SSP Spend Analytics
Data classification: GM_Confidential
Domain: Finance Data Engineering - Supplier Spend / Spend Analytics
Application / data product ID: 118196 - Supplier Spend Reporting
Primary business capability: Supplier spend, purchase order, invoice, and payment analytics
Catalog schema: finance_prod.gold_supplier_spend_gbl
Overview
SSP Supplier Spend, also known as Spend Analytics, is GM Finance's supplier spend analytics foundation for Accounts Payable, purchase order, invoice, and payment reporting. It brings supplier spend data into a common reporting layer so Finance, Purchasing, GP&MS, and leadership users can understand what GM buys, who GM pays, where spend is occurring, and how spend changes by region, supplier, workstream, taxonomy, and purchasing context.
SSP is designed to answer practical supplier-spend questions such as:
- How much is GM spending with suppliers by region, country, business function, workstream, taxonomy, or commodity team?
- Which suppliers account for the largest recent, year-to-date, or historical payments?
- Which purchase orders are open, deleted, invoiced, uninvoiced, or tied to specific buyer groups?
- Which invoices and payments have posted, and how do they connect to suppliers, clearing documents, purchase orders, and source systems?
- Where are timing or process exceptions, such as invoices that post before the purchase order date?
- How can buyers and finance analysts use consistent spend history to support sourcing, negotiation, cost-control, and operational decisions?
At a business level, SSP is the global repository for detailed supplier spend analysis. It supports both standard reports and ad-hoc analytics, with exportable reporting outputs for users who need to continue analysis in Excel or other business tools.
Key benefits
Supplier spend is one of the largest and most complex financial views across GM. A single supplier or category can appear across multiple SAP instances, regions, company codes, plants, buyer groups, payment flows, and purchasing processes. SSP reduces that fragmentation by harmonizing purchase order, invoice, and payment data into repeatable reporting assets.
For business users, SSP makes supplier spend easier to find, filter, compare, and explain. For data engineers, it provides a shared Finance Data Engineering foundation that supports reporting zones, Cognos dashboards, cubes, direct-query access, downstream finance applications, and modernization work tied to SAP and Fincore migration.
The most common business themes are:
| Theme | Typical questions |
|---|---|
| Supplier spend visibility | How much did GM spend with a supplier, supplier group, or region over the current month, year, or prior 13 months? |
| Purchasing and buyer analytics | Which buyer groups, purchasing organizations, workstreams, or commodity teams are associated with spend and open orders? |
| Payment and invoice analysis | Which invoices and payments have posted, what clearing documents are involved, and how do they tie to suppliers? |
| Open PO management | Which purchase orders remain open or not fully invoiced, and where should buyers or finance teams focus follow-up? |
| Spend taxonomy | How does spend group by taxonomy, spend type, material group, workstream, geography, or business function? |
| Exception and policy support | Where are pre-commitment, deleted PO, contract, GIANT, allied supplier, or other filtered transaction patterns affecting the view? |
Who uses it
| Team / persona | How they use SSP |
|---|---|
| GP&MS Process and Business Intelligence | Standard supplier spend reporting, dashboard ownership, cube support, and ad-hoc spend analysis |
| Buyers and buyer managers | Purchase order, open PO, supplier, workstream, and buyer group analysis |
| Executives and leadership teams | Aggregated supplier ranking, spend trend, and regional spend visibility |
| Finance analysts | Payment, invoice, AP, cost center, WBS, and supplier spend investigation |
| Manufacturing Finance / plant users | Consistent supplier spend inputs reused by Manufacturing Cost Compass and related cost experiences |
Core business scope
SSP organizes supplier spend around purchase order, invoice, payment, supplier, and purchasing reference subjects.
| Subject | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Supplier and vendor | Supplier account, system supplier identifiers, ultimate supplier name, vendor account, and supplier ranking context |
| Purchase orders | Purchase order header and line information, buyer group, purchase group, purchase organization, PO type, PO category, open PO state, and delete indicators |
| Invoices | Invoice detail, invoice amounts, invoice system references, invoice-to-PO relationships, and invoice timing |
| Payments and clearing | AP payment detail, payment summaries, clearing document references, payment terms, payment blocks, and related transaction attributes |
| Geography and organization | Region, country, company, plant, accounting company, cost center, WBS, business function, and purchasing organization context |
| Spend classification | Spend type, spend category hierarchy, material group, workstream, taxonomy, commodity team, and related purchasing classification |
| Source and refresh context | SAP and related regional source systems, source system identifiers, daily reporting-zone updates, and cube/report refresh patterns |
The platform supports global reporting and regional views for GMNA, GME, GMIO, and GMSA. Regional fields are part of the business definition for many SSP assets, so users should keep region and country filters visible when comparing totals across reports, cubes, and direct-query analysis.
