Notes on procurement spend classification, spend taxonomy design, and getting more out of procurement data. New posts go up occasionally — follow along, or jump straight into the product.
Category management for small procurement teams
25 October 2026 · 7 min read
How a small procurement team can start category management without a transformation programme: one category view, three priorities and a one-page plan.
Spend visibility: what it is and how to get it
25 October 2026 · 5 min read
The three questions spend visibility should answer, why most organisations still cannot answer them, and a four-step route to a trusted spend picture.
Commodity codes: UNSPSC, ECLASS, CPV and HS
25 October 2026 · 6 min read
What each commodity coding system is built for, which one to use for spend analysis, tenders, catalogues and customs, and the practical problem they share.
Procurement dashboard in Power BI: what to show
25 October 2026 · 6 min read
The five visuals a procurement dashboard needs, how to model spend data in Power BI, and why most dashboards fail before the first chart is drawn.
Procurement quick wins: picking your first three
25 October 2026 · 5 min read
A one-afternoon scoring method for choosing your first procurement projects, the five quick wins that usually qualify, and the ones that only look quick.
Do you need a procurement platform? A checklist
25 October 2026 · 5 min read
When a procurement suite is worth it, when categorised spend data and the tools you already have are enough, and why the order you do them in matters.
The true cost of spend analytics: a buyer's guide
25 October 2026 · 5 min read
Licence, implementation, internal time, re-runs and exit: the five parts of spend analytics cost, a comparison sheet, and the questions that expose the rest.
How to choose spend classification software
25 October 2026 · 6 min read
Ten questions to ask any spend classification vendor, grouped by what they protect you from: inaccurate output, a poor fit, lock-in and hidden cost.
How to reduce indirect spend, in order of effort
17 September 2026 · 6 min read
Five moves from consolidating duplicate suppliers to tendering, what to avoid, and why indirect savings programmes stall on data rather than strategy.
Spend analysis template: the columns you actually need
17 September 2026 · 5 min read
The four essential columns, what each optional one buys you, which to leave out for data-protection reasons, and the layout rules that save hours.
Procurement maturity: score your team in ten minutes
17 September 2026 · 5 min read
Five levels without the consultancy language, six questions to score yourself honestly, and why most teams are stuck between level 1 and level 2.
ABC analysis for procurement spend
17 September 2026 · 5 min read
How to run an ABC analysis in twenty minutes, why the C class matters more than people think, and the second axis almost everyone forgets to plot.
Kraljic matrix: how to build one from your spend data
17 September 2026 · 6 min read
The four quadrants explained, how to plot your own categories, where the framework misleads, and why most attempts stall on data rather than strategy.
How long does a spend analysis take?
3 September 2026 · 5 min read
Realistic timelines from two days to three months, where the time actually goes, the four things that make it slow, and why the second run is much faster.
How to measure spend classification accuracy
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
Why vendor accuracy claims usually measure coverage instead, and a one-hour method to measure the real thing on your own data.
Spend taxonomy vs chart of accounts: why you need both
3 September 2026 · 5 min read
The chart of accounts reports to the outside world; a spend taxonomy tells you what you bought and who else could sell it. Why one cannot do the other's job.
PO data or invoice data for spend analysis?
3 September 2026 · 5 min read
Why invoice data should be your primary source, what PO data adds, and why the gap between the two is usually the most useful finding in the exercise.
Spend analysis report: what to include and what to cut
3 September 2026 · 6 min read
What belongs in a spend analysis report, what to leave out, why the data-quality note protects you, and how to write recommendations people act on.
AI in procurement: what works in 2026 and what does not
26 August 2026 · 6 min read
AI in procurement, sorted: what runs in production today, what is promising but immature, what is still a slide, and five questions for any vendor.
AI spend classification: how it works and where it fails
26 August 2026 · 6 min read
How AI classifies procurement spend, why it beats supplier mapping tables, the four failure modes to test for, and what accuracy claims really mean.
Is it safe to upload spend data to a SaaS tool?
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
Procurement data security: what is in a spend file, whether it is personal data under UK GDPR, eight questions for any vendor, and how to send less.
Spend under management: definition, formula and benchmarks
25 August 2026 · 5 min read
What spend under management means, the formula, realistic benchmarks for indirect spend, how the number gets inflated, and four ways to raise it.
Spend classification software vs consultants vs in-house
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
What spend classification costs each way: consultancy fees and timelines, the real cost of doing it in-house, software pricing, and how to choose.
Spend analysis in Excel: method, limits, and when to stop
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
Spend analysis in Excel: supplier normalisation, the VLOOKUP mapping table, why it breaks on the long tail, and four signals it is time to move on.
Spend taxonomy: how many levels and categories do you need?
25 August 2026 · 6 min read
How to structure a spend taxonomy: why three levels beats four, how many Level 1 and Level 3 categories to use, and five signs yours is the wrong shape.
How to clean supplier master data in a day
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
Duplicate supplier names quietly break every spend report built on them. A practical five-step method that takes a day, not a master-data project.
Spend analysis vs spend analytics: the difference
14 August 2026 · 5 min read
They are not the same thing, and buying the second before doing the first is how procurement teams end up with a dashboard nobody opens.
Direct vs indirect spend: a practical guide
14 August 2026 · 5 min read
Where the boundary sits, the cases teams argue about, why indirect is where spend analysis pays off fastest, and what it means for your taxonomy.
How to calculate procurement savings credibly
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
Savings numbers finance will accept: separate hard savings from cost avoidance, agree the baseline first, and always report on constant volume.
Maverick spend: what it is and how to cut it
14 August 2026 · 5 min read
Off-contract buying is usually the largest recoverable saving in a spend file. How to measure it, why it happens, and what actually reduces it.
Supplier rationalisation: a practical playbook
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
Consolidating your vendor base without creating supply risk. A five-step method, the failure modes, and how to size the prize honestly.
What does a procurement category manager do?
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
The role explained: what it covers, how it differs from a buyer, how categories get assigned, and a first-90-days sequence that works.
Procurement KPIs that actually matter
14 August 2026 · 5 min read
Seven measures that inform decisions, four that should come off your scorecard, and why most of them depend on having classified spend.
How to prepare an ERP export for spend analysis
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
Which columns to request, why line level beats header level, the export traps that inflate totals, and the reconciliation step you cannot skip.
7 spend data quality problems (and the fixes)
14 August 2026 · 6 min read
Duplicate suppliers, part numbers in descriptions, credit notes, intercompany charges and more - the issues every spend analysis hits, and a ten-minute pre-flight check.
UNSPSC vs NAICS for procurement spend classification
23 May 2026 · 5 min read
Which standard should you map your procurement transactions to? A short, practical comparison of UNSPSC and NAICS for spend classification, with a decision matrix.
How to build a procurement spend cube (the pragmatic way)
23 May 2026 · 6 min read
Practical, opinionated guide to building a procurement spend cube without weeks of analyst time or a multi-month enterprise implementation.
What is procurement spend classification?
20 May 2026 · 7 min read
A plain-English guide to procurement spend classification: what it is, why it matters, how it used to be done, and what changed when LLMs got cheap enough to do it in minutes.