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Blog · Procurement and supply chain · Procurement

Spend under management on ten invoices: the whole arithmetic on one page

The complete spend under management calculation on ten payables invoices, small enough to check by hand: each invoice's supplier, category, business unit and PO reference, the contract register's in-force agreements, the approved supplier list, the bucket per invoice, on contract, approved off contract, or unmanaged, the share by category and by unit, the uncategorised invoice that is its own finding, and the identity that the three buckets sum to total spend, so a reader can reproduce every figure and then run it on their own payables export.

The short answerTen invoices totalling $184,000. Each is bucketed by rule: on contract if the supplier and category match an agreement in force on the invoice date; approved off contract if the supplier is on the approved list for the category; unmanaged otherwise, including invoices with no PO where a PO is required. One invoice has no category and is listed as uncategorised, its own finding, and counted as unmanaged. Spend under management is on contract plus approved over total: 61 percent overall, 89 percent in IT hardware and 23 percent in professional services, and 40 percent in Unit B against 80 in Unit A. The three buckets sum to $184,000. Every number can be reproduced by hand.

Spend under management is a bucket per invoice and a sum, and on ten invoices every bucket can be assigned by hand. This page works the rules, the ten invoices, the shares by category and unit, the uncategorised line and the identity.

The references

Contracts in force:

Contract Supplier Category Units covered
C-1 S-10 IT hardware All
C-2 S-20 Professional services Unit A
C-3 S-30 Facilities All

Approved suppliers, by category: S-11 (IT hardware), S-21 (professional services), S-30 (facilities). PO required for professional services and IT hardware.

The rules

On contract: supplier and category match a contract in force, and the unit is covered Approved off contract: not on contract; supplier on the approved list for the category; PO present where required Unmanaged: otherwise, or no PO where required, or no category

The ten invoices

Invoice Supplier Category Unit PO Amount Bucket Why
1 S-10 IT hardware A Yes $30,000 On contract C-1
2 S-11 IT hardware B Yes $12,000 Approved On list; PO present
3 S-12 IT hardware B No $5,000 Unmanaged Not on list; no PO
4 S-20 Professional services A Yes $18,000 On contract C-2 covers Unit A
5 S-20 Professional services B Yes $22,000 Approved? No: not on list; C-2 does not cover B Unmanaged
6 S-21 Professional services B No $25,000 Unmanaged On list, but no PO where required
7 S-22 Professional services A No $14,000 Unmanaged Not on list
8 S-30 Facilities A Yes $28,000 On contract C-3
9 S-30 Facilities B Yes $20,000 On contract C-3
10 S-40 (none) B No $10,000 Unmanaged; uncategorised Listed
Total $184,000

Invoice 5: S-20 has a contract for Unit A only; Unit B's purchase from S-20 is unmanaged, which is the pattern-one case from the maverick spend guide.

By category

Category Spend On contract Approved Unmanaged Under management
IT hardware $47,000 $30,000 $12,000 $5,000 89%
Professional services $79,000 $18,000 $0 $61,000 23%
Facilities $48,000 $48,000 $0 $0 100%
Uncategorised $10,000 $10,000 0%
Total $184,000 $96,000 $12,000 $76,000 59%

By unit

Unit Spend Under management
A $90,000 30,000 + 18,000 + 28,000 = $76,000: 84%
B $94,000 12,000 + 20,000 = $32,000: 34%

Unit B routes two thirds of its spend around procurement, most of it professional services.

The identity

on contract + approved + unmanaged = 96,000 + 12,000 + 76,000 = $184,000 = total

Where it goes wrong, even at ten

Approved counted as contracted. Invoice 2 at list price reported as negotiated; under management unchanged but the savings claim is on the wrong base.

PO rule ignored. Invoice 6 becomes approved; professional services reads 55 percent.

Uncategorised dropped. Total reads $174,000; under management reads 62 percent.

Contract scope ignored. Invoice 5 read as on contract; Unit B's bypass invisible.

From ten to ten thousand

The same three rules per invoice against the register and the list, summed by category and unit. Covirage runs it on the payables export every quarter. The spend under management guide covers the measure, and the maverick spend guide covers what invoice 5 is an instance of.

Questions people ask

Why is a PO relevant?

Where the policy requires a purchase order and the invoice has none, procurement never saw the purchase, whatever the supplier's status. The rule is stated: no PO where one is required means unmanaged, even at an approved supplier.

Why is uncategorised counted as unmanaged?

Because it cannot be matched to a contract or an approved list without a category, and dropping it would flatter the figure. It is counted as unmanaged and listed separately, so the category coding gets fixed.

How does this feed a savings claim?

A claimed saving on professional services applies to the 23 percent under management. The CFO reads the bucket table before the savings figure, and the savings figure is stated on the managed spend, not the category.