Your Spend by Vendor report shows how much you've purchased from each of your vendors over a date range, so you can see who you buy the most from. It's the report to pull before you sit down to negotiate volume discounts or decide whether to consolidate two vendors into one. At the top, you get two quick stats — Purchase Order Total (your total PO spend in the window) and Purchase Orders (how many POs are in the window). Below that, a sortable table lists each vendor with its PO count, tire cost, part cost, fees, tax, and PO total, so you can click the columns to rank vendors by any of those numbers.
Filters
| Filter | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PO Date | No date applied on first load (the picker shows this month but waits for you to pick it) | Restricts the report to purchase orders created in the period you select. This is the date the PO was entered in Shopmonkey — not the date you placed the order with the vendor, and not the date goods arrived. |
| PO Status | Empty — so every status is included: Draft, Ordered, Received, Fulfilled, Cancelled | Lets you narrow to specific PO statuses. Most people looking at "real" spend narrow to Received and/or Fulfilled, since Draft and Cancelled POs can inflate the counts. |
| Vendors | All vendors, plus an "Unassigned" row | Lets you narrow to specific vendors. If you search and pick one or more, the "Unassigned" row disappears. |
| Countries (multi-location HQ view only) | Your own country | Switches which locations you can choose from. It also switches whether the table shows US Tax or Canadian GST/PST/HST. |
| Locations (multi-location HQ view only) | All your locations | Lets you narrow to one or a few locations. The shop-level view is always scoped to just that shop. |
Understanding Each Number
| Card or Column | What it means | What it doesn't include | When it's useful | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase Order Total | The total of every PO header in the filter, in dollars. | Purchase-order returns are not subtracted. Soft-deleted POs are excluded. | Quick top-line number for "how much did we spend on inventory with our vendors this period." | Matches the sum of the Total Cost column below. |
| Purchase Orders | The number of purchase orders in the filter. | — | Quick activity number — how many POs your team cut in the period. | Includes Draft and Cancelled POs by default. Narrow PO Status if you want "real" POs only. |
| Vendor | The vendor name, linked to the vendor's profile. | — | Click to open the vendor for full history, contact info, and editing. | POs without a vendor show up under a single gray "Unassigned" row. |
| Location (HQ view) | One of the locations where this vendor was used. | — | Quickly see where a vendor is active. | If a vendor has POs at more than one of your locations, this cell picks one to show — the dollar totals still include every selected location. Use the Locations filter to narrow if you want to look at one location at a time. |
| GST / PST / HST (Canadian shops) | Canadian tax on each PO, summed by vendor. | Tax is whatever was entered on the PO — it's not recalculated. | Sales tax tracking and remittance. | Your province determines which columns have values. This column appears only if your Shopmonkey account has the feature enabled. |
| Tax (US shops) | Sales tax on each PO, summed by vendor. | Tax is whatever was entered on the PO. | Sales tax tracking. | Only appears if your account has the feature enabled. |
| Total Tire Cost | The total of tire line items on this vendor's POs. | Tire lines that were deleted from a PO are not included. | See which vendors you buy tires from. | — |
| Total Part Cost | The total of part line items on this vendor's POs. | Part lines that were deleted from a PO are not included. | See which vendors you buy parts from. | — |
| Total Fee | The total of fee line items on this vendor's POs. | Fees typed into the PO header as a lump sum (instead of as fee line items) are counted in Total Cost but not here. | Tracking shipping, handling, core charges, etc., when you enter them as line items. | If this is zero but you know there were fees, your team probably entered them as a lump sum on the PO header — that money is still in Total Cost. |
| Purchase Order Count | How many POs you cut with this vendor in the period. | — | Vendor frequency. A vendor with 40 POs may be a consolidation candidate (one big weekly order instead of 40 small ones). | Draft and Cancelled POs count by default. |
| Total Cost | The sum of the PO header totals for this vendor. | Returns are not netted. | The most important column for volume-discount conversations — "we gave this vendor X dollars this year." | This is the PO header total as it was saved, not a live recalculation of the line items. If someone edited or deleted a line after the PO was saved, Total Cost and the sum of Tire + Part + Fee + Tax can disagree — neither is wrong, they just come from different places. |
Common Questions
Q: Why is my Purchase Order Count higher than I think it should be? A: By default this report includes every PO status — including Drafts that were started and abandoned, and POs you later cancelled. Open the PO Status filter and narrow to Received and/or Fulfilled to see only the POs that actually resulted in you buying something.
Q: Does this include returns I made to the vendor? A: No. Spend by Vendor is a gross-spend report — it shows what you originally ordered, not what you kept after any returns. If you need net spend that accounts for returns, use the Purchases and Returns report instead.
Q: Why doesn't Total Cost equal Total Tire + Total Part + Total Fee + Tax? A: Total Cost is the number that was written on the PO's header when it was saved. The Tire, Part, Fee, and Tax columns look at the current line items on the PO. If someone edited or removed a line after the PO was saved, the header total won't match the sum of the current lines. Neither number is wrong — they're just measuring slightly different things. Open a specific PO if you want to see what happened.
Q: What's the "Unassigned" row? A: Any POs that were saved without a vendor picked. If you see spend there, open each PO and set a vendor so it rolls up into the right row.
Q: What date does this report use — when I placed the order, or when goods arrived? A: Neither — it uses the date the PO was created in Shopmonkey. If you entered a PO today for goods you already ordered two weeks ago, it will show up in today's date window. If you need to filter by when the order was placed or fulfilled, this report can't do that today — Inventory → Purchase Orders has more date options.
Q: I don't see a Tax column. Where is it? A: Tax columns are a feature that has to be turned on for your account. If you need it, reach out to support and ask them to enable "vendor report taxes."
Q: Why does one of my vendors show only one location when I know we buy from them at two? A: Each vendor is shown on a single row with a single location label. When a vendor is used at more than one of your locations, the Location cell picks one to show — but the dollar totals still correctly include every location you have selected. Use the Locations filter to focus on one location at a time if you need to split them out.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of This Report
- Before your next vendor negotiation, pull the last 12 months of Spend by Vendor (narrow PO Status to Received and Fulfilled so Draft and Cancelled don't muddy the number). Sort by Total Cost descending. Your top three vendors are where volume-discount asks have the biggest payoff.
- Look for consolidation candidates. Sort by Purchase Order Count descending. A vendor with 80 small POs over the year is often a candidate for switching to weekly bulk orders — or for moving that spend to a competing vendor you already buy from in volume.
- Don't use this to reconcile returns. If a vendor sent you damaged goods you sent back, the original purchase still counts here. Use the Purchases and Returns report for net spend, and use Spend by Vendor for gross vendor activity.
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