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Maverick spend calculator: what buying off contract costs you
Enter your yearly spend in a category, the share bought outside contracts and the premium you pay for it. You get the extra cost and what moving it to contract would save.
Maverick spend costs you the premium on the part of your spend bought outside agreed contracts. At the default numbers that is USD 188,571 a year, and USD 132,000 of it can be recovered.
Written by Procurement VMS Editorial Team · Reviewed by Michael, Procurement Advisor Expert · Updated
Your numbers
The boxes start with an example so you can see how it works. Replace them with your own figures.
Your result
Buying USD 1,760,000 off contract at a 12 percent premium costs you USD 188,571 a year, which is 2.4% of the category spend. Steering 70 percent of it back to contract saves USD 132,000.
| Spend off contract | USD 1,760,000 |
|---|---|
| Extra cost from the premium | USD 188,571 |
| Saving if you steer it back | USD 132,000 |
| Extra cost as a share of total spend | 2.4% |
The currency box changes the label only. Enter amounts in the currency you choose.
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The files open with the example numbers from the page. Type yours over the blue cells in the Excel file. The calculator on this page is free to use without a form.
How the maverick spend calculator works
The formula
Extra cost = off-contract spend - off-contract spend / (1 + premium). Saving = extra cost x share you can recover.
Maverick spend is buying that bypasses your agreed contracts and suppliers. It costs money because you lose the negotiated price, and it hides risk because the supplier has not been vetted.
The first job is to size it. Pull a spend report for the category and sort by supplier and by whether a contract exists. The maverick spend guide explains causes and fixes.
The example numbers are illustrative and are not benchmarks. Use your own data for any decision.
How to use it with your own data
- Run a spend cube for the category and mark each line as contract or off contract.
- Estimate the premium from a sample: compare the price paid with the contract price for the same item.
- Choose a realistic share to recover. Emergency and unique buys will remain.
Mistakes that skew the answer
Using list prices as the premium
Compare to the price you would have paid under contract, not to catalogue list.
Counting all off-contract spend as avoidable
Genuinely one-off needs have no contract. Use a recovery share.
Skipping the root cause
If staff buy off contract because the contract supplier is slow, a rule alone will not fix it.
What to do with the result
Use the saving to build a case for a catalogue or purchasing policy, and review the data in your spend analysis template. See the guides to tail spend and spend analysis for next steps.
Questions about the maverick spend calculator
What is maverick spend?
It is spend outside agreed contracts, approved suppliers or procurement policy.
How much maverick spend is normal?
It varies by company and category. The right question is how much it costs you, which this calculator estimates.
How do I reduce it?
Make the contract route the easy route: catalogues, clear approval rules, and fast service from the contracted supplier.
Is all maverick spend bad?
No. Some urgent or one-off purchases are reasonable. The goal is to cut avoidable cases.