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Decentralised purchasing has blurred the line between corporate control and employee autonomy, but there are ways to retake control
As purchasing power has moved away from central finance teams, procurement has entered a new era of chaos. Employees sign up for AI tools on a whim, marketing teams test new SaaS platforms, travel bookings are done ad hoc. In theory, everyone is empowered; in practice, companies are losing sight of what’s being bought, where, and why.
The problem is that decentralisation has widened the long-standing gap between direct and indirect procurement. Once that divide was mostly academic, but it now defines whether a company’s spending is controlled – or out of control.
The distinction between direct and indirect procurement is simple in principle, but blurred in practice.
Direct procurement covers goods and services directly tied to producing a company’s core output, such as raw materials, components and manufacturing equipment. Indirect procurement, meanwhile, includes everything else needed to run the business: travel, SaaS subscriptions, marketing, training, HR services, office supplies. It’s essential, but not directly linked to revenue-generating products or services.
Historically, direct procurement has been tightly managed through ERP systems, supplier contracts and approval workflows. Indirect procurement was treated as an administrative afterthought – a cost of doing business rather than a strategic category to manage.
That worked when indirect spend made up a small slice of total costs. But in 2025, with hybrid work, software-driven operations and AI tool sprawl, indirect spend can account for a large share of a company’s outlay. It’s also the hardest to track.
Most procurement platforms and ERP systems were built for structured, contract-based purchasing, not for employees signing up to online tools or buying marketing ad space.
Indirect purchases are fragmented across teams and locations, creating a web of small, disconnected expenses. They’re typically low in value but high in volume, and because many are tied to fast-moving activities such as SaaS subscriptions or marketing campaigns, they renew or change so frequently that finance teams struggle to keep up.
These transactions are too small and too agile for traditional procurement processes, which means finance teams only see them after the fact, buried in expense reports or monthly card statements.
That lack of visibility isn’t just an accounting headache. It introduces compliance and security risks, from unvetted suppliers handling sensitive data to shadow IT purchases that bypass corporate standards. In the age of AI tools and cloud services, that’s no small concern.
Managing day-to-day company spending effectively is all about finding the sweet spot between control and flexibility.
Discover how finance leaders like you are using Soldo to boost operational agility, empower teams with spending autonomy and take proactive control.
The pandemic years accelerated a cultural shift towards empowerment. Teams were told to move fast, make decisions locally, and to use corporate cards or expense platforms to “own” their budgets.
This new model offers clear advantages, including agility, speed and reduced friction. But it’s also changed procurement’s perimeter. The once-centralised function now stretches across every department and, in some cases, it’s invisible.
Corporate cards and digital wallets have only accelerated the trend. They’re convenient and trackable, but only if paired with real-time visibility and clear policy controls. Without that, decentralisation quickly becomes disorganisation.
Modern spend management platforms, which combine smart company cards, automated budgets, and real-time reporting, promise to restore order without strangling flexibility. The aim isn’t to drag every purchase back through procurement, but to make indirect spend as visible and accountable as direct spend.
The aim isn’t to drag every purchase back through procurement, but to make indirect spend as visible and accountable as direct spend.
That starts with real-time visibility. Instead of reconciling purchases at the end of each month, finance teams can monitor spending continuously and catch issues before they snowball. Pre-approval and budget controls also help, replacing manual sign-offs with automated rules. A marketing team, for instance, could be cleared to spend up to a set limit on campaign tools, with anything new or recurring automatically flagged for review.
Automation is also key. When every card transaction automatically flows into accounting software with the correct coding and receipts attached, reconciliation takes minutes instead of days – freeing finance teams to focus on strategy rather than admin.
Integrated payment tools bring another layer of control, linking corporate cards directly to spend policies and categories so transactions are coded and tracked the moment they happen. With this visibility, businesses can identify overlapping tools or unused subscriptions, providing a quick route to savings and reduced risk.
Finally, training and culture make all the difference. Teams should feel empowered to spend responsibly, seeing procurement not as an obstacle but as a safeguard. Together, this mix of real-time data, smart controls and shared accountability allows decentralised purchasing to coexist with central oversight.
Direct and indirect procurement teams often speak different languages. One focuses on supplier relationships and cost efficiency, the other on budgets, compliance and reporting. Real-time spend data bridges that divide.
With accurate, categorised data flowing into finance systems, CFOs can forecast more accurately, and procurement teams can negotiate better deals. It also aligns spending with business goals – for example, identifying which marketing tools actually deliver ROI, or which software subscriptions could be consolidated.
For many organisations, this convergence is long overdue. In the past, procurement data lived in one system, finance data in another, and expense data in a third. By the time they were reconciled, the insight was stale.
Modern spend platforms now unify that picture. Procurement can see what’s being bought; finance can see why. That visibility turns indirect spend from a blind spot into a lever for control, efficiency, and compliance.
The future of procurement isn’t about clamping down – it’s about confidence. Empowered employees will always find ways to buy what they need; the goal is to make that behaviour visible, compliant, and strategically aligned.
Direct and indirect procurement will never look identical, but they can operate under the same principles: clear budgets, transparent data and shared accountability. The companies that close the control gap aren’t just managing costs more effectively, they’re making better decisions – and faster.
