Application Inventory: What to Track for Every App
An application inventory lists every app your company builds or runs, with owners, environments and versions. Here's what to track and how to keep it current.
Overview & context
Keeping track of the apps you run matters as much as keeping track of everything else your company owns. An application inventory is a list of every app your company builds, runs or maintains, including who owns it and where it runs. Below you'll find what to track for each app, a template to copy and how to build an inventory and keep it current.
1. What an application inventory is
Apps pile up over time: internal tools, client apps, prototypes that stayed in production and apps built with AI. Without an inventory, it's hard to tell who owns an app, where it runs and whether anyone still uses it.
An application inventory answers those questions in one place. Support can look up which version a customer runs, admins see what other services it depends on and management knows what the company actually operates.
2. Application inventory vs. software inventory
The two terms get mixed up, but they're different things. A software inventory tracks programs installed on computers and servers and their licenses. It's part of IT asset management and security frameworks like the CIS Controls require it to catch unapproved software.
An application inventory covers the apps your company builds, runs or maintains for clients. It tracks the owner, environments, versions and links to the repository, docs and hosting. This article is about the application inventory.
3. Application inventory template: what to track
Start with a few fields you can fill in quickly and add more only when you actually need them. An inventory with ten filled-in fields is more useful than one with thirty half-empty ones.
name,description,owner,technical_contact,status,criticality,users,production_url,version,hosting,repository,documentation,last_review
Room Booking,Internal booking system,Office manager,Head of internal development,live,medium,employees,https://rooms.acme.example,1.8.2,Azure App Service,https://github.com/acme/room-booking,https://acme.atlassian.net/wiki/rooms,2026-10-01| Field | Example | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Name and description | Room Booking, internal booking system | So everyone knows which app it is |
| Owner and technical contact | Office manager, head of internal development | Who decides about the app and who knows it technically |
| Status | Live, in development, retiring | Which apps need maintenance and which to shut down |
| Criticality | High, medium, low | What to handle first during an outage or a security issue |
| Users or clients | Employees | Who's affected by a change or an outage |
| Environments and URLs | Production, staging with URLs | Where the app runs |
| Deployed version | 1.8.2 in production | Whether the current version runs and where an update is due |
| Hosting and services | Azure App Service, Microsoft 365 | What the app depends on and who gets paid |
| Repository and documentation | Links to GitHub and Confluence | Where to find the code and docs |
| Last review date | 2026-10-01 | Whether the data is still current |
4. How to build and maintain an application inventory
Building the first list is the hardest part, because apps are spread across different accounts and people. It helps to go through the places where apps leave a trace.
- 1
Collect apps from your sources
Go through cloud accounts, DNS records, GitHub or GitLab organizations, the app list in your single sign-on and invoices for hosting and services.
- 2
Assign an owner to each app
An app without an owner is the first candidate for shutdown. If nobody claims it, flag it and decide what to do with it.
- 3
Fill in the required fields first
Name, owner, status, environments and a repository link. Add the other fields over time as you discover more sources.
- 4
Tie the inventory to everyday work
A new app, a new environment or a software handover means a new inventory entry too. Otherwise the inventory goes stale within six months.
- 5
Review the inventory every quarter
Check the owners, remove apps that were shut down and check end-of-life dates, just like during software maintenance.
5. Keeping an app catalog in AboutTheApp
The AboutTheApp dashboard lists all your apps and their versions. You can search by app name, alias or client and the Outdated filter shows installations running an old version. Each app has its own About page with links grouped by category (source code, documentation, hosting, monitoring, support), a version catalog, deployments per client and a list of third-party components and licenses.
Your whole team gets access based on their role (Owner, Full access, Reader). You keep clients in a directory and assign each one their installations and environments. Your inventory spreadsheet then only needs a link to each app's About page.
AboutTheApp has no fields for criticality, cost or the app's business owner. Keep those in your inventory spreadsheet and link from it to each app's About page with its links, versions and environments.
Frequently asked questions
What is an application inventory?
A list of every app a company builds, runs or maintains, with its owner, status, environments, versions and links to the repository and documentation.
What should an application inventory include?
At minimum the name and description, owner and technical contact, status, environments with URLs and a repository link. Criticality, deployed version, hosting, users and the last review date are useful too.
What is the difference between application inventory and application portfolio management?
An application inventory is the list of apps and their details. Application portfolio management builds on it and evaluates apps by value and cost to decide which ones to invest in and which to retire.
How often should an application inventory be updated?
Continuously, with every new app, new environment or handover. It's also worth reviewing the whole inventory once a quarter to confirm owners and app status.
Is a spreadsheet enough for an application inventory?
To start with, yes. But a spreadsheet goes stale quickly, especially links and versions. In AboutTheApp, links, versions and deployments live with each app and CI/CD can record versions, so the spreadsheet only needs business details and a link to the About page.
In short
An application inventory doesn't have to be a big project. A list with owner, status, environments and links that gets updated as part of everyday work is enough.
Want all your apps in one overview?
Create a free AboutTheApp account and add your apps with their links, versions and clients.