Published
By Dave Owen
Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) is asking its members to support the charity's Giving Back efforts by checking the spend that suppliers have reported against your institution over the last quarter (or longer, if required).
This is a really useful exercise that helps us capture all the spend (and the premium/framework fee this generates) suppliers should be reporting that funds our Giving Back causes. Guidance on how to do this is featured below, and includes tips and advice on what to look for. Please note that all figures reported are net of VAT.
If you see a discrepancy in the numbers reported against what you have been invoiced by the supplier, then please contact Susan Burt, our income specialist, via [email protected]. Alternatively, speak to your local Regional Procurement Advisor (RPA), who will be happy to help you. Thank you for supporting our charity.
Introduction to members' spend reports
The CPC financial year runs from 1st August to 31st July.
Member reports are produced quarterly.
Periods: 1st August to 31st October
1st November to 31st January
1st February to 30th April
1st May to 31st July
View your member report
Log onto the CPC website at https://www.thecpc.ac.uk/
Go to 'Login' and enter your User Name (email address) and password.
1. Click 'My Institution'.
2. Then 'Spend'.
3. From here, it lists the periods available. Just click the required period.
This will show all the net spend reported by suppliers, VAT is not included.
Suppliers report on invoices raised within the quarter as a total and not broken down by invoice.
You will see a listing of suppliers used by your institution.
Tips
The following tips have been provided by other members who currently carry out the spend comparison between your records and the CPC records:
• Investigate if there is a way to mark CPC suppliers within your Finance System.
You can then pull off a report of spend for these suppliers which can be used to carry out your comparison against the CPC list.
• Highlight on your purchase orders to CPC suppliers that you are a CPC member. There may be a way to do this automatically within your Finance System.
• If you have a reporting tool within, or attached to, your Finance System, set up a report which pulls off all invoices within a certain period. You can then pull out the CPC suppliers, total up the invoices per supplier and do a quick and easy comparison of the totals.
Why should members check their spend reports?
• Suppliers can make mistakes and omit spend figures when reporting, which is important for the CPC operation.
• To ensure you are obtaining CPC pricing, the reports are compiled from supplier reports of invoiced spend.
• To help members see where they are using a consortium contract. It can also highlight which contracts you are not currently using.
• To help with reporting a member’s individual savings from using CPC contracts, which can be helpful for members to report on their savings.
Additional notes
If your institution has tendered, or negotiated, a contract separately or via another consortium agreement and not through the CPC, spend information will not show against that supplier even if the supplier is available via CPC.
Some suppliers will move institutions over to the CPC contract mid term, others will not. Members should check their situation with each relevant supplier
No spend will be reported to the CPC by suppliers on any Crown Commercial Service contracts.
If you find any discrepancies between your spend and what has been reported, please contact Susan Burt via [email protected], who will then investigate these and let you know the outcome.
It would be helpful if you could provide the following data with your query, as this makes it easier when liaising with suppliers on your behalf:
• Supplier name
• Account number (if relevant)
• Invoice numbers
• Invoice dates
• Purchase order number (if any)
• Total value (preferably net of VAT)