This feature is currently in beta and available only to select customers.
Intro to Spend Insights
Spend Insights is a powerful visual tool within Procurify designed to provide you with a clear and interactive overview of your organization's spending patterns. By leveraging pre-built visualizations and intuitive filtering, you can easily analyze your financial data across various dimensions, such as vendors, departments, locations, and more. This helps you to move beyond static reports to proactively identify trends, optimize spending, and make data-driven decisions.
While this article uses "Location" and "Department," your domain's specific setup of custom organizational categories might display different labels. Learn more here.
Navigating the Dashboards
Upon accessing Spend Insights, you will land on the main dashboard. It is typically organized into several sections, each focusing on a specific aspect of your spending:
Upon accessing Spend Insights, you can navigate to one of the available dashboards that each focus on a specific aspect of your spending:
Spend Overview: Provides a high-level summary of your total spend.
Purchasing: Offers insights into your purchase order lifecycle and related metrics.
Expense: Focuses on employee expense data and trends.
Accounts Payable: Presents information related to your bill management and payment processes.
Last Updated: Displays the freshness of the data presented on the dashboard.
Use the navigation menu on the side or tabs at the top to move between these dashboards.
Key Features and How to Use Them
Key Features and How to Use Them
1. Pre-built Visualizations
Each dashboard displays a selection of cards designed to highlight key spending trends. These visualizations are interactive:
Hovering: Hover your mouse over data points in a card (e.g., bars in a chart, slices in a pie chart) to see specific values and details.
Clicking: In some cards, you can click on a segment (e.g., a vendor in the "Top 10 Vendors by Spend" chart) to drill down and see more detailed information related to that card.
2. Drill-Down Capability
When available, the drill-down feature allows you to explore the data in your cards at a more granular level. For example, if you click on a specific department in a "Spend by Department" card, the dashboard might update to show you the spending breakdown within that particular department. Look for visual cues like clickable elements or prompts to drill down further.
3. Filters
Filters are essential for focusing on the specific data you need. You will typically find filter options at the top of the Spend Insights page or on the side of a dashboard. Common filters include:
Date Range: Select a specific period (e.g., last month, this quarter, custom range).
Vendor: View spend related to specific vendors.
Department: Analyze spending by different departments within your organization.
Location: Filter data based on geographical locations.
Account Code: Focus on specific general ledger accounts.
How apply a filter:
Locate the filter dropdown or selection box.
Choose the desired value(s). You may be able to select multiple values.
Click "Apply" or a similar button to update the dashboard visualizations based on your selections.
4. Export Data
You can view the underlying data in a table format or export the data, either for offline analysis or to share with stakeholders who may not have direct access to Procurify.
Locate the export option (often represented by a download icon or a "Export" button) associated with a specific chart or the entire section.
Select the desired format (CSV is currently supported).
The file will be downloaded to your computer.
5. Scheduled Reporting
Stay informed without manually running reports by setting up scheduled reports. This feature allows you to automate the delivery of dashboard data to specified recipients on a recurring basis (e.g., weekly, monthly).
Navigate to the scheduled reporting settings (the location may vary, refer to additional documentation if needed).
Create a new schedule, specifying the report content (which dashboard sections to include), the recipients' email addresses, the desired frequency, and the delivery time.
Save your schedule. The system will automatically generate and send the reports as configured.
Understanding the "Spend Overview" Dashboard
Understanding the "Spend Overview" Dashboard
High-level view of your organization's financial activity. Key cards include:
Total Spend: The card shows overall amount spent, based on both Request for Order (RFO) and Request for Expense (RFE) data. Remember that all values are displayed in your organization's base currency.
Month-over-month spend: This card shows a comparison of the total spend in the most recent month compared to the previous month, highlighting any significant changes.
Monthly spend by type: This card breaks down the month-over-month total spend into two primary spend types: Orders and Expenses, allowing you to see the contribution of each to the overall trend.
Top 10 primary categories by spend: This card ranks the top 10 primary categories (as defined within your Procurify setup) based on the total spend associated with them, in descending order. This helps identify where the majority of your spending is concentrated.
Top 10 secondary categories by spend: Similar to primary categories, this card ranks the top 10 secondary categories by total spend, providing a more detailed view of your spending patterns.
Top 10 vendors by spend: This crucial card identifies the vendors to whom your organization has spent the most money. Understanding this can be valuable for vendor management and negotiation.
Top 10 account codes by spend: This card ranks the top 10 account codes (from your chart of accounts) based on total spend, helping you understand which expense categories are most significant.
Understanding the "Purchasing" Dashboard
Understanding the "Purchasing" Dashboard
This dashboard focuses on the efficiency and cost associated with your procurement processes:
Request-to-approval cycle time: This card measures the average time it takes for a Request for Order (RFO) line item to be approved.
