Right-size Salesforce

Pay only for the Salesforce seats people use. Before a Salesforce renewal, Asato shows which seats and add-ons an organization pays for and nobody uses, by answering three questions about the bill: whether there is a person behind every seat, whether each person is on the right seat, and whether the add-ons that ride on top of the seats are still used. Each finding becomes a recommendation with its reason, its evidence, a yearly price at the customer's contract rate and an owner. Asato reads and recommends. A person the customer names approves each change, and the approved change goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item. Asato's fee is a share of the savings, and if it finds no savings, the customer pays nothing.

When to use it

• A Salesforce renewal is coming and nobody can say which seats have a person behind them, which people need the seat type they hold, or which add-ons are used.
• License reviews are done in a spreadsheet of seats, which shows the base seat and not the add-ons stacked on it.
• The organization keeps its own exceptions, such as roles that sign in rarely and must keep access, and wants them applied before anything is proposed.
• The organization wants every change approved by a person it names, routed to its Salesforce admin, and logged.
• The organization runs one Salesforce org or several, and wants each one counted on its own.

Not a fit

• Changing Salesforce directly. Asato does not change anything in Salesforce. It routes each approved change to the customer's Salesforce admin, or to procurement.
• Negotiating with Salesforce on the buyer's behalf. Asato does not negotiate. The buyer, or its reseller, negotiates with Asato's count.
• Items that are not seats or per-person add-ons. This page covers seats, seat types and the add-ons assigned to people. It does not describe AI credits, logins bought in advance, sandboxes, storage or add-ons priced as a share of spend.
• Moving licenses between orgs. Licenses do not move between Salesforce orgs, so each org is read, counted and decided separately.
• Replacing an asset management suite, a CMDB or a contract repository. Asato works above the tools an organization already runs.

The job in one line

Pay only for the Salesforce seats people use.

The problem: a seat can be added any day and dropped only at renewal

Under Salesforce's public Main Services Agreement, last updated September 1, 2026, three rules shape the bill. An order form can differ from the public agreement, and large customers negotiate their own.

• Seats can be added on any day. Subscriptions added during a term are sold at the same price as the underlying subscription, prorated for the rest of the term, and they end on the same date (section 3.1).
• Seats cannot be removed during the term. Fees are based on the subscriptions purchased, not on actual usage, and a quantity purchased cannot be decreased during the subscription term (section 5.1).
• The renewal is one date. Subscriptions renew automatically for further one-year terms unless either side gives written notice at least 30 days before the end of the term. A renewal with lower volume is re-priced without regard to the earlier per-unit price (section 11.2).

So a seat that stops being used in the middle of a term is paid for until the renewal, and it renews with everything else unless the organization acts before the notice date. The count has to be ready before then.

Source: Salesforce Main Services Agreement, last updated September 1, 2026, https://www.salesforce.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/documents/legal/salesforce_MSA.pdf

Three questions to answer before the renewal

A Salesforce bill is one formula, in each org: total spend is the sum, over all seat types, of seats times price, plus add-ons. Each of its three terms is a question, and Asato answers all three from the customer's own records, org by org.

1. Is there a person behind every seat? (seats) Asato sorts every seat by sign-in:
   • Unassigned (bought, assigned to nobody): reduce the quantity at renewal. This goes to procurement.
   • Never signed in (a user, with no sign-in on record): reclaim. This goes to the Salesforce admin.
   • No sign-in in 90 days: reclaim. This goes to the Salesforce admin.
   • Integration and system accounts (signed in by a system, not a person): review. A review is a flag for a person. It never becomes an action.
   • Signed in within 90 days: keep, no change.

The customer's policy is applied before anything is recommended. Roles the customer protects, such as senior leaders who sign in rarely and must keep access, are never proposed for reclaim.

