A Guide to Efficiently Managing Indirect Spend

Businesses challenge procurement teams to align expenditure. Starting with indirect spend is crucial for procurement.

This could include right-sizing a service contract or finding cheaper supplies to boost profits. These transactions may fly beneath the radar, but they often account for the majority of spending.

How can companies manage indirect spending? Can expensive indirect spend better support company goals?

We’ll discuss indirect spending management and evaluation today. Gain knowledge:

• The indirect spend
• Direct vs. indirect spending
• Indirect spend tracking issues
• How technology reduces indirect costs

How is indirect spend defined?

Understand how and where spending happens before improving bottom-line KPIs to meet business goals.

Small-dollar purchases that are unrelated to a project or product are called indirect spend or tail spend.

Tracking indirect spend is tough. Some indirect spend examples:

• Admin fees
• Remuneration packages
• Hotel and travel costs
• Office supplies.
• Facilities management
• Consulting expenses
• Card spending by companies
• Inventory management fees

These costs are necessary for business operations. Managing these fees and charges can boost your company’s finances.

Direct vs. indirect spend

Direct spend is spending on product production or client-billed services. Examples of direct spending are:

• Products, services
• Raw materials 
• Consultants for the project

Direct procurement is simpler to manage than indirect procurement because it can be tracked by initiative or client.

Indirect spending is tiny, yet it can account for a large portion of expenses. Management is difficult because it often occurs outside the formal purchasing procedure.

It’s difficult, but indirect spend control is one of the finest strategies to save cost.

Common indirect spend management challenges

Discovering tiny cash leakage makes indirect spend management difficult. Continuous monitoring is the best defence against overspending.

Initial tail spend management problems for companies include:

No visibility

To track organization-wide spending, watch it live. Businesses rarely have the resources to spot spending patterns until it’s too late.

Visualising your company’s direct and indirect spending assures only necessary purchases and precise budget forecasts.

Maverick cash

Costs and risk rise when spending outside the purchasing policy.

It’s challenging to recognise and manage maverick expenditure. Centralised buying software lowers hidden spending.

Poor bargaining

Poor negotiating has various manifestations. You may negotiate late, accept the first price, or commit to a long-term deal without researching alternatives. Without these negotiating points, you lose leverage and buy superfluous or expensive materials.

Utilising preferred vendor connections and volume pricing reduces costs with aggressive negotiating. Procurement software streamlines vendors and enhances competitive buying.

Research deficit

Lack of benchmarking for your most common purchasing categories reduces market rate visibility. Lack of cash optimisation and spending leaks result.

The oil and gas industry and commercial paper market fluctuate. Thus, to get the greatest offer, follow pricing patterns and negotiate quantities. Without current pricing, it’s hard to tellif you’re receiving a reasonable deal.

Supply pricing benchmarking helps you negotiate the best contracts for each spending area.

Mismanaged company cards

Internal stakeholders can use corporate cards to buy goods and services. Unsupervised purchasing tools can raise risk, expense, and visibility.

Limiting cardholders, enforcing stringent guidelines, and inspecting for fraudulent or out-of-policy spending gives you full visibility into indirect card expenditure.

Manage indirect spend steps

An effective indirect spend management method is essential for cost savings and value creation.

For optimal supplier relationship management and cash flow, follow these steps.

Make and document spending rules

Clearly defined procurement guidelines are needed by stakeholders. Start by recording your office’s purchasing policies.

A solid, detailed corporate spending policy helps purchasers make informed judgements, chose solutions based on cost and value, and guide their purchases.

Create a buy approval process.

Approvals guarantee company spending policies are fulfilled. Beyond this, they guarantee that every finance department purchase is essential, compliant, and documented.

Legal and security assessments on all contracts

When making a transaction, cross-departmental approvals cover all angles. Typical legal or security evaluation steps:

• Purchase requirement is confirmed by the department lead.
• Finance checks for money compliance.
• Legal reviews contracts for beneficial terms.
• IT assesses app integration and risk before buying.

These reviews lessen risk and strengthen your purchase. They ensure every purchase is consistent and benefits the organisation long-term.

Partner with selected vendors

Supply chain cost and resiliency benefit greatly from strategic sourcing. Use of approved vendors strengthens connections, reduces risk, and improves cost.

Feature essential suppliers in your purchase process. Make a solid business case for a new vendor if needed or preferred.

Review supplier performance.

Relationship management and performance reviews keep preferred vendor relationships productive.

These assessments assess vendor contract compliance, delivery or compliance exceptions, pricing competition, and the cost efficiency of staying with one vendor for numerous contract years. Performance by suppliers guarantees that initial savings and service continue over time.

Manage indirect spend with software

Even SMBs can send thousands of invoices monthly. Numerous low-dollar, one-time, and incidental expenditures account for a major amount of expenses.

Use expenditure management software to manage procurement policies. This automates several manual tasks that slow down accounts payable.

Finance can use it to identify risk and fraud, speed up approval and invoice processing, and gain insights into spending patterns and concerns in your organisation.