Technical Glossary
Software License Audit
Exact Definition
A Software License Audit is a compliance review where a software vendor (SAP, Oracle, Salesforce) audits a customer's actual system usage against their contracted license terms — often resulting in six-figure true-up invoices for unlicensed usage.
Architectural Deep Dive
SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce reserve the right to audit customers annually for license compliance. Common triggers include: adding users beyond contracted seats, using features in unlicensed modules, or connecting systems via indirect access. Audit findings regularly result in true-up invoices of $500K–$10M for enterprise customers. Switching to custom ERP permanently eliminates license audit risk since you own the source code and have no vendor licensing obligations.
The ERPStack Approach
We help clients build License Audit Risk Assessments during the discovery phase, quantifying their current license exposure vs. the cost of a custom replacement — typically showing 3-year savings of $2M+ for mid-market companies.