Help & FAQ

Common questions about SeatCheck. Don’t see your question? Email support@seatcheck.ai.

Getting started

What is SeatCheck?

SeatCheck connects to your company's identity provider (Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID) and shows you which SaaS tools your employees actually use, where you're paying for seats nobody's touching, and where two tools quietly do the same job. We don't require agents, browser extensions, or asking your employees to fill out anything.

How long does setup take?

Under five minutes. You authenticate via Google or Microsoft, grant SeatCheck read-only access to your IdP's sign-in logs, and the initial sync starts. First useful insights appear within an hour once a full day of sign-in events has been pulled.

What does SeatCheck need access to?

Read-only access to your IdP's sign-in event logs and directory. Specifically:

Google Workspace: admin.reports.audit.readonly, admin.directory.user.readonly
Microsoft Entra ID: AuditLog.Read.All, User.Read.All, Directory.Read.All

Read-only means SeatCheck literally cannot change anything in your IdP, even if we wanted to. The OAuth scopes we request don't include write permissions.

Do I need to install anything on my employees' devices?

No. SeatCheck operates entirely from your IdP's sign-in logs. Nothing is installed on user devices and nothing changes about how your employees sign into the tools they use.

What plans does SeatCheck offer?

We offer three plans plus a free tier:

Free: organizations with fewer than 25 employees
Starter: small teams ready to track waste
Growth: mid-market teams with multiple departments
Scale: larger orgs that need audit logs and advanced features

See seatcheck.ai/pricing for current pricing and feature breakdown. The first 100 paying customers lock in founding pricing for life.

Connecting your identity provider

How do I connect Google Workspace?

Sign into SeatCheck as a Google Workspace super admin (the IdP needs admin-consent scopes). From Settings → Connections, click Connect Google Workspace and grant the requested read-only scopes. Initial sync starts immediately.

How do I connect Microsoft Entra ID?

Sign in as a Microsoft Entra Global Administrator (or someone with equivalent admin-consent permission). From Settings → Connections, click Connect Microsoft Entra, grant the requested read-only scopes, and the initial sync begins.

Can I connect both Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra?

Yes. Many organizations use both — Google Workspace for email, Microsoft Entra for some legacy or compliance-driven systems. SeatCheck unifies the sign-in events from both into one view per employee.

My connection shows "Reconnect required" — what happened?

Usually means your IdP-side admin consent was revoked, the OAuth token expired beyond its refresh window, or the scopes you originally granted are missing a permission we now need. Click the Reconnect button in Settings → Connections; you'll go through the OAuth consent screen again. Data continues displaying based on the most recent successful sync until the reconnection completes.

How often does SeatCheck sync new data?

Sign-in events sync continuously throughout the day (typically every 1-4 hours, depending on plan tier). User directory data syncs daily. You can trigger a manual sync from Settings → Connections at any time.

Using the dashboard

What does "Wasted Spend" mean?

A tool is flagged as wasted spend when you're paying for seats that nobody on your team has used recently. For example: you upload Miro to SeatCheck as a paid tool at $20/seat × 35 seats = $700/month, but in the last 30 days only 0 employees signed in to Miro. That entire $700/month is wasted spend.

What is a "Ghost Seat"?

A ghost seat is a paid license still active for an employee who has left your company. SeatCheck detects this by cross-referencing your IdP's user directory (departed users) with your paid-tool roster (uploaded CSVs or detected from sign-in logs). Cancelling these is usually the fastest savings win.

What is "Stack Overlap"?

Two or more tools in the same category that share users — for example, Asana and Trello both being used by overlapping team members. SeatCheck doesn't assume overlap is always waste (some teams legitimately use both, e.g., designers using Figma + Sketch), but flags the pattern so you can investigate.

How are these numbers calculated?

Wasted spend = paid seats with zero sign-ins in the configured inactivity window (default: 30 days; soon configurable to 60/90 days)
Ghost seats = paid licenses for employees marked inactive in the IdP directory
Stack overlap = tools categorized under the same category-of-use (project management, design, etc.) that share employees who use both

Why don't I see one of the tools my team uses?

A few common reasons:

Your team is signing into the tool without going through SSO (direct password login bypasses your IdP, so SeatCheck never sees it).
The tool is too new — fewer than X sign-ins so far, hidden by default to reduce noise.
The tool is on your "Ignored" list in Settings → Tools.

What's the difference between the Tools view and the Employees view?

Tools = one row per SaaS tool, with usage and spend signals aggregated across your whole organization.
Employees = one row per person, showing which tools each employee uses and at what frequency.

Use Tools for "what should we audit" questions; use Employees for "who's on what" questions.

How recent is the data on my dashboard?

The footer of each view shows the timestamp of the last successful IdP sync. Most data is no more than a few hours old. If a sync is overdue, the connection card surfaces a warning.

Data and privacy

What data does SeatCheck collect from my IdP?

