Industry Context
The Industry field is the primary strategic filter in SpendCraft. It dictates the relevance, structure, and pre-loaded content of your classification system, ensuring the platform understands the "DNA" of your organization's spending.
🏗️ 1. Foundational Customization
The core purpose of selecting an industry is to prevent starting from a blank slate. Your industry determines the nature of your business and your primary cost drivers.
- Pre-Loading Templates: SpendCraft utilizes a library of sector-specific spend templates. Selecting "Manufacturing," for example, narrows the available templates to those containing categories like Raw Materials and MRO.
- Ensuring Relevance: A bank’s taxonomy is fundamentally different from a construction firm's. Industry selection ensures that Level 1 categories and Level 2 commodities (e.g., Financial Data Subscriptions vs. Specialty Chemicals) align with your business model.
📊 2. Impact on Spend Categories
The industry selection directly influences the scope and depth of categories within your taxonomy:
| Industry Selected | High-Priority Categories | Strategic Context |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | MRO, Raw Materials, Logistics, CapEx. | Heavy weighting toward physical goods and production machinery. |
| Financial Services | IT Services, Market Data, Compliance, Legal. | Focus on knowledge services, tech infrastructure, and regulations. |
| Retail | Freight, Store Ops, Marketing, Packaging. | Emphasis on goods movement and consumer engagement. |
📈 3. Benchmarking and Data Linkage
Selecting an industry provides the metadata necessary for advanced analytics:
- Peer Group Benchmarking: SpendCraft uses the "Industry" tag to group your data with relevant peer companies. This allows for meaningful external benchmarking to see if your category pricing is competitive.
- Regulatory Alignment: Certain sectors have unique reporting requirements. The industry setting flags these standards, ensuring your taxonomy structure is compliant from the outset.
⚙️ 4. Strategic Considerations
When defining this field, keep the following logic in mind:
- Primary Spend Focus: For diversified companies, select the industry that represents the majority of your spending volume or the primary business unit being analyzed.
- Naming Conventions: The industry selection should inform your taxonomy name (e.g.,
Pharma_Global_v2orLogistics_EU_Standard) to help team members identify the correct hierarchy.
Pro-Tip
If you are unsure which industry to choose, select the one that best matches your General Ledger (GL) structure, as this is where most source data inconsistencies originate.