Subscription Audit Checklist: Find Every Recurring Charge

A subscription audit is a simple idea: go through every statement you have, list every charge that repeats, and put a monthly and yearly cost next to each one. It is the only reliable way to answer "what am I paying for every month?", because memory, inboxes and app-store pages each see only part of the picture.

This page is the checklist version. It is designed to be printed or copied into a notes app and ticked off. For the explanation behind each step, see how to find all your subscriptions from a bank statement.

Before you start

Time: about an hour for a household with two or three accounts, less if you use a spreadsheet or a statement-based tool for the grouping.

Accounts to include: every checking account, every credit card, store cards, PayPal, and the app-store accounts on any shared family plan.

How far back: twelve months if you can, because annual renewals only show up once a year. Three months is the minimum for monthly charges to repeat.

What you need: the statement PDFs, a highlighter or a spreadsheet, and the totals table at the bottom of this page.

The checklist

1. Gather every statement

• List every account that can be charged: checking, any other account with a debit card, credit cards, store cards, PayPal
• Download twelve months of statements for each as PDF (three months minimum)
• Include the card you rarely use; sign-ups and trials often land there
• Note which accounts are shared with a partner or family member

2. Group the repeat charges

• Highlight every merchant that appears more than once across the months
• Mark every single larger charge from software, hosting, security, insurance or membership companies
• Mark every merchant that appears on the latest statement but not earlier ones (possible converted trial)
• Set aside card payments, transfers between your own accounts, ATM withdrawals and refunds

3. Decode the descriptors

• Write each merchant exactly as printed on the statement
• Resolve APPLE.COM/BILL lines on the iPhone subscriptions page (Settings → your name → Subscriptions)
• Resolve GOOGLE * lines in Google Play → Payments & subscriptions
• Resolve PAYPAL * lines in PayPal → Settings → Payments → Automatic payments
• Search any remaining descriptor in quotes to identify the merchant

4. Total the cost

• Note the cadence from the gap between charges (about 7 days weekly, 28–33 monthly, 84–98 quarterly, 350–380 annual)
• Convert each line to a monthly equivalent and a yearly cost
• Compare the oldest and newest amount for each merchant and note any change
• Add up the monthly total and the yearly total

5. Decide and diarise renewals

• Mark each line "keep" or "review" — the decision is yours
• Put the next renewal date of every annual charge in your calendar, a week or two ahead
• Pick the date of your next audit: a year from now, or a quick three-month check next quarter

That is twenty items. If an item turns up nothing, tick it anyway: knowing a card has no subscriptions on it is also a result.

A short descriptor decoder

Most confusing lines on a statement come from a handful of processors:

The full table, with where to look each one up, is in the pillar guide. For the types of subscription that hide best — cloud storage tiers, converted trials, annual antivirus — see the 12 subscriptions people forget they pay for.

Totals worksheet

Copy this table into a spreadsheet or onto paper. One row per recurring charge.

Monthly equivalent: weekly × 52 ÷ 12, every two weeks × 26 ÷ 12, monthly as is, quarterly ÷ 3, annual ÷ 12. Per year: monthly equivalent × 12.

Two columns do most of the work. Oldest amount seen makes price changes visible: descriptors rarely change when a price goes up, only the amount does. Next renewal turns an annual charge from a surprise into a date you already know about.

A filled-in example (fictional)

To show how the columns work together, here are three made-up rows (merchant names invented):

The quarterly and annual rows only exist because the statements cover enough months to see them. The "oldest amount seen" column shows two price changes that the descriptors alone would never reveal.

Where the checklist usually goes wrong

• Leaving out a card. Subscriptions cluster on credit cards; see how to read a credit card statement for recurring charges for where they sit on the page.
• Counting one app-store line as one subscription. Several apps can bill under the same APPLE.COM/BILL or GOOGLE * descriptor with different amounts.
• Treating habits as subscriptions. Twelve coffee-shop charges on irregular days are spending, not a subscription. Cadence and a stable amount are what separate the two.
• Missing variable-amount bills. Utilities and phone bills recur but vary in amount; match them by name, not by amount.

Doing it from one PDF instead

If the grouping step is the part you would rather skip, StatementConvert.ai does steps 2 to 4 from a statement PDF. You upload one statement; it lists the merchants that charge on a cycle with the observed cadence, the latest amount, the last and next expected charge date, the monthly equivalent, the yearly cost and a confidence label (Confirmed, Likely or Possible). Rows marked Possible are shown but left out of the totals. The list is suggested from the transactions it read, so check each row against your statement: transactions are read by AI, which can make mistakes, and the result shows whether they agreed with the balances printed on the statement.

Honest limits: one statement covers one period, so annual charges only appear if that period includes the renewal month. Paid plans accept up to 12 statements in one upload merged into one timeline, which is what makes quarterly and annual charges visible; the free plan covers up to 5 statement pages a month. There is no bank login, and we never store your statement: its pages are read by our AI providers and the file is then discarded (see the privacy page). Step 5 stays with you — the tool is informational and never contacts a merchant or acts on a charge.

Bookkeepers running this for clients can follow the client-facing version: a recurring-charge review workflow for bookkeepers.

Frequently asked questions

How often is it worth running a subscription audit? Once a year covers annual renewals, and a quick three-month check every quarter catches new sign-ups and converted free trials. Many people tie the yearly audit to a fixed date, such as tax season or the start of the year.

Which accounts belong in a subscription audit? Every checking account, every credit card (including store cards and the card you only use online), PayPal, and the app-store accounts of everyone on a shared family plan. Subscriptions cluster on cards, so leaving one out is the most common reason an audit misses charges.

How do I find quarterly and annual charges? Look at a longer window. Quarterly charges need at least four to six months of statements to repeat; annual ones need twelve. A single larger charge from a software, hosting, antivirus, VPN, domain or membership company is often annual: check the same month a year earlier.

What if a charge appears only once? A single charge is not proof of a subscription, but it is worth a look if the merchant is the kind that bills on a cycle, such as a streaming service or an app store. Check the previous year's statement for the same month, and search your email for a receipt from that merchant.

Run the audit on one statement

Try the subscription finder free — upload one PDF statement and get the recurring charges with cadence, monthly and yearly cost and a confidence label. No bank login, and we never store your statement.