Source systems by business subject
SSP brings together Accounts Payable, purchase order, invoice, and purchasing reference data from SAP and related source-system landscapes. Current modernization work is expanding Fincore coverage across supplier spend integrated core tables and downstream fact/materialized assets.
| Subject area | Key source patterns |
|---|---|
| Accounts Payable and payments | SAP AP transaction data, vendor open item and vendor cleared item flows, payment terms, payment blocks, and clearing documents |
| Purchase orders | SAP PO header, PO item, PO account assignment, PO item history, purchasing document type, purchasing group, and purchasing organization data |
| Invoice detail | SAP invoice and invoice-to-PO detail used by invoice cube and supplier invoice reports |
| Supplier and vendor reference | Vendor account, supplier identity, ultimate supplier, and related vendor function leader reference data |
| Finance organization | Accounting company, cost center, WBS detail, plant account, country, currency conversion, and source-system reference data |
| Spend taxonomy | Spend category hierarchy, material group, supplier spend type, workstream, and taxonomy reference data |
Business measures and rules
SSP reporting centers on supplier spend, purchase order, invoice, and payment measures. Users should pay attention to which measure is being used, because a purchase order amount, invoice amount, and payment amount answer different business questions.
| Measure / rule | Business meaning |
|---|---|
| Global net order amount | Purchase order value used for PO and requisition-style analysis |
| Global invoice amount | Invoice value used for invoice cube and invoice detail analysis |
| Payment amount | AP payment value used for supplier payment and supplier ranking analysis |
| Prior 13 months | Rolling supplier spend view used for recent supplier ranking and trend comparison |
| Current year and prior years | Common cube and report windows for trend analysis and historical spend comparison |
| Open PO logic | Identifies purchase orders that remain open or not fully invoiced |
| Pre-commitment logic | Highlights timing exceptions where invoices may post before the purchase order date |
Many standard views apply business filters to remove or isolate specific transaction types such as contract transactions, deleted purchase orders, GIANT purchase order transactions, or allied supplier purchase orders. Confirm report filter context before comparing totals across dashboards, cubes, and extracts.
Reporting and analytics interfaces
SSP is exposed through several business-facing interfaces so users can start from a standard report, a dashboard, a cube, or a more technical data-access path.
| Interface | View of the data | Primary use cases |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier Spend Buyer Dashboard | Aggregated spot-buy and release-order attributes by purchase group code | Buyer and manager analysis of purchasing activity |
| Supplier Spend Executive Dashboard | Aggregated leadership view of supplier spend | Executive spend monitoring and regional/global review |
| Cognos standard reports | Standardized supplier, payment, invoice, PO, and exception reports | Repeatable reporting, exportable analysis, and business review |
| MSAS / Excel cubes | Pivot-style spend, PO, invoice, requisition, savings, and open PO analysis | Ad-hoc analysis for trained business users |
| Direct-query access | Approved technical access to supplier spend reporting data | Advanced analysis, engineering support, and controlled data exploration |
| Downstream Finance experiences | SSP-derived assets reused by applications such as Manufacturing Cost Compass | Consistent supplier spend context in broader Finance workflows |
Common SSP reporting assets include Supplier Ranking, Payment Summary, Payment Detail by Supplier, Invoice Detail by Supplier, PO Detail by Supplier, Buyer PO Summary, Buyer PO Detail, Open PO Report, Pre-Commitment Report, Service Line Detail Report, Buyer Dashboard, and Executive Dashboard.
Common cube experiences include Req Cube, PO Cube, Invoice Cube, Spend Detail Cube, Savings Cube, and Open PO Cube. Some cube templates contain current year plus prior-year data windows and are refreshed on scheduled cadences such as daily or weekly, depending on the cube.
Finance360 relationship
SSP is part of the broader Finance Data Engineering ecosystem that supports Finance360-related experiences and downstream finance applications. It is not only a stand-alone report source; SSP assets are reused by other Finance products that need consistent supplier spend, cost, invoice, or purchasing context.
Manufacturing Cost Compass is a notable downstream experience that leverages SSP assets to provide plant and manufacturing users with consistent cost data. SSP modernization work around SAP, Fincore, ZTB, and cloud migration helps keep these downstream experiences aligned with current Finance platform direction.
