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How to use the Purchase Audit Report

Learn how to access and interpret the Purchase Audit report on Vetcove, including how to export the report and prevent future missed savings.

The Purchase Audit report highlights the money you could have saved on purchases made through Vetcove. For every order in a selected date range, it compares what you actually paid against the cheapest price available from your own connected suppliers at the time, surfacing where purchasing errors may have happened so you can adjust your buying habits going forward.

The Purchase Audit report is part of the new and improved Vetcove V2. This feature is available whenever you're using the new experience. Learn more about Vetcove V2 here!


Before you start

You need at least two suppliers connected to your account to access the Purchase Audit report. If fewer suppliers are loaded on your account, you'll see the supplier connection flow instead of the report.


How to access the Purchase Audit Report

To access this report, navigate to Analytics → Purchase Audit in your clinic portal. You can also visit your Missed Purchase Savings page directly.

This report provides the following information:

  • Item Name

  • Quantity Purchased

  • Price Paid per Item

  • Best Price Available per Item

  • Net Loss


How to use the report

At the top of the report, three summary numbers are displayed so you can get a quick pulse of your purchasing habits:

  • Total spend is your total Vetcove spend for the selected date range, covering all orders, not just the ones with missed savings.

  • Purchase error is the total dollar amount you could have saved across all flagged items.

  • % of missed savings is your purchase error divided by total spend, showing what percentage of your purchasing had room for improvement.

Items to Note:

  • If your purchase error shows $0 and no rows appear in the table, that means your purchasing was already optimal for that date range! That's a good outcome, not a problem with the report.

  • If your % missed savings is <2%, it'll be highlighted green; if your % missed savings is >2%, it'll be highlighted red

Drill in to order details

Click any row to open the original order in Order History, where you can review the full order details.

Adjust your date range

The date range defaults to the last 12 months, but you can use the date selector to adjust for any period that contains purchase history. When you change the date range, the URL updates, so you can copy and share a filtered view with your team.

Export your report

The Export button downloads the rows currently visible in the table as a CSV. For large date ranges, narrow your dates or use the search bar first to make sure your export captures all the rows you need. We recommend checking in with this report periodically to keep an eye on your missed savings on Vetcove!

Avoiding future missed savings

After you've viewed your Purchase Audit Report, there are a few steps you can take to prevent future missed savings:

  1. Buy from the cheapest distributor next time for items that generated missed savings

  2. If the pricing looks off, reach out to your corporate contact to ensure you are on the right pricing from your vendors

  3. Check your Connect Suppliers page to ensure you are connected to all of your current suppliers so you have the most accurate view moving forward


How is "best price available" determined?

The comparison price shown in the report isn't the cheapest price available anywhere, it's the cheapest price your practice could have actually bought the product for, at the time of your order. Four conditions must all be met for a price to count as a valid alternative:

  1. It had to come from one of your own connected suppliers for that exact item.

  2. It had to be purchasable at the time, meaning In Stock, In Stock – Alternate Warehouse, or Drop Ship. Backordered, discontinued, restricted, or special-order items are excluded. If the only cheaper option was on backorder, Purchase Audit won't flag your purchase as a miss.

  3. It had to be active within about three days of your order date. Prices synced weeks after your order don't count as something you could have seen.

  4. Any applicable group pricing guidance was factored in before comparison.

If you don't see a cheaper price flagged for an item you expected, it's likely because the lower-priced option didn't meet one of these conditions at the time of your order.

Items to Note:

  • Purchase Audit runs off synced price history. It is not a live price check. Numbers reflect pricing data at the time of your orders, and there may be a brief lag before the most recent purchases appear.

  • This report only covers purchases made on Vetcove! Off-platform spend is not included.


Questions?

If you run into any issues, or still have questions regarding this report, reach us through Live Chat in the bottom right corner to contact Vetcove support any time, and we'd be happy to help!

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