How to categorize Invoice spend in spend analyzer BI

Question

Hi,

I see in the BI standard reports of the spend analyzer you have spend by category, which is the purchasing category. However not all our spend is by PO, we have some spend via invoice only (i.e. no po). How can you see this spend in the spend analyzer? I manually selected the purchasing category on the invoice only line, but it does not appear on the report.

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

Ken

Thomas Dodds · Answer

The key to understanding HOW to get the information you want is understanding the model.  You need to know the functional intent of the model that supports the reports - as the model was built based on real business functional specifications (which have assumptions about the questions being answered).  It may be that this model doesn't support the answer to your questions (I suspect the model is built where Spend requires a PO; technically that's implemented in the logical and or physical data models through inner joins) and a new model needs to be spec'd and built.

User264858 · Answer

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your reply but I guess you are a technical person and not able to deal with business front end questions. Does someone know how to capture the invoice only spend in BI using the purchasing category. I want to use the standard out of the box reports. Maybe you capture the invoice only spend in a different way. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks

Ken

Thomas Dodds · Answer

Do you have an understanding of the logical and physical relationships in the data structures?  If not, that's where to start.  You need to study the logical and physical data models to understand why you are (or aren't) getting the behavior in question.