• Link: every seat in each org is matched to its user, their role and their last sign-in.
  • Think: the customer's policy comes first, so protected roles are never proposed. The rest are sorted by sign-in and priced at the customer's contract rate.
  • Execute: on approval, a reclaim goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item. A lower quantity goes to procurement as a ticket for the renewal.
• Is each person on the right seat? (price, by seat type) In Salesforce a person's seat type sets the price of the seat. Asato compares each person's seat type with their role and with what they opened in Salesforce.
  • Only roles the customer designates are considered. A person in a role the customer has not designated is never proposed for a cheaper seat type.
  • Where a designated person's use fits a cheaper seat type, the move is recommended, with its reason and its evidence.
  • Link: each person's seat type is set beside their role and what they opened in Salesforce.
  • Think: only designated roles are considered, and each recommended move carries its reason and its evidence.
  • Execute: on approval, the move goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item.
• Is what rides on top still used? (add-ons) A person holds one seat and can hold several add-ons on top of it, such as Salesforce CPQ or CRM Analytics. A list of seats never shows this layer. Asato matches each add-on to the person who holds it and to that person's activity in the product.
  • An add-on with no activity in the window is priced at the customer's contract rate and recommended for removal.
  • Add-ons are counted among people who are active, so a seat that is already on the reclaim list is not counted a second time.
  • Link: each add-on is matched to the person who holds it.
  • Think: each add-on with no activity in the window is priced, and the evidence is labeled measured or modeled.
  • Execute: on approval, removing the add-on goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item.

Recommendations are of five kinds: reclaim a seat, move a person to a cheaper seat type, remove an unused add-on, reduce a quantity at renewal, and review. A review never becomes an action.

Nothing changes until a named person approves it. A person the customer names approves each change, one at a time or as a batch. The approved change goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item, with its audit trail. A lower quantity goes to procurement as a ticket for the renewal. Asato does not change anything in Salesforce.

The three steps under each question are the same three the platform runs everywhere. Link: the Asset Knowledge Graph links every seat and add-on to its person, role and use. Think: the Data Intelligence Engine applies the customer's policy, then turns the record into recommendations, each with its reason. Execute: Agentic AI turns each approved change into tracked work for the customer's admin or procurement. The platform page has the detail.

How a saving is counted

A saving has exactly three states: Found, Approved and Saved. They are separate figures and are never added together.

• Found is what Asato identified. A saving can be Found on any day.
• Approved is what a named person signed off. Once the Salesforce admin carries out an approved change, the seat is free to reuse. Under Salesforce's public agreement it is still paid for until the renewal.
• Saved is what came off the bill. A freed seat becomes Saved when the renewal order carries the lower count, or when it replaces a seat the customer would have bought. A Saved figure is agreed jointly by the customer and Asato at the close of the engagement.

Each line is priced at the rate on the customer's own contract. Where a rate is missing, the total is labeled partial. It is never estimated.

How usage evidence is labeled

Every usage figure is labeled measured or modeled. This is a label on evidence. It is not a state of a saving.

• Last sign-in comes from Salesforce's standard user records, and is measured.
• What a person opened inside Salesforce comes from Salesforce's event logs. A full window of that history needs the customer's Event Monitoring add-on.
• Where the window is not yet measured, the figure is shown as modeled and says so. The person who approves a change sees which it is.

Example data on the page

Every panel on the visual page shows example data, not a customer result. The figures are unpriced: they count seats, moves and add-ons, drawn to scale. One example org is used throughout:

