What is maverick spend?
Maverick spend is purchasing made outside an organisation's approved processes, contracts, or preferred suppliers. Because it bypasses sourcing and approval controls, it typically costs more, escapes audit, and undermines negotiated savings.
Maverick spend is any buying that goes around the approved process — purchasing off-contract, from non-preferred suppliers, or without a proper requisition and PO. It is rarely malicious; usually it is a busy employee taking a shortcut. But it quietly erodes negotiated savings, control, and visibility.
What counts as maverick spend
- Buying from a random vendor when a contracted supplier with better rates exists.
- Skipping the requisition and approval step entirely.
- Paying a higher price than the negotiated contract rate.
- Splitting an order to stay under an approval threshold.
- Using a personal card and expensing it instead of raising a PO.
Maverick spend example
Procurement negotiated office supplies at ₹420 per ream on contract. A branch manager, in a hurry, orders 200 reams locally at ₹560 — bypassing the contract. The off-contract buy costs ₹1,12,000 instead of the ₹84,000 it would have cost on contract: an avoidable ₹28,000 overspend. Multiply that across hundreds of small decisions and the leakage is large.
The fix is convenience, not just policy
People go maverick when the compliant path is slow. Fast approvals, easy catalogues, and quick vendor onboarding make the right way the easy way — which is the most reliable cure.
Why maverick spend matters
- Lost savings — off-contract prices undo the discounts procurement fought for.
- No visibility — unmanaged buys don't show up in spend analysis.
- Compliance risk — unvetted suppliers and missing documentation create audit and GST issues.
- Shrinking control — every maverick buy lowers spend under management.
Reducing maverick spend is the flip side of raising spend under management. The levers are cultural and technical: clear policy, sensible thresholds, easy catalogues, and a procure-to-pay flow people actually prefer to use.
Frequently asked questions
Why is maverick spend a problem?
Because it bypasses negotiated contracts and approvals, it usually costs more, hides from spend analysis, increases compliance risk, and erodes the savings procurement has already negotiated.
How do you reduce maverick spend?
Make the compliant path the easiest one: fast approvals, catalogues of contracted items, quick vendor onboarding, clear policy, and visibility through a procure-to-pay system. Enforcement alone rarely works if the right way is slow.
What is the difference between maverick spend and tail spend?
Tail spend is the long tail of many small, low-value purchases. Maverick spend is buying outside approved processes. They overlap — much maverick spend hides in the tail — but they are not the same thing.