Downstream consumers
| Consumer | How SSP contributes |
|---|---|
| Supplier Spend Buyer Dashboard | Provides buyer, purchase group, PO, and spend context for buyer and manager reporting |
| Supplier Spend Executive Dashboard | Provides aggregated global and regional supplier spend reporting for leadership |
| Supplier spend standard reports | Provides supplier, payment, invoice, PO, open PO, and pre-commitment reporting datasets |
| Supplier spend cubes and Excel templates | Provides analysis-ready AP, PO, invoice, requisition, savings, and open PO views |
| Manufacturing Cost Compass | Reuses SSP assets for consistent manufacturing and plant cost context |
| Finance Data Engineering operations | Uses SSP pipelines and reporting-zone assets for SAP/Fincore migration, data quality, and downstream support |
Getting access
Report access starts from the Finance360 access page.
- Open
https://gmone.gm.com/programs/finance/global/en/gm/home/finance360-get-access.html. - For What Do You Need Access To?, select Spend Analytics.
- Select the report of interest.
- Follow the displayed steps to continue to the required myGMAccess request.
- Provide a business justification that explains the supplier spend analysis or reporting work being performed.
- After approval, validate access in the target reporting interface, dashboard, or cube.
For direct query access, use the SSP Supplier Spend data product in Immuta: https://app.immutacloud.com/marketplace/data-product/e1c9f124-95bd-4538-8a89-d53e4ee01140/details.
Current SSP operating references identify Brad Cromwell as program lead, Hayley Hui as engineering lead, and Ethan Pauwels as product lead. For current business, Finance IT, and Finance Data Engineering support contacts, use the Spend Analytics Wiki, SSP Executive Summary, Data Engineering SSP folder, and current operating pages.
Where the data lives
The Databricks gold serving layer is:
finance_prod.gold_supplier_spend_gbl
The schema contains the main supplier spend facts, materialized reporting assets, requisition and shopping cart assets, PO and invoice/payment relationship tables, and finance/purchasing dimensions used by the SSP reporting ecosystem. Business users should usually start with the approved dashboards, standard reports, or cubes before moving to direct-query or engineering-level tables.
For technical users, finance_prod.gold_supplier_spend_gbl is the best Databricks starting point for curated SSP analysis. Use the gold schema before dropping into lower-level source, integrated-core, migration, or pipeline-specific tables.
Popular tables and views
These objects are useful to recognize when getting started. They are listed for orientation, not as a complete schema guide.
| Object | What it is used for |
|---|---|
suppl_spnd_sum_f | Supplier spend summary fact used for high-level supplier, workstream, commodity team, and purchasing group analysis |
spnd_dtl_m | Spend detail materialized asset used for detailed supplier spend analysis by supplier, fiscal period, workstream, commodity team, and purchase group |
po_spnd_f | Core purchase order spend fact used for supplier spend, PO, and invoice-related reporting |
po_spnd_m_sap | SAP-based materialized supplier spend asset used by invoice cube and downstream analysis |
po_line_inv_pymt_f | PO line, invoice, and payment relationship fact used by buyer and supplier spend reporting |
buyer_po_sum_f | Buyer purchase order summary used by buyer dashboard and buyer manager analysis; includes PO, invoice, and payment global amounts |
open_po_qry | Open purchase order query asset used to review PO amount, invoice amount, and remaining amount still to be invoiced |
cash_flow_ssp_f | Cash-flow-oriented supplier spend fact used in spend and payment analysis |
vndr_item_m | Vendor item materialized asset used for invoice/payment detail and supplier activity analysis |
po_line_f | Purchase order line fact used for detailed PO line analysis |
po_line_m | Materialized PO line asset used by downstream PO and spend reporting |
prcrmt_req_item_f | Procurement requisition item fact used for request and shopping-cart style analysis |
prcrmt_req_item_m | Materialized procurement requisition item asset used by requisition reporting |
shop_cart_f | Shopping cart fact used for requisition and purchasing-demand analysis |
vndr_acct_d | Vendor account dimension used to identify supplier and vendor context |
mtl_mstr_d | Material master dimension used for part/material context in spend and manufacturing-adjacent analysis |
plant_acct_d | Plant account dimension used for plant and manufacturing finance context |
mtl_grp_d | Material group dimension used for purchasing and commodity analysis |
purch_grp_d | Purchasing group dimension used for buyer and purchase group reporting |
purch_org_d | Purchasing organization dimension used for purchasing organization rollups |
purch_doc_type_d | Purchasing document type dimension used to classify purchase order activity |
u_spnd_cat_h | Spend category hierarchy used for taxonomy and spend-category rollups |
acctg_co_d | Accounting company dimension used for finance organization context |
cost_ctr_d | Cost center dimension used for finance and organizational analysis |
finc_wbs_dtl | WBS detail used for project or work breakdown structure context |
Practical guidance for engineers
- Start with the dashboard, report, or cube that matches the business question before querying lower-level data.
