What is the UNSPSC Coding System?
The UNSPSC was designed as a standard procurement classification. It is very similar to a chart of accounts used to group like items together for analyzing expenditure. The original goal of the UNSPSC was to allow buyers to provide their suppliers with a standardized commodity code that they could add to the line items on their invoices so that when a buyer received the invoice it would be easy to analyze. Initially this worked very well as suppliers liked having a single simple “standard” commodity code they could use for all their customers. Technology has largely made the UNSPSC obsolete as both buyers and their suppliers have become more sophisticated. Suppliers have realized that better visibility comes from better descriptions and buyers have realized that in order to manage their supply chain they need better descriptions of what they are buying. Classifications like the UNSPSC, the UNCCS, the NCS or the CPV still serve an important purpose for spend analysis but typically they
