A software audit is not an exam you cram for the night before — the evidence is whatever your inventory recorded all year. Here is how to export the proof from Endpoint Central, and what honest evidence actually consists of.
The letter, when it comes, is polite and terrifying: a software vendor or its auditor would like to verify that the copies installed in your office match the licences you own. For offices that run Endpoint Central, the core evidence already exists — the software inventory (what is installed, where, in what version) and the License Manager (what you recorded as purchased). Audit day is about exporting that evidence cleanly, reconciling it before anyone else reads it, and understanding exactly what it does and does not prove.
Endpoint Central's inventory reports export to PDF or CSV, and audit day needs three of them: the complete software inventory (every product, version and machine count), the hardware inventory summary (the fleet the software sits on — auditors reconcile machine counts too), and the License Manager's compliance view comparing installed against purchased per product. Export them fresh on the day, date them, and keep the files unedited — an export with a clean timestamp is evidence; a tidied spreadsheet is an opinion. Alongside them goes the purchase file: invoices and licence certificates for every line in the purchased column, because the console records your claim and the invoices are its proof.
Run the comparison yourself first — you want zero surprises in the room. Expect three classes of discrepancy and handle each in writing: name variants (the same product under several spellings inflating the installed count — group them and note the grouping), trials and remnants (uninstalled-but-listed leftovers and expired trials — verify and remove), and real gaps (genuinely over-installed products — uninstall the excess or purchase the difference, and record which you did and when). A short reconciliation note explaining every remaining variance turns the pack from raw data into a position: this office knows its numbers, including the uncomfortable ones, and has already fixed them.
Honesty is a strategy here, not just a virtue. The inventory proves what the agents saw — and no agent sees everything. Machines that were offline throughout, devices that cannot run the agent, software on a standalone PC that was never enrolled: the export is silent about all of them, and an experienced auditor knows it. Listing your known blind spots in the reconciliation note — with the manual register covering the non-agent assets — demonstrates the one thing auditors are actually assessing: whether this organisation's records can be trusted. A declared gap reads as diligence. The same gap discovered reads as concealment, and every other number you gave gets doubted with it.
Whatever the outcome, close the loop: fix every finding inside a dated action list, file the auditor's letter and your evidence pack together, and set the two habits that make the next audit a non-event — the monthly one-page report (which includes the licence block) and the rule that purchases are entered in the License Manager the week they are paid. Offices that do this stop fearing audit letters, because audit day becomes a printing exercise: the proof was being written all year, one scan at a time.
See every screen from this guide live in the video — hardware inventory, software inventory, the License Manager and the alerts, on a real Endpoint Central console.
▶️ Watch Full VideoThree dated exports: the full software inventory, the hardware inventory summary, and the License Manager compliance view (installed vs purchased per product) — plus your purchase invoices, which are the proof behind the purchased column.
Reconcile before the auditor sees it: group name variants, clear trials and remnants, then for genuine excess either uninstall or buy the difference — and write down what was done and when. A fixed, documented gap is a far better position than a hidden one.
No, and the pack should say so. It proves what the agents scanned. State the blind spots — agent-less and never-enrolled machines — and cover them with the manual register; declared gaps build trust, discovered gaps destroy it.