Maverick spend detection

Identifies spend made with non-approved suppliers, measures procurement policy compliance rate, and locates at-risk teams.

โ†“ Download skill (.md)
68/100ยท๐Ÿ“† MonthlyยทIntermediateProcurementFinance Analyst
ComplianceSuppliersspendesk_analyze_spendget_suppliersget_payables

๐ŸŽฏ Skill purpose

Identifies spend made with non-approved suppliers, measures procurement policy compliance rate, and locates at-risk teams.

๐Ÿ“Š What it produces

Overall procurement compliance rate, top 5 one-shot suppliers by amount, teams with most maverick spend, and at-risk categories.

โšก Benefit

Before

Maverick spend is only visible retroactively in audits, without systematic measurement of compliance rate.

After

Regular measurement of procurement compliance rate and identification of teams to train, progressively reducing maverick spend.



# Maverick spend detection (off-policy purchases)

## Purpose
Identify spend made outside the approved supplier list (maverick spend). Measure the purchasing policy compliance rate and identify at-risk teams or categories.

**Limitation:** Spendesk does not natively store an "approved vs non-approved suppliers" list. This skill builds a proxy by distinguishing regular active suppliers from new one-shot suppliers.

## Instructions

### Step 1 โ€” Build the proxy list of "established" suppliers
```
Call spendesk_analyze_spend with:
  - groupBy: supplier
  - Period: last 12 months

Build the proxy list:
  "Established" supplier = at least 3 transactions AND at least 2 different invoicing months
  "New" or "one-shot" supplier = 1-2 transactions over the period

Note: this criterion is an approximation. Ideally, the approved supplier list
would come from an ERP or an import file.
```

### Step 2 โ€” Identify spend outside the proxy list
```
Call get_payables for the last 3 months.
For each payable:
  Check if the supplierId is in the "established" list
  If not โ†’ potential maverick spend

For the identified one-shot suppliers:
  Call get_supplier_by_id to retrieve the name and country.
  Note: even for a single supplier, the response can be large if its accountPayable is a shared consolidated account (see [[s22-fournisseurs-actifs-iban]]) โ€” this is expected, not an error.
```

### Step 3 โ€” Analyze maverick spend patterns
```
Group maverick spend by:
  - Cost center (which team buys off-list?)
  - Expense category (what type of purchase is involved?)
  - Amount (one-off purchase vs recurring commitment?)

Calculate:
  Total maverick spend: Xโ‚ฌ (X% of total spend)
  Number of one-shot suppliers: X
  Cost centers with the most maverick spend
```

### Step 4 โ€” Identify risks
```
Risk levels:
  ๐Ÿ”ด HIGH: new supplier, amount > 5,000โ‚ฌ, no associated PO
  ๐ŸŸก MODERATE: new supplier, amount 1,000-5,000โ‚ฌ or recurrence
  ๐ŸŸข LOW: one-off purchase < 1,000โ‚ฌ (may be acceptable)

For high risks:
  Did the requester have a justified need?
  Is there an equivalent approved supplier?
```

### Step 5 โ€” Maverick spend report
```
Present:
1. Purchasing compliance rate:
   Spend with approved suppliers: Xโ‚ฌ (X%)
   Maverick spend: Xโ‚ฌ (X%)
   Target objective: < 10% (procurement best practice)

2. Top 5 one-shot suppliers by amount:
   Supplier | Amount | Nb transactions | Cost center | Category | Risk

3. Cost centers with the most maverick spend:
   Team | Maverick amount | % of their total spend

4. At-risk categories:
   Category | Maverick spend | Approved suppliers available?

5. Recommendations:
   - Onboard recurring one-shot suppliers as approved
   - Train the offending teams
   - Implement preventive controls
```

## Points of attention
- This skill produces a proxy โ€” not all "one-shot suppliers" are necessarily maverick spend (some one-off purchases are legitimate)
- The optimal maverick spend rate depends on the sector and procurement maturity (target < 10%)
- This skill is complementary to the tail spend skill (s57) โ€” maverick spend is a subset of tail spend

## Example prompts
- "What is our maverick spend rate this quarter?"
- "Which teams buy the most off the approved supplier list?"
- "Identify off-policy purchases from the last 3 months"

How to install this skill

/
  1. 1
    Download the file s61-maverick-spend.md using the button above.
  2. 2
    Place the file in the .claude/ directory of your project (or ~/.claude/ for a global install).
    cp s61-maverick-spend.md .claude/s61-maverick-spend.md
  3. 3
    Use in Claude Code โ€” the skill is automatically discovered. Describe your need in natural language and Claude will apply the skill instructions.
๐Ÿ’ก Make sure the Spendesk MCP is configured in your .claude/settings.json with the tools spendesk_analyze_spend, get_suppliers, get_payables.

Similar skills

โ˜… Top
95/100ยท๐Ÿ” Ad hocยทExpert

MCP coverage audit & gap analysis

Probes all available MCP tools, re-evaluates coverage of 50 persona use cases, detects new fields or tools, and regenerates the gap analysis report.

CFOControllerAP Manager
90/100ยท๐Ÿ“… WeeklyยทBeginner

Card requests via get_requests

Explains how to use get_requests for card requests and why expense reimbursements don't appear there. Avoids a frequent source of confusion between two distinct workflows.

ControllerFinance Analyst
90/100ยท๐Ÿ” Ad hocยทIntermediate

Active vs archived cost centers

Distinguishes active cost centers from archived ones with correct use of get_cost_centers. Avoids the counter-intuitive isArchived vs isActive naming convention pitfall.

ControllerFinance Analyst