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How to Check Software Licence Compliance

xAssets IT Asset Management User Guide
How To

How to Check Software Licence Compliance

The Licensing Position report compares your software installations (what is actually installed on your network) against your licence entitlements (what you have purchased). This guide explains how to run the calculation and interpret the results.

Prerequisites

  • Network discovery must have been run and loaded so that software installation data is available.
  • Software licence records must have been entered for the products you want to track.
  • Software products must be configured with the correct licence type (per-computer, per-user, per-core, etc.).

Step 1: Ensure Your Data Is Current

Before checking compliance, make sure both sides of the equation are up to date:

  • Installations: Run a fresh discovery and load the results, or verify that scheduled discovery has run recently. Navigate to Discover > Discovery Dashboard to check the last discovery date.
  • Licences: Verify that your licence records are current. Navigate to Licensing > Software Licences to review. Add any new purchases or remove expired licences.

Step 2: Calculate the Licensing Position

The licensing position is not updated automatically -- you must run the calculation.

  1. Navigate to Licensing > Calculate Licensing Position.

  2. Click Calculate to start the batch process.

  3. The calculation runs in the background. Check progress via Admin > Batch > Batch Jobs.

  4. Wait for the batch job to complete before viewing results.

Step 3: View the Results

  1. Navigate to Licensing > Licensing Position.

  2. The report shows one row per managed software product with the following columns:

    Column Meaning
    Software Product The software title being tracked
    Publisher The software vendor
    Installations Number of devices or users consuming this software
    Licenses Total licence entitlement
    Compliance The difference (entitlement minus consumption)
    Status Compliant (green), Over-licensed (blue), or Under-licensed (red)

  3. Focus on products showing Under-licensed (red) status first -- these represent compliance risk.

Step 4: Take Action on Non-Compliant Products

Status Recommended Action
Under-licensed (red) Purchase additional licences to close the gap, or identify machines where the software can be uninstalled. Use Licensing > Assigning Computers to a Licence to see which specific machines are uncovered.
Over-licensed (blue) Consider whether excess licences can be reassigned, allowed to lapse at renewal, or sold if the licence type permits transfer.
Compliant (green) No immediate action. Review periodically to catch drift.

Step 5: Set Up Ongoing Monitoring

  • Schedule the calculation to run automatically (e.g., weekly) so the licensing position is always current. The calculation is a transformation that can be scheduled like any other batch job.
  • Review the License Dashboard at Licensing > License Dashboard for a visual summary including overall compliance percentage, top under-licensed products, and products with no licences assigned.

Tips

  • If a product shows zero installations but you know it is installed, check that the software product is associated with the correct software titles and that those titles are classified as "Defining". See Software Products.
  • If the installation count seems too high, verify that disposed or decommissioned machines are not still counted.
  • Check that the licence type on each licence record matches the actual licence agreement (per-user vs per-computer, etc.). An incorrect type produces incorrect compliance numbers.