> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.spherecast.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Supplier spend

> A historical, year-by-year view of realized purchase-order spend per supplier, drillable to product.

## What this page is for

**Supplier spend** is the historical mirror of Cash Requirements. Where that report looks forward at cash you'll owe, this one looks back at what you've **actually spent** with each supplier, per **calendar year**. It's a **read-only** report — you read it, you don't edit it — and each supplier row is **drillable to per-product** detail.

Use it to see where your purchasing dollars really went, spot year-over-year concentration on a few suppliers, and walk into a negotiation knowing exactly how much business you bring.

## What counts as spend

The numbers here are **realized spend**, defined precisely so they line up with reality rather than intent:

* Spend is based on **actually shipped quantities**, not ordered quantities. If you ordered 1,000 units but only 800 shipped, only the 800 count.
* Each amount is bucketed by the **year of the shipment's ETA** (Estimated Time of Arrival) — the year the goods were expected to land.
* Purchase orders (POs) that are **Recommended**, **Draft**, or **Rejected** are **excluded**. They never became real spend, so they don't belong in a historical report.

## What you see

| Element        | What it shows                                                                                              |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Rows**       | One per supplier, **sorted by total spend descending** — your biggest suppliers first.                     |
| **Columns**    | The **current year** plus the **two prior years**. A cell is **blank** where there was no spend that year. |
| **Drill-down** | Expand a supplier to see the spend broken out **per product**.                                             |

Reading a supplier row across the three columns tells you the direction of the relationship — growing, flat, or winding down.

## How a planner uses it

* **Concentration:** the top few rows show how dependent you are on a handful of suppliers. Heavy concentration is a risk worth knowing.
* **Year-over-year trend:** a supplier climbing across the three columns is one where you have growing leverage; one falling off may be worth consolidating or revisiting.
* **Negotiation:** before renewing terms, drill into a supplier to see exactly which products drive the spend, so you negotiate from facts.

## Step by step: prep for a supplier negotiation

1. Open Supplier spend and find the supplier at the top of the list, or search for the one you're meeting.
2. Read its **current year** and **two prior years** to see whether spend is rising or falling.
3. **Drill in** to the per-product breakdown to see which items make up the total.
4. Compare against other suppliers for the same products to gauge your leverage.
5. Bring the year-over-year figures and product mix to the table.

## Example

A planner preparing for an annual review opens Supplier spend and sees one co-manufacturer at the top with spend rising across all three years. Drilling in, two products account for most of it. Because spend counts only **shipped** quantities bucketed by **ETA year**, the numbers match what was actually received — so the planner can confidently ask for volume pricing on those two items.

> **Tip:** Blank cells aren't errors — they simply mean no realized spend that year. Pair this backward-looking report with the forward-looking [Cash Requirements](/guide/reports/cashflow-projection), and see [Suppliers & co-manufacturers](/guide/network/suppliers-co-manufacturers) for where supplier terms are set.