Analyse small suppliers
Applies Pareto analysis to supplier spend to identify tail spend (many small suppliers, little volume) and consolidation opportunities.
Finance AnalystProcurement๐ MonthlyIntermediateRead-only
Ask it like this
What share of our spend goes to small suppliers?
When to use it
When you want to measure how scattered purchasing is and spot what can be consolidated.
What it produces
Pareto table (Tier A/B/C), consolidation opportunities by category, one-shot suppliers to archive, and estimated potential savings.
How it works
- 1Ranks suppliers by spend over twelve months
- 2Separates major, mid-size and small suppliers
- 3Sizes the share of small suppliers and their number of expenses
- 4Spots one-off purchases never repeated
- 5Suggests possible consolidations
What protects you
- This skill only reads: it changes nothing in Spendesk
- It acts with your permissions and your role, never beyond
- The assistant cannot approve or pay
โธTechnical detail75/100 ยท 2 tools
Spend analysisSuppliersspendesk_analyze_spendget_suppliers
# Tail spend analysis (long tail) ## Purpose Apply the Pareto principle to supplier spend: identify "tail spend" (the many small suppliers representing little volume but generating a lot of operational overhead), and find consolidation opportunities. ## Instructions ### Step 1 โ Retrieve spend by supplier over 12 months ``` Call spendesk_analyze_spend with: - groupBy: ["supplier"] - limit: 50 (by default only 10 rows come back; the rest is rolled into an "Others" row) - Period: last 12 months (366 days at most per call) Each row gives the amount and the number of expenses (count), plus an "Others" row. โ ๏ธ The long tail sits precisely in "Others": its amount and count are known, but not the supplier-by-supplier detail. Say so, and only detail the listed suppliers. Compute shares on summary.totalAmount, not on the share field. Result: list of suppliers with annual volume. Sort by descending amount. ``` ### Step 2 โ Calculate the Pareto curve ``` Total spend = sum of all amounts For each supplier (sorted by amount desc): Calculate % of total and cumulative % Identify the thresholds: Tier A (strategic): suppliers representing the first 70% of cumulative volume Tier B (preferred): suppliers from 70% to 90% of cumulative volume Tier C (tail spend): suppliers representing the remaining 10% of volume Typically: 80% of volume is concentrated on ~20% of suppliers. ``` ### Step 3 โ Analyze tail spend ``` For Tier C suppliers: Count: X suppliers | Xโฌ total | X% of spend Average amount per supplier Number of transactions per supplier Tail spend sub-categories: ๐ฒ One-shot: a single purchase, never renewed ๐ Micro-recurring: < 5 transactions/year, < 500โฌ/year ๐ฆ Consolidatable category: same type of service as Tier A/B ``` ### Step 4 โ Identify consolidation opportunities โ ๏ธ **Response-size risk โ critical here**: Tier C is by definition the long tail, potentially hundreds of suppliers. `get_suppliers` embeds an `accountPayable.supplierIds` field that can blow up response size for any supplier sharing a consolidated AP account โ even `pageSize=3` can fail. **Never call `get_suppliers` across the whole Tier C.** Only target the 5-10 Tier C suppliers with the most transactions, via `ids=[...]`, one at a time or in very small batches. โ ๏ธ `get_suppliers` has no "industry" field โ only `name`, `legalName`, `address`, banking details. Matching "similar suppliers" stays manual, based on payable descriptions (`get_payables[].description`) rather than a structured field. ``` For tail spend, look for duplicates by category: Ex: 12 training suppliers โ can we consolidate to 1-2 partners? Ex: 8 travel agencies โ consolidate to a single one? Call get_suppliers with ids=[...] for the 5-10 Tier C suppliers with the most transactions (targeted, never broad pagination): Check: name, country Cross-reference payable descriptions (get_payables) to guess the service type ``` ### Step 5 โ Tail spend report ``` Present: 1. Pareto table: Tier | Nb suppliers | Total spend | % of total A (โฅ 70%) | X | Xโฌ | 70% B (70-90%) | X | Xโฌ | 20% C (tail, <10%) | X | Xโฌ | 10% 2. Consolidation opportunities: Category | Current nb suppliers | Total spend | Suggested action 3. One-shot suppliers > 6 months (no recent activity): To archive to clean up the master data 4. Estimated potential savings from consolidation: Reduced admin overhead + volume negotiation ``` ## Points of attention - Tail spend is not necessarily bad โ some one-off purchases are unavoidable - Consolidation must be validated by the business (changing suppliers impacts operations) - Some "small" suppliers may be strategic (niche, rare quality) ## Example prompts - "How many suppliers represent 80% of my spend?" - "Are there consolidation opportunities in my tail spend?" - "Show me the suppliers I only use once a year"
How to install this skill
/
- 1Download the file
s57-tail-spend-analysis.mdusing the button above. - 2Place the file in the
.claude/directory of your project (or~/.claude/for a global install).cp s57-tail-spend-analysis.md .claude/s57-tail-spend-analysis.md - 3Use in Claude Code โ the skill is automatically discovered. Describe your need in natural language and Claude will apply the skill instructions.
๐ก Make sure the Spendesk MCP is configured in your
.claude/settings.json with the tools spendesk_analyze_spend, get_suppliers.Similar skills
โ
Top