• 3,000 seats and 1,800 add-ons paid for.
• Seats, by sign-in: 110 unassigned, 105 never signed in, 140 with no sign-in in 90 days (35 of them in a role the customer protects), 65 integration and system accounts, 2,580 signed in within 90 days. Unused: 355. Protected by policy and never proposed: 35. Found, and going for approval: 320. Flagged for a person to review: 65.
• Seat type, by role: of the 2,580 people who signed in, 1,450 account executives and 690 service agents are in roles the customer has not designated. 270 people in finance and billing and 170 operations analysts are in roles the customer designates, 440 in all. Of those, 310 opened only reports and dashboards in 90 days (195 and 115). Found: 310 moves to a cheaper seat type. Kept on the full seat: 130.
• Add-ons, by activity: Salesforce CPQ, 1,350 held, 740 with activity in 90 days and 610 with none. CRM Analytics, 450 held, 315 with activity and 135 with none. Found: 745 add-ons. In the example, 30 days of activity are measured and the rest of the 90 days is modeled, and the panel says so.
• One subscription year: the seats paid for rise from 2,600 to 2,800 and then to 3,000. At the renewal 2,680 are in use, so 320 are paid for and unused.
• In total the example finds 320 seats, 310 moves and 745 add-ons. These are Found figures, not Saved ones.

Figures on the page, with their captions

Each figure on the visual page carries one caption. A caption takes no room on the page: it shows when a reader points at its figure, or taps the figure on a touch screen. The captions are given here in full. In a figure, a ring marks a Found figure, a dashed ring marks an Approved one, and solid green marks a Saved one.

The figures on the visual page move. Each one builds up once when the reader reaches it: its rows light in turn, its bars grow and its numbers count up to the values given here. It then rests on its complete state. The hero figure repeats: it builds the bill term by term, rests on the whole bill, and starts again, and its pause control stops it on the complete figure. For a reader who has asked for reduced motion, every figure shows its complete state at once. Every number in this file is the value a figure rests on.

1. Your Salesforce bill, as a formula (hero). Example data: on 3,000 seats and 1,800 add-ons, this example finds 320 unused seats, 310 people who fit a cheaper seat type and 745 unused add-ons. Asato prices each at the customer's contract rate. Inside the panel, at rest: Found: 320 seats, 310 moves and 745 add-ons. While the figure builds, the same line reads in turn: 3,000 seats and 1,800 add-ons, as paid for today. 320 seats with no user, or no sign-in in 90 days. 310 people whose use fits a cheaper seat type. 745 add-ons with no activity in 90 days.
2. One subscription year, the public agreement. Example data: the three rules are from Salesforce's public Main Services Agreement, and an order form may differ. A freed seat is Approved work. It becomes Saved at the renewal order, or when it replaces a seat the customer would have bought. The panel shows the three rules (add seats: any day, section 3.1; remove seats: not in the term, section 5.1; renew: one date, section 11.2), one example year of seats by month, and the three states: Found, any day; Approved, any day, when the admin frees the seat and it is still paid for; Saved, at renewal, when the order carries the lower count.
3. What a Salesforce bill is made of. Asato's method: a Salesforce bill has three terms in each org, and each one is a question Asato answers from the customer's own records.
4. Seats, by sign-in, one org. Example data: of 3,000 seats, 355 have no user or no sign-in in 90 days. 35 are in a role the customer's policy protects, so 320 are found and go for approval. 65 system accounts are flagged for a person to review.
5. Seat type, by role, people on a full seat. Example data: of 440 people in the roles the customer designates, 310 used only what a cheaper seat type covers, so 310 moves are found. Roles the customer does not designate are never proposed.
6. Add-ons, by activity, held by active people. Example data: of 1,800 add-ons held by active people, 745 show no activity in 90 days. The evidence is modeled from 30 measured days, and the panel says so.
7. Execute, one of the 610. Example data: this person signs in and works sales records, and has not opened CPQ. Removing the add-on goes to the Sales operations lead to approve, then to the customer's Salesforce admin as a work item. The card lists the evidence line by line: last sign-in, 2 days ago, measured. Sales records, 30 days: 17 days, measured. CPQ, 30 days: none, measured. CPQ, 90 days: none, modeled. Reason: holds CPQ, no CPQ activity in 90 days.

Outside facts on the page, with their sources

Every outside fact on the page comes from Salesforce's own pages.

