Vendor Spend

What this does

Vendors → Vendor Spend is the purchasing view of the expense side: Total Spend, number of Vendors and Payments, the Biggest Vendor and Top Category for the window, a Monthly Trend chart, Spend by Category (by vendor type), Payment Method Mix, and a Top Vendors by Spend table. It answers "where does the money go" better than the P&L, which is organized by expense account rather than by who was paid.

Before you start

reports.view. Vendors typed (parts supplier, utility, and so on) under Vendors → Type vendors, or the category chart is mostly Uncategorized.

Steps

Pick YTD, This year, Last year, Trailing 12 mo, or set the dates, then read. Click a vendor in the table to open their page. Export CSV for the table.

How it's built

Bill payments, checks, and card charges attributed to a vendor in the window, grouped by vendor and by the vendor's type. A check or charge with no vendor selected isn't attributed to anyone and isn't here; it's still on the P&L.

Common problems

Total Spend is lower than expenses on the P&L. Payroll, depreciation, and anything entered without a vendor aren't vendor spend. Compare category by category, not total to total.

One vendor appears twice. Duplicate vendor records. Merge them under Vendors → Review duplicates; history follows the survivor.

A category is wrong. It's the vendor's type. Change it on the vendor and re-run.