Maverick spend: What it is, why it happens, and how to reduce it

Every procurement professional has seen it, that off-the-books purchase that somehow slips through the cracks. Whether you work in manufacturing, food & beverage, energy, utilities, or even at a law firm or insurance company, chances are you've encountered maverick spend. And while “maverick” might sound exciting (Top Gun, anyone?), in the context of procurement it’s more Wild West than Hollywood. Maverick spending refers to purchases made outside your organization’s approved procurement process - in other words, rogue buying. It’s a costly thorn in the side of procurement teams, quietly draining value and causing headaches. In this article, we’ll break down what maverick spend is, why it’s such a big problem, how to analyze it, and how to reduce maverick spending in your organization.

Let’s rein in those rogue purchases!

What is maverick spend?

Maverick spend (also known as rogue spend or off-contract spend) is any business spending that occurs outside of established procurement procedures and policies. In simple terms, it’s when employees bypass the official purchasing process - ordering goods or services from non-approved suppliers, or on terms outside of negotiated contracts. This can happen when, say, someone in Marketing buys software without going through Procurement, or an office manager orders supplies from their favorite vendor instead of the contracted supplier. These unapproved purchases might seem minor in isolation, but they add up.

Almost all organizations have some maverick spending going on behind the scenes - the question is how much. In fact, some estimates suggest as much as 80% of an organization’s purchases could be happening off-contract in extreme cases. (Bill)

That’s a scary thought for anyone managing budgets. When employees “go rogue” on purchasing, it undermines the controls and negotiated deals that procurement worked hard to put in place. Maverick spend isn’t malicious – it often happens when people are just trying to get things done quickly - but it’s definitely problematic.

Why maverick spending is a problem

Maverick spend has a real cost. The most obvious impact is savings leakage - the loss of cost savings that were anticipated through strategic sourcing and negotiated contracts. For example, a study by The Hackett Group found that many companies lose 10–20% of their targeted savings due to maverick buying (off-contract purchases). (Hackett Group) 

Every time someone purchases outside of an approved contract, the company misses out on the discounts or favorable pricing that procurement negotiated. Over time, that’s like pouring money down the drain. On the flip side, organizations that do control maverick spending see dramatically better results - Hackett’s 2025 research on world-class procurement teams notes that by reducing rogue buying and improving contract compliance, top performers had 60% less savings lost compared to their peers. (Hackett Group) 

In other words, maverick spend is a silent thief of value.

Beyond the pure dollars-and-cents, maverick spending creates a host of other problems. It fragments your spend and weakens your negotiating leverage with suppliers – if everyone is buying from different vendors ad hoc, you lose the volume purchasing power you’d get by consolidating spend. (In fact, over two-thirds of procurement professionals say that fragmented, off-contract purchasing erodes their sourcing leverage.)

It also leads to higher costs and inefficiencies: unapproved vendors might not offer the best prices, and employees who go off-process often don’t take the time to compare options. There’s a lack of visibility – finance can’t see all the spend, making budgeting and forecasting harder (Bill).

And then there are compliance and risk issues: purchases outside the proper channels may bypass quality checks or contract terms, potentially exposing the company to legal risks or subpar (even counterfeit) goods. (Bill)

Maverick spend can strain relationships with your preferred suppliers as well – those vendors lose volume when employees stray, which can hurt negotiated agreements. All told, what seems like a “minor” off-contract buy can snowball into major operational and financial consequences. It’s no wonder procurement folks consider maverick spend the “silent budget killer” lurking in many companies.

What causes maverick spend?

Why do smart people in your organization bypass the procurement process in the first place? Maverick spending usually isn’t out of ill intent – there are underlying causes that encourage employees to go rogue. One big factor is lack of awareness or disregard for procurement policies. If employees aren’t well educated on the purchasing rules or don’t understand why they matter, they might see those rules as red tape.

In one survey of high-performing companies, 67% of procurement leaders said the top cause of maverick spend is employees’ lack of understanding or respect for the procurement policy. (Veridion)

Simply put, if people don’t know the rules or don’t think following them is important, maverick purchases will happen.

Another common cause is complex or inefficient purchasing processes. When the official buying process is too slow, complicated, or cumbersome, well-meaning employees may bypass it “just this once” to get what they need quickly.

Think of a scenario where getting approval through procurement takes weeks, but ordering on a personal credit card takes minutes – temptation to go around the system grows. System bottlenecks, clunky tools, or excessive bureaucracy can unintentionally encourage off-contract buying.

Poor internal communication exacerbates this: if employees aren’t informed about preferred suppliers or can’t easily find what they need through approved channels, they’ll improvise. For example, not having an accessible list of approved vendors or an easy way to requisition items practically invites people to use Google and find their own supplier. Lack of enforcement and culture around compliance also plays a role – if managers turn a blind eye to maverick purchases or there are no consequences, the behavior will continue.

Essentially, maverick spend is often a symptom of bigger issues: overly restrictive processes, inadequate tools, and insufficient training or communication. Fix those root causes, and you’ll make a big dent in rogue spending.