• Salesforce's public Main Services Agreement, last updated September 1, 2026: subscriptions can be added during a term at the same price, prorated, ending on the same date (section 3.1). Fees are based on subscriptions purchased and not on actual usage, and quantities cannot be decreased during the term (section 5.1). Subscriptions renew automatically for one-year terms unless notice is given at least 30 days before the end of the term (section 11.2). An order form may differ. https://www.salesforce.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/documents/legal/salesforce_MSA.pdf
• Salesforce Trailhead, user management: freezing a user blocks sign-in and does not free the user's license. Deactivating the user does. https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/lex_implementation_user_setup_mgmt/lex_implementation_user_setup_mgmt_adding_users-hoc
• Salesforce US list price: a Core seat for sales lists at $195 a user a month and a Platform Starter seat at $25 a user a month, both billed annually. Salesforce's pricing pages say they are for information only and subject to change, and a customer's contract rates will differ. https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing/ and https://www.salesforce.com/platform/enterprise-app-development/pricing/
• Salesforce Trailhead, how licenses work: a user holds one user license and can be assigned several permission set licenses on top of it. https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/salesforce-licensing/understand-how-licenses-work
• Salesforce Trailhead, Event Monitoring: at no extra cost, Salesforce keeps a few kinds of event log, sign-in among them, for one day. A longer history, of more kinds of event, costs extra. https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/event_monitoring/event_monitoring_intro

Trust and governance

• Read-only. To start, the customer's Salesforce admin runs standard exports of license, user, sign-in and usage-log records. A read-only connection can follow, one for each org. Asato asks for no permission to change anything in Salesforce.
• What Asato reads. Records about licenses and their use: who holds which seat and which add-ons, when each person last signed in, and which parts of Salesforce each person opened. It does not read the accounts, opportunities or cases the customer's teams keep in Salesforce. It never reads people's documents, email or messages.
• The customer's policy comes first. Roles the customer protects are never proposed for reclaim. Only roles the customer designates are proposed for a cheaper seat type.
• A named person approves. A person the customer names approves each change, one at a time or as a batch. Each approval is recorded with who approved it and when.
• The admin makes the change. An approved change goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item, with its audit trail. A lower quantity goes to procurement as a ticket for the renewal.
• Each org on its own. Each Salesforce org is read with its own access and counted separately.

Works with

Asato's public catalog lists these for this job:

• Integration: Salesforce (who holds which seat and profile, login recency and feature usage).
• Identity and HR sources: Entra ID (users, SSO sign-in logs), Okta (users, applications) and an HRIS such as Workday or UKG.
• Data product: Salesforce Optimization.
• Agentic solution: CRM Rightsizing.

Compared with

• Salesforce's own records. They show each seat and each person's last sign-in, one org at a time. Asato works from those same records and adds the add-ons stacked on each person, what each person opened, the customer's policy, a price at the customer's contract rate, and an approval path.
• A spreadsheet of seats. It is a snapshot of the base seat. It does not show the add-ons on top, and the customer's exceptions live outside it.
• Asset management suites, a CMDB or a contract repository. Asato works above the tools an organization already runs and does not replace them.

Who uses it

• Salesforce admin or license analyst: runs it. Every item in the list carries a reason that can be checked against its evidence, and approved changes arrive as tracked work items.
• Finance or procurement lead: approves. Each figure shows which part is measured, which is modeled and which is only partly priced, and the count goes into the renewal.
• CIO or IT asset manager: gets a list before the renewal date and a named approver behind every change.

How a customer starts

The page's heading for this section: No savings, no fee. The line under it: Your Asset Clarity Report: a priced list of savings, in one week.

The action: Get your Asset Clarity Report, at https://www.asato.ai/talk-to-sales. The line under the button: "Your Salesforce admin runs standard exports, read-only. Nothing is installed."

The page shows this section as one band and keeps only that line under the button. The four steps of the review are kept here for agents:

1. Connect. The customer's Salesforce admin runs standard exports, read-only, and the customer shares its contract rates. Nothing is installed.
2. Model. Asato matches seats, add-ons and sign-ins, org by org, and counts each once.
3. Checkpoint. The customer's team checks the findings and names the roles its policy protects.
4. Report. The customer holds its Asset Clarity Report: a priced list, with an owner on every item.

