Procurement spend analysis software tracks corporate procurement spend and payments to identify trends, risks, and optimization opportunities. This type of software consolidates information from multiple sources or entities on procurement spending and payables. Procurement spend analysis software provides companies with visibility into payables and procurement information such as reconciled external data against internal transaction data, which enables managers to reduce unnecessary spending and recover supplier payments. This software sometimes uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify errors in AP processes such as duplicate payments, anomalies, and fraud, and to assist in recovering overpayments, duplicate payments, or unused credits from suppliers. This type of software is used by procurement professionals and by AP departments to track and report on supplier and contract compliance.
Procurement spend analysis software should not be confused with expense management, which focuses exclusively on employee-related work expenses, or spend management, which manages organization-wide spending. Procurement spend analysis solutions often integrate with spend management and AP automation software.
To qualify for inclusion in the procurement spend analysis category, a product must:
- Classify procurement spending by type of purchase, category, supplier, or all of them
- Provide benchmarking and reporting for procurement spend and/or payments analysis
- Help companies improve buying power and reduce costs
- Ensure compliance with contract terms by suppliers
- Improve procurement payables and spending visibility across multiple locations and entities
- Provide fraud or risk monitoring for procurement payments and transactions