Month-on-month cycle time: Compares the average cycle time (in hours) of the current month to the previous month.
Quarterly cycle time: Compares the average and median cycle times (in hours) of the current quarter to the previous quarter. The median provides a more robust measure by reducing the impact of outliers.
Approval-to-PO cycle time: This card measures the average time it takes for an approved line item to be added to a Purchase Order (PO).
Month-on-Month cycle time: Compares the average cycle time (in hours) of the current month to the previous month.
Quarterly cycle time: Compares the average and median cycle times (in hours) of the current quarter to the previous quarter.
PO-to-delivery cycle time: This card measures the average time it takes for a line item to be received after being added to a Purchase Order (PO).
Month-on-Month cycle time: Compares the average cycle time (in hours) of the current month to the previous month.
Quarterly cycle time: Compares the average and median cycle times (in hours) of the current quarter to the previous quarter.
Total approved order requests over time: This card shows the trend of the number of approved Request for Orders (RFOs) on a monthly basis, indicating the volume of purchasing activity.
Pre-encumbrance vs post-encumbrance: This card displays the monthly order spend, categorized as pre-encumbrance (approved orders that have not yet been fully processed) and post-encumbrance (orders that have been purchased, received, or billed). This helps in forecasting and understanding committed spending.
Total spend for approved orders in base currency: This card shows the overall monthly spending on approved orders in your organization's base currency, without any further breakdowns.
Total spend for approved orders by currency: This card breaks down the monthly order spend based on the original currency of each approved order, with all amounts converted to your base currency for comparison. This is crucial for understanding the impact of foreign exchange rates.
Top 10 items by spend: This card ranks the top 10 most expensive items based on their unit cost, in descending order. This can highlight high-value purchases.
Understanding the "Expense" Dashboard
Understanding the "Expense" Dashboard
This dashboard provides insights into your organization's expense management:
Total expense amount over time: This card shows the trend of the total approved expense amount on a monthly basis.
Total expense reports over time: This card displays the number of approved expense reports submitted each month, indicating the volume of expense activity.
Number of reimbursable vs. non-reimbursable expense items: This card shows the percentage of expense line items that are classified as either reimbursable (expenses that will be paid back to the employee) or non-reimbursable, based on the total count of expense items.
Top 10 expense items: This card ranks the top 10 most costly individual expense items based on their amount, in descending order. This can help identify areas where expense policies might need review.
Understanding the "Accounts Payable" Dashboard
Understanding the "Accounts Payable" Dashboard
This dashboard focuses on your bill processing and payment activities:
Number of approved bills over time: This card shows the trend of the number of approved bills on a monthly basis.
Receive-to-bill cycle time: This card measures the average time it takes for a line item in an approved Request for Order (RFO) to have a corresponding bill submitted.
Month-on-month cycle time: Compares the average cycle time (in hours) of the current month to the previous month.
Quarterly comparison: Compares the average and median cycle times (in hours) of the current quarter to the previous quarter.
Number of PO-backed vs. non-PO-backed bills: This card shows the percentage of bills that are linked to a Purchase Order (PO-backed) versus those that are not (non-PO-backed), based on the total number of bills. This can help assess compliance with procurement processes.
Understanding the "Last Updated" Information
Understanding the "Last Updated" Information
This section provides information about the data displayed on each dashboard:
Last updated: This indicates how much time has passed since the data was last refreshed. For example, it might say "5 hours 30 minutes ago."
Last updated at: This shows the exact date and time of the most recent data refresh. Knowing this helps you understand the recency of the insights you are viewing. The data in Spend Insights is updated twice per day
Common User Questions and Potential Pain Points
Q: How often is the data updated?
A: Spend Insights data is updated twice per day. You can see the last updated time at the bottom of the dashboard.Q: Why are some of the cycle times very high?
A: High cycle times could indicate bottlenecks in your procurement or accounts payable processes. Investigate the specific requests or bills contributing to these longer durations. Consider reviewing your approval workflows and communication processes.Q: Can I customize the dashboards?
A: Currently, Spend Insights offers dashboards with pre-built card visualizations. Customization options may be available in future updates.Q: What if I see discrepancies in the data?
A: If you notice any data discrepancies, please first ensure that the filters applied are correct. If the issue persists, contact your Procurify administrator or the Procurify support team with specific details.
Troubleshooting Guide for Known Issues
Issue: Dashboard data is not loading or appears blank.
Troubleshooting:
Check your internet connection.
Try refreshing the page.
If the issue persists, contact your Procurify administrator or the Procurify support team.
Issue: Exported CSV file is missing some data.
Troubleshooting: Ensure that all relevant filters are applied on the dashboard before exporting. If specific visualizations are not exporting correctly, try exporting the entire section. If the problem continues, contact Procurify support.