- Use
suppl_spnd_sum_forspnd_dtl_mfor general supplier spend analysis. - Use
po_line_inv_pymt_fwhen the question requires the relationship between PO lines, invoices, and payments. - Use
buyer_po_sum_ffor buyer dashboard-style summaries by supplier, region, workstream, commodity team, and purchasing group. - Use
open_po_qrywhen the question is specifically about open purchase orders or remaining amount still to be invoiced. - Use
prcrmt_req_item_f,prcrmt_req_item_m, orshop_cart_ffor requisition and shopping-cart analysis. - Confirm whether the analysis needs PO amount, invoice amount, or payment amount before comparing totals.
- Check report filters for deleted POs, contract transactions, GIANT transactions, allied supplier transactions, region, and time window.
- Use lower-level integrated core or source-aligned tables only when investigating reconciliation, pipeline behavior, SAP/Fincore migration logic, or data quality issues.
Supplier spend glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AP | Accounts Payable; payment and liability activity associated with supplier invoices |
| Buyer dashboard | SSP dashboard for buyer and manager analysis of purchase group and order activity |
| Clearing document | Finance document reference used to connect invoice/payment clearing activity |
| Direct query | Controlled technical access path for approved users who need to query reporting data directly |
| Fincore | Current Finance core platform direction being added to SSP integrated core and downstream assets |
| GLENDA role | Access role used for Spend Analytics cubes, reports, dashboards, and related data access |
| Open PO | Purchase order that remains open or not fully invoiced |
| Pre-commitment | Exception pattern where invoice timing precedes the purchase order date |
| Spend taxonomy | Business classification used to group supplier spend by spend category, workstream, material group, or related hierarchy |
| Ultimate supplier | Consolidated supplier identity used for ranking and supplier group analysis |
Data refresh cadence
Many SSP reporting-zone dependencies refresh daily. The reporting inventory lists several standard report dependencies as daily and some reference data as as-needed. Cube cadences vary by subject; for example, invoice cube patterns are weekly in current reference material, while several report-facing dependencies refresh daily.
Before using SSP totals for a formal business review, confirm the refresh date in the dashboard, report, cube, or extract being used. This is especially important when comparing data during SAP/Fincore migration windows or when reconciling report totals to source-system activity.
Getting started path
Work through these steps to become productive with SSP Supplier Spend:
- Read the business overview, core scope, measures, interfaces, and access sections in this document.
- Review the Spend Analytics Wiki and SSP training material to understand dashboard and cube entry points.
- Confirm the needed interface: standard report, buyer dashboard, executive dashboard, cube, or direct-query access.
- Request access through myGMAccess / SailPoint IdentityIQ using the correct Supplier Spend role and regional scope.
- Start with Supplier Ranking, Payment Summary, Buyer PO Summary, PO Detail by Supplier, Invoice Detail by Supplier, or Open PO reporting before writing custom queries.
- For cube analysis, confirm the cube subject and data window, such as Req, PO, Invoice, Spend Detail, Savings, or Open PO.
- Move into lower-level tables only when investigating reconciliation, source-system logic, data quality, or pipeline behavior.
Reference links
| Resource | URL |
|---|---|
| Spend Analytics Wiki | https://generalmotors.sharepoint.com/sites/spendanalyticswiki |
| SSP Executive Summary | https://gm-sdv.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SSPMO/pages/619091237 |
| Data Engineering SSP folder | https://gm-sdv.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DATAENG/folder/570329617 |
| Databricks gold schema | finance_prod.gold_supplier_spend_gbl |
| Manufacturing Cost Compass Overview | https://gm-sdv.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/IT/pages/616929151 |
| SSP GitHub repo | GeneralMotors-IT/SSP_118196_Supplier_Spend |
| Supplier Spend business application | ServiceNow business application: Supplier Spend (SSP) |
| myGMAccess | myaccess.gm.com |