Analytics
SKU Details
The SKU Details tab provides granular analysis at the product or SKU level. By shifting the focus from "Who are we paying?" to "What exactly are we buying?", this dashboard helps procurement teams identify price variances, consolidate high-spend items, and drive product standardization.
🎯 Purpose
This dashboard provides product-level intelligence to answer:
- Item Concentration: What are our highest-spend SKUs or individual products?
- Price Arbitrage: Are we paying different unit prices for the same item across different vendors or regions?
- Rationalization: Where can we consolidate multiple similar products into a single standard SKU to increase buying power?
🛠️ What You Can Do
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Analyze SKU spend | Review total spend aggregated specifically by product or SKU code. |
| Identify price variances | Compare unit pricing for identical items to spot overpayment or inconsistent contract adherence. |
| Find standardization opportunities | Discover disparate items that serve the same function and could be consolidated. |
| Support sourcing | Provide high-fidelity product data for line-item level contract negotiations. |
| Track SKU trends | Monitor how the consumption and pricing of specific products evolve over time. |
📋 Typical Data Fields
The SKU Details table provides the building blocks for unit-level analysis:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| SKU/Item Code | The unique identifier or part number for the product. |
| Description | Detailed product or item description from the source system. |
| Unit Price | The cost per individual unit of the item. |
| Quantity | The total volume of units purchased in the selected period. |
| Total Spend | The aggregate spend for the SKU ($Quantity \times Unit Price$). |
| Vendor | The supplier providing the specific item. |
| Category | The taxonomy category to which the product is mapped. |
🔄 Recommended Workflow
To effectively leverage product-level data, follow this progression:
- Identify the "Big Rocks": Sort by Total Spend to isolate the SKUs that represent your largest financial commitment.
- Scan for Fragmentation: Look for the same product description appearing under multiple vendors to identify split-spend.
- Audit Unit Prices: Compare the Unit Price for identical or highly similar items across your supplier base.
- Flag Variance: Isolate items with a price variance exceeding a specific threshold (e.g., $> 5%$) for investigation.
- Prepare Negotiations: Use these specific variances to challenge vendors during contract renewals or price-correction reviews.
💡 Tips for Success
- Focus on Volume: Prioritize high-volume, high-spend SKUs first; even a small unit-price reduction on these items leads to significant total savings.
- Standardization Wins: Look for duplicate SKUs or descriptions that indicate "maverick" buying of non-standard items.
- Supplier Preference: Cross-reference SKU data with your Vendor Overview to identify which suppliers offer the best value for specific product groups.
- Data Cleanup: Export SKU data into spreadsheet tools for advanced pivot-table analysis and pricing normalization.
Next Step: Want to see how these products translate to billing? Move to the Invoice Details Guide.