Spend, usage and licences

SupplierVault shows three different kinds of spend for each supplier. It's worth knowing which is which, because they answer different questions:

Every figure is built from what's recorded in SupplierVault. It doesn't connect to your bank or your suppliers' billing portals. It knows about invoices, orders and usage that someone has entered, imported, read in with the invoice reader or sent through the API, plus supplier bills read from your accounting software if you connect Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Accounting, Sage 200 or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Under each figure a "Source:" line tells you how up to date the data is, for example "Source: invoices to 30 Sep 2026 · orders to 14 Oct 2026".

Actual spend, last 12 months

• It's a rolling 365 days up to today, not calendar months or your financial year.
• Bills read from your accounting software count like any other invoice, before VAT, and credit notes count as negative amounts, so they net off. Bills voided, cancelled or deleted there, or from a contact left out of spend, aren't counted. A supplier that isn't linked to your accounts only has the invoices entered for it and its ordered purchase requests. With no accounting software connected, actual spend comes from invoices entered by hand or imported, plus ordered purchase requests. See Connect your accounting software.
• Invoice amounts are as entered, which should be excluding VAT. Disputed and on-hold invoices are included because they're still bills you've received.
• Orders only count if the Purchase requests module is switched on. As soon as an invoice for the same supplier quotes that order's PO number, the order stops counting separately, so nothing is counted twice.
• Foreign currency amounts are converted into your reporting currency at the rates in Settings.

You'll see it on the contract section ("£a invoiced · £b on order, not yet invoiced · against £c committed"), on the Dashboard, in category plans, the "Spend by area" and "Executive supplier report" reports, and the QBR pack.

Dashboard spend view

On the Dashboard, "Spend figures" switches between "Actual, last 12 months" and "Contract commitments". It starts on Actual if you have any invoices or orders, and remembers your choice on that browser.

• "Committed spend under management" is always the total committed value of live suppliers (Active or Under review), whichever view you choose.
• The monthly chart shows the last 12 full months (the current month isn't a column yet). In Actual view it groups invoices by invoice month and orders by order month. In Commitments view it shows usage and fixed fees by month.
• "Spend by supplier" shows each supplier's share, with a "▲ Concentration" flag when one supplier is 40% or more of the total. The chart shows the 20 largest; "Show as table" lists every supplier.
• "Spend by area" and "Currency exposure" charts break the same figures down.

Commercial models

For suppliers you pay by use (licences, cloud, energy, couriers, temporary staff and so on), set the "Commercial model" in the "Consumption & spend" section of the "Contract and money" tab:

"Rate per unit" is kept for reference and isn't used in calculations; forecasts are based on the spend you record.

Recording monthly usage

1. In "Consumption & spend", find the usage form. The month defaults to last month.
2. Enter "Usage spend" (required) and, if you track them, the number of units (licences, hours, MWh and so on).
3. Click "Record month". Recording the same month again replaces it.

The table "Monthly usage records" lists each month with spend, units and unit cost (spend ÷ units), and a Remove button.

Pasting several months at once

Open "Paste usage from a supplier report" and paste one month per line: month (YYYY-MM), spend, then units if you have them. For example:

Then click "Import lines". You can separate columns with a comma and a space, a semicolon or a tab, so copying two or three columns straight from Excel works. Existing months are replaced, and you're told how many lines were imported and how many skipped.

You can also record usage while adding an invoice with the invoice reader.

Licences and capacity in use

If you enter "Reserved or licensed per month" on the contract (for example 50 licences) and record units with your monthly usage, SupplierVault works out how much you're using:

Example: 50 licences reserved; the last three months recorded 38, 41 and 39 users. Average 39.3 ÷ 50 = 79%.

If you can't record units, type a percentage in "Capacity in use (%), if you can't record usage" instead. Warnings appear:

• Under 70%: "Under 70% of reservation used. Evidence for a smaller commitment or a reallocation."
• 95% or more: "95%+ of reservation used. Overage or burst pricing is close."

The Dashboard chart "Capacity and licence use" shows live suppliers with markers at 70% and 95% (the first 20 in the chart; "Show as table" lists them all).

Licence changes during the year

SupplierVault can't see changes you make in a supplier's own portal, such as adding 20 Microsoft licences in July. It only knows what's recorded. To keep licence figures right:

• record each month's licence count and cost as usage (from the supplier's monthly bill or usage report, by paste, or ticking the usage option in the invoice reader);
• update "Reserved or licensed per month" when you change your commitment;
• log each invoice so actual spend reflects what you were really charged.

If you don't record usage, SupplierVault shows the contracted (committed) spend and whatever invoices you've logged, which is still enough to track renewals and spot billing differences.

Forecasts and how they're worked out

All forecasts are in the contract's own currency and use the usage you've recorded.

"Committed spend, drawn down by usage"

Example: a £1.2M three-year commitment; £700k drawn so far; run rate £30k a month; 12 months left. Forecast = £700k + £30k × 12 = £1.06M, a £140k shortfall: money you've committed but are unlikely to use, and evidence for renegotiating.

A shortfall of more than 2% of the commitment is flagged (red above 10%); otherwise any overage is flagged amber with its cost. Forecasts appear once the start and end dates are set and the term has begun. The record shows "Drawn to date", "Term elapsed", "Run rate" and "Forecast at term end".

"Pay as you go" and "Fixed fee plus metered usage"

It's flagged when the forecast is more than 5% over budget (red above 15%). The record shows "Last 12 months" (including fixed fees for the hybrid model), "Run rate", "Forecast next 12 months" and "Against budget".

"Fixed fee"

Shows the monthly fee and yearly equivalent, plus "Invoice checks": whether invoices match the fee.

Invoice checks against fees and usage

When an invoice has a "Billing period", SupplierVault compares the total invoiced for that month with what it expected:

A difference of more than 2% is flagged ("▲ +6.0%" or "▼ 4.0%"), red above 10%, and appears on the Dashboard attention list as "invoice above expected by N%. Check before approving payment." For Committed and Pay as you go suppliers, months with no usage recorded aren't checked.

The Spend & consumption page

Lists every usage-based supplier (any model other than Fixed fee, or any supplier with usage recorded). Totals are in your reporting currency.

• "Usage and fixed fees, last 12 full months": total recorded usage plus fixed fees.
• "Forecast commitment shortfall": committed spend unlikely to be used.
• "Forecast overage and over-budget": overage costs plus amounts over budget.
• "Invoice variances": billing periods more than 2% off.

Charts show monthly spend for the top four suppliers, drawdown against time (bar = % drawn, marker = % of term gone) and usage against budget, followed by a table of every supplier with its model, commitment or budget, run rate, forecast, latest unit cost and status. This page is part of the "Spend & consumption" module, included in every plan.

Related

• Payments and invoices
• Contracts, notice periods and renewals
• How figures are calculated
• Settings: reporting currency and exchange rates