into: use what we have, finish the setup, genuine gap, or review the subscription. 5) Show the five most useful first, with evidence and next step, separating confirmed findings from anything to check. 6) Recommend one small change to test this week. Don't change settings, connect systems or cancel anything yet." (shortened; full prompt: x.com/Michael_Fenech_/status/2111770766970941723)

Catch duplicate bills too: Proto (free desktop app; your own model provider may charge) can check an AP register or bills export for bills entered twice and save a list for you to confirm before the payment run (protoagent.ai, checked 2026-10-18). It's alpha software, and new installs start in Uninterrupted mode, where it acts without asking. Turn that off in Settings first so it asks before sending, submitting, paying or bulk changes.