Per sign-in event: the employee's email, the tool name, and the timestamp (date only, not exact time). Per employee: name, email, department (if available), and active/inactive status. We do NOT collect:

What employees do inside SaaS tools (which documents, which messages, which records)
Sign-in event details beyond the day of the event
Any personal information your IdP doesn't already expose for audit-log purposes

Where is my data stored?

Postgres hosted on Neon in the United States. IdP credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM before being written to the database. Background processing runs on Render; queue jobs are managed via Upstash Redis.

Who can see my organization's data?

Only users you've added to your SeatCheck organization. SeatCheck employees (currently: the founder) have access to production data only for support and operational reasons, gated behind named-user audit logs. We do not share, sell, or look at your data for any other purpose.

How is data encrypted?

In transit: TLS 1.2+ for all connections
At rest: Database-level encryption via Neon (AES-256), plus application-level AES-256-GCM encryption for IdP OAuth credentials

How long do you keep my data?

Sign-in events: retained for the lifetime of your subscription (needed to compute trends). Upon account deletion (Settings → Account), all data is scheduled for hard deletion within 30 days. You can request immediate deletion by emailing privacy@seatcheck.ai.

Are you GDPR / CCPA compliant?

Yes for both. We provide a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) to EU and UK customers on request — email support@seatcheck.ai. California residents can exercise CCPA rights via the same address.

Billing and plans

When am I billed?

Monthly, on the day of the month you signed up. The first month is prorated to align with that day. Annual billing is available with a discount; contact sales for the quote.

How do I change plans?

Settings → Billing → Change plan. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.

What forms of payment do you accept?

All major credit/debit cards via Stripe. ACH and wire transfer are available for annual plans on Growth and Scale tiers.

Is there a free trial?

There's no time-limited free trial. Instead, organizations under 25 employees use SeatCheck free, indefinitely. If you grow past 25 employees, you transition to a paid plan.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. Settings → Billing → Cancel subscription. No cancellation fees, no penalties. Your account remains active through the end of your current billing period.

Roles and permissions

Who can see what in SeatCheck?

OWNER and ADMIN: full read/write across the organization, including connecting IdPs and managing billing
MANAGER: read-only across the organization, optionally scoped to a specific department
MEMBER: read-only access to their own employee profile

The Owner is set automatically as the first user who creates the organization. Owners can promote ADMINs.

How do I add a teammate?

Today, the easiest path is to ask them to sign in to SeatCheck via the same identity provider (Google or Microsoft) under your organization's domain. They'll appear automatically as a MEMBER, and an ADMIN can promote them as needed.

A self-serve invite flow is on the roadmap.

How do I remove someone from my organization?

Settings → Members → click the user → Remove. Removing a user revokes their access immediately; their historical sign-in data stays in your reports.

Alerts and notifications

What alerts does SeatCheck generate?

DEAD_TOOL: nobody has signed into a paid tool in the inactivity window
GHOST_SEAT: a paid license belongs to a departed employee
STACK_OVERLAP: two tools in the same category share users
STALE_CONNECTION: an IdP sync has fallen behind schedule

How do I get email digests?

Settings → Notifications → set your preferred digest frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, off). Owners and Admins receive organization-level digests; Managers receive scoped digests for their department.

Can I mute an alert?

Yes — open the alert and click Snooze (1 day / 1 week / 1 month options). Muted alerts re-fire after the snooze period ends unless the underlying condition is resolved.

Troubleshooting

I can't sign in to SeatCheck — what should I do?

First try:

Use the same identity provider (Google or Microsoft) you signed up with originally
Use the email address associated with your work account, not a personal one
Clear your browser cookies for seatcheck.ai and try again

If none of those work, email support@seatcheck.ai with your work email and a description of what you see.

My IdP sync is showing errors — what's happening?

Most common causes:

OAuth token expired: click Reconnect in Settings → Connections
Missing scope: an OAuth permission we need was revoked or never granted; reconnect with the latest scope set
IdP rate-limiting: Google and Microsoft throttle API calls; SeatCheck retries automatically, usually no action needed

If errors persist past a few hours, email support@seatcheck.ai with the organization name and the timestamp.

A tool I expect to see is missing — why?

Either employees are signing into it outside your IdP (direct password login bypasses SeatCheck's view), or the tool hasn't had enough sign-ins yet to surface. Check Settings → Tools → Discovered to see tools below the default visibility threshold.

The wasted spend number looks wrong — how is it calculated?

(Monthly cost of unused seats) = (Total monthly cost ÷ Seat count) × (Unused seats)

Where "unused seats" means seats with no sign-in events in the configured inactivity window. If you've uploaded an inaccurate paid-tool CSV (wrong seat count or wrong monthly cost), the number will be off — go to the tool's detail page and Edit the paid- tool record.

Support

How do I contact support?

Email support@seatcheck.ai. We aim to respond within one business day; faster for Scale-tier customers.

What are your support hours?

Standard hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm US Mountain Time. Customers on the Scale plan have priority response SLA documented in their contract.

Where can I report a bug or suggest a feature?

Email support@seatcheck.ai with the subject line [Bug] or [Feature]. Tracked publicly is on the roadmap; for now, every report is read by Patrick personally.