Maverick spending: What it is and how to control it

Maverick spending, also called rogue spending, refers to purchases made outside of established procurement processes and approved vendor relationships within a business. When employees circumvent official procurement channels, you face increased costs, compliance risks, and reduced visibility into spending patterns.

But what exactly is maverick spending, and how do you control it? Let's review some examples of maverick spending, its causes and consequences, and how to control it.

What is Maverick spending?

While sometimes done for convenience or speed, maverick spending undermines cost savings from volume discounts, creates compliance risks, and reduces spending visibility. It commonly happens with small purchases, office supplies, business travel, and emergency needs where employees seek to avoid perceived procurement bureaucracy.

What are some examples of maverick spending?

Understanding what maverick spending looks like in action can help identify vulnerabilities in procurement processes. Recognizing these scenarios is the first step toward implementing effective solutions that maintain financial discipline without hindering operational efficiency.

Whatever the reason, whether it's prioritizing convenience or speed over established financial controls or responding to emergencies, all types of maverick spending create hidden costs and compliance risks for any business.

• Purchases from unapproved vendors: When teams buy from vendors outside the approved supplier list, they miss out on negotiated discounts and quality assurances
• Unapproved purchases: When employees make purchases without proper authorization, they circumvent important checks and balances in the spending process
• Unplanned purchases in emergencies: Last-minute crisis buying often leads to premium pricing and quick decisions that bypass standard procurement safeguards
• Spiraling incidental costs: Small, frequent purchases (like office coffee) that individually fly under the radar can collectively create significant budget leakage over time

Identifying these common patterns of maverick spending will allow you to develop targeted strategies to address the underlying causes while maintaining the agility your teams need to operate effectively.

What causes maverick spending?

Understanding why rogue spending occurs is essential for developing effective prevention strategies. From deliberate policy violations to simple mistakes, inefficient processes, and system gaps, identifying the root causes helps procurement teams address the problem at its source rather than just treating symptoms.

• Intentional disregard for procurement policies: Some employees deliberately bypass established protocols. This often stems from perceiving procurement processes as obstacles rather than valuable safeguards for the business.
• Unintentional errors: Without clear guidelines and regular reinforcement, well-meaning staff may make purchases that inadvertently circumvent established processes
• Poorly structured procurement workflows: Cumbersome approval chains, unclear processes, and outdated systems push staff toward unauthorized purchasing methods
• Lack of an effective procure-to-pay (P2P) program: Without integrated P2P systems connecting purchasing, receiving, and accounts payable, visibility gaps emerge. These disconnects create environments where non-compliant spending remains undetected until it's too late.

By systematically addressing these root causes, businesses can significantly reduce maverick spending and avoid the effects that result from it.

What are the consequences of maverick spend?

Maverick spending might seem harmless in isolated instances, but its cumulative effect can significantly impact a business's financial health and operational efficiency.

• Increased procurement costs: When purchases bypass established procurement channels, organizations lose negotiating power and volume discounts
• Missed savings: Maverick spending prevents procurement teams from identifying spending patterns and optimization opportunities. These missed chances for consolidation, bulk purchasing, and contract renegotiation can result in substantial financial losses over time.
• Weakened supplier relationships: Inconsistent purchasing practices confuse suppliers and undermine established agreements
• Reduced quality control: Purchases made outside procurement protocols may not meet organizational standards for quality or compatibility. This increases the risk of substandard products entering the supply chain and potentially affecting end products or services.
• Compliance issues: Maverick spend often bypasses important regulatory and policy checkpoints. This exposes the business to risks including regulatory violations, audit failures, and potentially significant financial penalties or legal complications.
• Workflow disruptions: Unexpected or unauthorized purchases can create process bottlenecks, delivery delays, and inventory inconsistencies

Systematically addressing rogue spend can reclaim control over procurement processes while improving financial performance and operational stability.

Five steps to control rogue spending

Ready to tackle maverick spending? Implementing procurement strategies will help establish better control without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. With everything from clear policies to the right technology to consistent monitoring, you can create a procurement environment that balances compliance with convenience and keeps unauthorized spending in check.

1. Define clear policies

Create straightforward guidelines that define approved vendors, purchase limits, and authorization processes. Ensure these policies are accessible to everyone and written in plain language. Review them regularly with the team to address questions and reinforce expectations.

2. Clarify roles and responsibilities

Clearly establish who can initiate purchases, approve expenses, and at what spending thresholds. Document these responsibilities in a procurement playbook and make sure the entire team understands the approval workflow.

This clarity eliminates excuses and creates natural accountability throughout the purchasing process.

3. Educate and train employees

Invest time in training sessions that explain not just procurement rules, but the reasoning behind them. Show teams how following protocols actually saves time and resources in the long run.

Create easy-to-reference guides for common purchasing scenarios and celebrate departments that consistently follow proper procedures. Also, conduct regular refreshers to keep compliance top of mind.

4. Use an expense management system

Expense management systems act as a procurement command center. These digital platforms automate approval workflows, consolidate vendor information, and enforce purchasing policies without manual intervention. They create a simplified path for compliant spending while flagging potential maverick purchases before they happen.

With real-time visibility into company-wide spending patterns, you'll quickly identify problematic areas and adjust accordingly. Plus, the convenience factor actually encourages employee adoption. When the right way becomes the easiest way, compliance naturally follows. The finance team will benefit from the streamlined reconciliation process too.

5. Track spending activity

Use your expense management system to generate reports that highlight spending patterns and policy exceptions at a glance. Schedule regular reviews to identify departments that might need additional guidance, and recognize teams showing improved compliance.

This ongoing oversight helps to spot emerging issues, refine policies where needed, and demonstrate commitment to financial responsibility.

By consistently following these five steps, you'll transform maverick spending from a financial drain into a manageable process, or possibly a thing of the past. Start small, stay committed, and watch procurement become more efficient and cost-effective.

Case study: How Red Antler addressed maverick spending with Ramp

The creative production team at brand marketing agency Red Antler made hundreds of monthly purchases for their operations. However, they tracked these expenses manually.

This meant three producers spent hours each month reconciling spreadsheets. The high volume of transactions and reliance on manual reconciliation resulted in a large number of undetected, unauthorized expenses.

Red Antler partnered with Ramp to address this and gain control over employees' designated business credit cards. They were able to easily control purchases in real time with custom-defined controls. The expense management system's dashboard made it easy to visualize the entire team's spend.

As a result, Red Antler:

• Reduced maverick purchases and optimized their spend
• Reclaimed more than 80 hours a month
• Gained much more clarity on spending patterns organization-wide

Rein in maverick spending with Ramp

Ramp's comprehensive expense management platform provides the tools to prevent maverick spend before it happens. With automated policy enforcement, approval workflows, and real-time visibility, you'll gain control without sacrificing efficiency.

To help you get a handle on spending, Ramp can:

• Automate 3-way match: Get the ultimate protection against fraud and errors. Our automated three-way match validates invoices against purchase orders and item receipts.
• Find savings opportunities: Gain complete visibility into spending to uncover savings on unused subscriptions, licenses, and memberships—eliminating unnecessary costs and reliance on outside accounting help.
• Work with all your existing tools: Approve requests directly in Slack, review contracts with Ironclad, and sync or import purchase orders with NetSuite, and more.

Learn how Ramp can help you eliminate rogue spend and efficiently manage expenses.