Every business has a drawer of IT vendors nobody fully tracks: the ISP on autopay, the domain that renews on a card that expired, the software licence that the previous office manager signed, the mobile plan with three lines nobody uses. Each one is fine until it is not, and when it is not, the first twenty minutes are spent finding the account number.
Managed IT includes managing those vendors, whether the agreement says so or not. Here is how to get every vendor into one register, keep it current, and use it to save money and shorten outages.
Build the vendor register
The register is one table, kept in the documentation platform next to the client's other records. One row per vendor relationship, not per vendor; a client with two ISP circuits from the same provider has two rows. Fields stay short: what it is, who provides it, the account and circuit identifiers, the support contact and hours, the contract term and renewal date, the cost and billing cadence, and who at the client is authorized to make changes.
Populate it from three sources: the client's accounts payable for anything billed, the credentials vault for anything with a portal login, and the network for anything you can see (ISP handoffs, SIP trunks, cloud tenants). Cross-check the three. The gaps are usually the interesting rows.
- Connectivity: ISPs per site with circuit IDs, SIP or phone carrier, mobile plans
- Software: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, line-of-business applications, security tools, backup
- Infrastructure: domain registrar, DNS host, TLS certificates, web hosting, cloud accounts
- Hardware: warranty and support contracts for servers, network gear, printers and copiers
- Services: the client's other IT contractors, the low-voltage company, the phone installer
Renewals: a calendar that pages someone
The renewal date is the most important field, because vendors do not warn you in ways that get read. Domain registrars send email to an address that left the company. Certificate expiry warnings go to a mailbox nobody monitors. Software auto-renews at a higher price with a notice buried in an invoice.
Put every renewal on a shared calendar with reminders at 90, 60 and 30 days, and assign each one to a named person. The 90-day reminder is when you decide whether to renew, renegotiate or replace. The 30-day reminder is when you confirm the payment method still works. For certificates, automate with ACME where the platform allows and still keep the calendar entry for anything manual.
- Enter every renewal date from the register into a shared calendar
- Set reminders at 90, 60 and 30 days, each assigned to a person
- At 90 days: decide renew, renegotiate, or replace, and note the decision
- At 30 days: verify the payment method and the contact email on the vendor account
- After renewal: update the register with the new term, cost and date
Circuits and carriers: be ready for the outage call
When a site loses internet, the call to the ISP goes faster if you have the circuit ID, the account number, the service address exactly as the ISP has it, and the name of a person the ISP will talk to. Keep all four on the site page and in the register. Ask each ISP for the direct business support number and whether they need a letter of agency to speak to you on the client's behalf; get that letter signed during onboarding, not during an outage.
Review carrier bills annually. Lines that were added for a project and never removed, speeds that were upgraded at the ISP's suggestion but never needed, and legacy services like an analog line for an alarm that was replaced years ago are common. The savings are real and the client remembers who found them.
- Circuit ID, account number, service address, authorized contact for every circuit
- Letter of agency on file so you can open tickets directly
- Escalation path: the number to call when the first-line queue is not moving
- Annual bill review for unused lines and services
- Contract end dates so you can rebid before auto-renewal
Software licences and the count that drifts
Licence counts drift upward. Users leave and their seats stay assigned. A trial becomes a paid plan. A department buys a tool on a card and it never reaches the register. Reconcile the main subscriptions against the active user list every quarter: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, the security stack, the RMM, the backup platform, the line-of-business application.
Where a vendor allows it, move to monthly terms for seats that change often and annual terms for the stable base, and note in the register which is which. Keep the licence keys and the purchase records with the vendor row, so an audit request or a reinstall does not become a search. If you want a starting template, RackLedge can share the one we use.
Get-MgUser -All -Property DisplayName,AccountEnabled,AssignedLicenses | Where-Object {-not $_.AccountEnabled -and $_.AssignedLicenses.Count -gt 0} | Select-Object DisplayNameFrequently asked questions
Who should own the vendor register, the client or the provider?
The client owns the data and the relationships; the provider maintains the register as part of the service. Give the client read access and make it clear the register goes with them if they ever change providers.
Should the provider be the point of contact for all vendors?
For technical vendors, yes, through a letter of agency. For financial decisions the client stays the contact. The register records both so nobody is surprised by who the vendor calls.
How do we find vendors the client forgot about?
Accounts payable for the last twelve months, the DNS zone for services pointed at third parties, and the credentials vault. Ask the office manager what auto-renews on the company card.
Takeaway
One register with every vendor, circuit and renewal, a calendar that reminds a named person at 90, 60 and 30 days, and a letter of agency for every carrier. Reconcile licence counts quarterly and review carrier bills annually. The next outage call starts with the circuit ID in hand, and the next renewal is a decision instead of a surprise.