Eleven people can raise a purchase order. The same item has nine prices.

Scattered buying rarely shows up as a problem in the accounts, because the money leaks in small enough amounts that nothing ever looks wrong.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Eleven people can raise a purchase order. The same item has nine prices.

A business turning over £8m runs a spend analysis for the first time, usually because a bank or an acquirer asked for one. The finding that stops the room is never the big contract. It is the tail: the same box of consumables, the same courier lane, the same subscription, bought by eleven different people at nine different prices, from four suppliers, three of whom nobody in finance can name. Nothing here is a scandal. Every one of those purchases was made by someone competent, in a hurry, solving a…

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