A category plan brings together everything about one area of spend, such as Facilities, IT or Marketing, on one page: what you spend and with whom, what's coming up for renewal, what's being sourced, how much you've saved against target, and the strategy and opportunities for the year. The figures fill themselves in from your supplier records; you add the strategy, target and ideas.
Where to find it
"Category plans" in the main menu. The first page shows a card for each area; click a card to open its plan. An area appears once at least one supplier uses it or a plan has been started. A supplier's area is the "Area" (category) on its record, and its "Sub-category" is used to split spend inside the plan.
Category plans are included in the Professional plan and above (and the free trial). On Essentials the page explains what it does and how to upgrade.
The area cards
Sorted by spend, largest first. Each card shows:
- a chip: "Plan in date", "Review due" (the next plan review date has passed) or "No plan yet";
- "Spend, 12 months", "Live suppliers", "Renewals, 12 months" and "Open sourcing";
- a savings bar, "Savings £x of £y target", or "no target set";
- the category manager, or "No category manager named".
Setting up a plan
- Open the area's card.
- Choose the "Category manager" and set the "Next plan review" date.
- Under "Strategy and objectives", write the "Category strategy", set the "Savings target this year" (in your reporting currency), add objectives (for example "Retender cleaning by March") and note "Risks and dependencies".
- Add opportunities: ideas to save money or reduce risk, each with a value a year, owner and due date.
The plan header shows "Last updated {date} by {name}".
Where the figures come from
| Figure | How it's worked out |
|---|---|
| "Spend, last 12 months" | Actual spend of every supplier in the area: invoices dated in the last 365 days plus orders not yet invoiced, converted to your reporting currency. Also shows how many suppliers were invoiced and the value under contract. |
| Under contract | Total committed spend of live suppliers (Active or Under review) in the area. |
| "Live suppliers" | Count of Active and Under review suppliers. |
| "Savings delivered, 12 months" | Savings in the savings register for this area, dated in the last 365 days, with the percentage of the target reached. |
| "Renewals in the next 12 months" | Suppliers whose notice deadline is within the next 365 days (or has already passed, so missed ones stay visible) and whose contract hasn't ended more than 30 days ago, with their committed value. |
| "Open sourcing" | Sourcing events in this area that are still open. |
| "Tail spend" | See below. |
Tail spend
Suppliers are ranked by spend, largest first, with a running total. A supplier is "tail" when the suppliers above it already make up 80% or more of the area's spend, so all of its spend sits in the last 20%.
Example: Facilities spend is £500k. The three biggest suppliers make £380k (76%); the fourth takes it to £420k (84%). The fourth supplier isn't tail, because the total before it was only 76%. The fifth supplier and everyone below it are tail spend. Lots of small suppliers usually means a chance to consolidate for better prices and less admin.
The rest of the plan page
- "Where the money goes": spend by sub-category (or "Unspecified") with the percentage of the area, plus the top eight suppliers.
- "Supplier positioning": live suppliers placed on a 2 × 2 grid by the "Spend impact" and "Supply risk" set in each supplier's Governance section. Strategic (high, high): partner closely. Leverage (high spend, low risk): use your buying power. Bottleneck (low spend, high risk): secure supply. Routine (low, low): simplify. Suppliers without both answers aren't placed.
- "Contracts coming up": each renewal with its notice date, countdown, value and decision so far (red dot within 30 days, amber within 90).
- "Sourcing under way": open sourcing events with stage and budget.
- "Opportunities": each idea moves through "Idea", "Approved", "In sourcing", "Delivered" or "Dropped". "Start sourcing" creates a sourcing event (request for proposal, budget = the opportunity's value) and moves it to "In sourcing"; then "Open sourcing" takes you to it.
- "Market prices": what public-sector buyers have paid for similar contracts. The search words are saved with the plan. See Price comparison and market prices.
Good to know
- An opportunity's "Value a year" is taken to be in your reporting currency.
- Marking an opportunity "Delivered" doesn't add a saving to the savings register. Log the saving on the supplier (or it is added automatically when a sourcing award comes in under budget). See Savings.
- Area restrictions apply: people limited to certain areas only see those areas' plans.