Sage
Procurement
Miranda F, Finance Executive
"What is the average expenditure with raw material suppliers for R&D between year N1 and N2?"
This is a frequent request in finance and operations. Sage can answer it, but only if you know how to configure the right report or query. Here’s how to do it step by step, why it’s complex, and how AskPiston provides the same answer instantly.
Step by step: Sage method
You need a purchase ledger report or a custom query.
Create or open a new report
Go to Purchasing > Reports > Purchase Ledger > Transactions
Add filters
Document type → Supplier Invoice (or Purchase Order)
Supplier category → Raw Material Suppliers
Department, Project, or Dimension → R&D
Date → between N1 and N2
Add output fields
Amount (excluding tax)
Supplier name
Period (month/year)
Aggregate data
Total the Amount per period or per year
Export to Excel for manual calculation
Calculate average
Compute the yearly or overall average expenditure manually in Excel
Save the report as Avg Expenditure Raw Materials R&D for future use
Supplier categories and R&D dimensions must be consistently maintained
Many versions of Sage don’t support multi-level grouping or averages
Average is typically per transaction, not per fiscal year
Users often need to export and process data externally for reliable results
Why this is complicated in Sage
Supplier categories and R&D dimensions must be consistently maintained
Many versions of Sage don’t support multi-level grouping or averages
Average is typically per transaction, not per fiscal year
Users often need to export and process data externally for reliable results
A question that should take 30 seconds often takes 20–40 minutes, even for experienced users.
The Piston alternative
With Piston you don’t need reports, filters, or exports.
You simply ask:
“What is the average expenditure with raw material suppliers for R&D between 2020 and 2024?”
Piston instantly returns:
The correct average spend
A year-by-year chart
A list of suppliers included in the calculation
Time to answer: less than 5 seconds.
Report/Query
Sage
Sage (report/query)
20–40 minutes
High (export/manual calc)
Finance or IT experts only
Conclusion
If you need to calculate average expenditure with raw material suppliers for R&D in Sage, the manual reporting method works — but it’s time-consuming, fragmented, and prone to error.
With AskPiston, you get the answer instantly in natural language, complete with charts and supplier details.