Maverick spend analysis: Finding the rogue spending

Before you can fix maverick spend, you need to find it. This is where maverick spend analysis comes in – using data to identify how much off-contract spending is happening, where it’s happening, and what’s driving it.

Start by leveraging your spend data: compare purchase orders and invoices against approved supplier lists and contracts. Any spend with a non-preferred vendor or any payment without an associated purchase order could be a red flag. For instance, if you discover invoices that don’t have a matching PO, it likely signals an unauthorized purchase that skipped the normal process.

A deeper analysis of spend data might reveal cases where an employee bought from a known supplier but didn’t use the negotiated contract terms – resulting in an overpayment or a missed discount. (Veridion) These are classic examples of maverick spend hiding in plain sight.

Modern spend analytics tools can help automate this detection. They can slice and dice your expenditures by supplier, department, category, etc., to pinpoint anomalies.

You might discover, for example, that Marketing is using a dozen different print vendors (instead of the two preferred ones), or that a certain plant has a high percentage of spend with suppliers that procurement never vetted. By calculating the percentage of spend that is “on contract” versus off-contract, you get a concrete measure of your maverick spend problem (e.g., X% of total spend is maverick).

Many organizations also perform compliance audits – systematically checking a sample of purchases to see if they followed policy. One best practice is to cross-check purchase orders against contracts regularly to catch off-contract purchases. In fact, about 60% of organizations with centralized procurement always cross-check POs against existing contracts as a control to curb maverick spend. (Veridion)

The insight here is clear: visibility is key. With thorough spend analysis, you shine a light on all those hidden or “gray” purchases. Once you know where and why maverick spending is occurring, you can take targeted action to stop it.

Consider this analysis step your detective work before the big cleanup.

How to reduce maverick spending

So, how do you reduce maverick spending and get those rogue purchases under control? It’s not about cracking a whip; it’s about making it easy (and even automatic) for employees to do the right thing. Here are several strategies to help tame the maverick spend in your organization:

• Educate and Align Your Team: Invest in training and communication so that everyone understands the procurement policy and why it exists. When employees realize that maverick purchases hurt the company’s bottom line (and maybe their own department budgets), they’re more likely to comply. Regularly share success stories and reminders. Essentially, turn procurement policy from a “mystery manual” into common knowledge.
  
  

• Streamline the Purchasing Process: If your internal process is too painful, people will find workarounds. Simplify requisition and approval workflows to be as quick and user-friendly as possible. For example, implement an easy e-procurement system or automated approval flows so buying through proper channels isn’t a hassle. The less friction in the process, the less temptation there is to go rogue.
  
  

• Provide Clear Preferred Options: Guide employees to the right suppliers by making the preferred path obvious. Create catalogs or lists of pre-approved suppliers and contracts for all common purchase categories, and keep them easily accessible. Many leading companies do this – about 56% of best-in-class firms provide a list of pre-approved suppliers for all goods and services, compared to only 26% of their peers. (Supply Chain Logistics)
  
  
  When people know exactly “who to buy from” and have quick access to those vendors (perhaps via an online portal or procurement system), they’re far less likely to wander off-contract.
  
  

• Increase Visibility and Transparency: Ensure that employees have visibility into inventory and budgets to avoid unnecessary or duplicate purchases. If Dave in HR buys a new software license not realizing the company already has licenses available, that’s maverick spend caused by lack of info. Use tools that let everyone see what’s in stock, what contracts exist, and how much of their budget is left.
  
  When procurement data is transparent, it builds trust in the process and reduces the urge to circumvent it.
  
  

• Enforce and Monitor Compliance: Finally, put checks and balances in place. Require purchase orders for expenditures above a certain threshold and enforce that policy. Set up reports or alerts for spend that goes to non-approved suppliers. Management should back procurement on this – if a maverick purchase is caught, there should be follow-up (not to punish, but to educate the buyer on the correct procedure). Leverage technology too: many e-procurement solutions can automatically block or flag non-compliant spend. Establishing a habit of compliance monitoring is crucial. For example, some companies routinely cross-check POs against contracts to ensure terms are followed (60% of centralized procurement teams do this consistently).
  
  By actively policing maverick spend (and correcting it when found), you’ll significantly reduce its occurrence over time.

Conclusion

Maverick spend might never be completely eliminated – there will always be the occasional exception or urgent purchase. However, the most successful organizations don’t just shrug and accept rogue spending as a cost of doing business. They take proactive steps to understand it, control it, and even turn it to their advantage (for instance, by investigating why someone went off-contract and learning from it).

The difference between an average company and a world-class procurement organization often comes down to how well they manage things like maverick spend. By implementing the strategies above – educating your team, simplifying processes, using the right tools, and enforcing policies – you can significantly reduce maverick spending and plug those profit leaks.

The result? More spend under management, greater savings captured, and a stronger alignment between procurement and the business’s goals.

It’s time to say goodbye to Wild West buying and hello to a more controlled, savings-friendly spend culture. After all, in procurement, rogues belong in the movies – not in your balance sheet.