How a customer starts and what it costs are set out on the home page: https://www.asato.ai/index

Questions

The page shows at most five questions, the ones that belong to it. Any others are kept here for agents.

Salesforce already shows who signed in. What does Asato add?

The add-ons, a price and an owner. Salesforce's own records show each seat and each person's last sign-in. Asato adds what a list of seats leaves out: the add-ons stacked on each person, what each person did in Salesforce, and the roles the customer's own policy protects. Each finding becomes a recommendation with its reason, its evidence, a yearly price at the customer's contract rate and an owner.

If we free a seat today, do we save money today?

Not until the renewal. Under Salesforce's public Main Services Agreement, fees follow the subscriptions bought, not what people use, and a quantity cannot go down during the term. An order form may differ. A freed seat can go to a new hire, so the customer does not buy another. The saving becomes Saved when the renewal order carries the lower count, or when a freed seat replaces one the customer would have bought. A Saved figure is agreed jointly by the customer and Asato at the close of the engagement.

Does Asato change anything in Salesforce?

No. Asato reads and recommends. A person the customer names approves each change, one at a time or as a batch. An approved change goes to the customer's Salesforce admin as a tracked work item with its audit trail, and a lower quantity goes to procurement as a ticket for the renewal. Before it recommends anything, Asato applies the customer's policy: roles the customer protects are never proposed for reclaim, and only roles the customer designates are proposed for a cheaper seat type.

How does Asato know a seat or an add-on is unused?

From Salesforce's own records. Last sign-in comes from Salesforce's standard user records. What a person opened inside Salesforce comes from Salesforce's event logs, and a full window of that history needs the customer's Event Monitoring add-on. Every usage figure is labeled measured or modeled. Where the window is not yet measured, the figure is shown as modeled and says so.

What access does Asato need?

Read-only. To start, the customer's Salesforce admin runs standard exports of license, user, sign-in and usage-log records. A read-only connection can follow, one for each org. Asato asks for no permission to change anything. It reads records about licenses and their use, not the accounts, opportunities or cases the customer's teams keep in Salesforce, and never people's documents, email or messages.

We run more than one Salesforce org. Does that work?

Each org on its own. Licenses do not move between Salesforce orgs, so Asato reads, counts and prices each org separately, and each recommendation belongs to one org.

What does it cost?

Asato is paid mostly on results: a small share when it finds a saving, and the larger share only once that saving shows up on the customer's invoice. If it finds no savings, the customer pays nothing.

Will Asato propose taking a seat from someone who needs it?

Not from a role the customer protects. The customer's policy is applied before anything is recommended, so protected roles are never proposed for reclaim. Integration and system accounts are flagged for a person to review and never become an action. Every other recommendation shows the person, the reason and the evidence, so the approver can check before deciding.

What does "modeled" mean on a usage figure?

It means the full window was not yet measured. Sign-in is measured from Salesforce's standard user records. Activity inside Salesforce is measured for as long as the customer's event logs go back, and the rest of the window is modeled from that. A modeled figure is labeled as modeled wherever it appears. It is a label on evidence, not a state of a saving.

What if a contract rate is missing?

The total is labeled partial. Asato prices each line at the rate on the customer's own contract and does not estimate a rate it has not been given.

Does Asato negotiate with Salesforce?

No. Asato does not negotiate. The buyer, or its reseller, negotiates with Asato's count.

How long before the customer holds the list?

One week.

Is this only for Salesforce?

No. The same approach applies to other software, starting with Microsoft, and the same record covers hardware (network, compute and end-user devices), contracts and AI spend.

Next step

Get your Asset Clarity Report at https://www.asato.ai/talk-to-sales.

Related pages

• Asato home
• Platform
• Right-size software
• Right-size Microsoft
• Stay ahead of contracts
• Site index for agents

Last updated: 2026-10-06