Managing cost data based on community supplier and commodity information

Abstract

In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises storing, in one or more data repositories, transactional data relating to past transactions involving a plurality of commodities between a plurality of buyer entities and a plurality of supplier entities; calculating metric data of one or more overages from the transactional data, wherein each of the one or more overages indicates an amount to which a cost of a commodity item as specified in an invoice exceeds a cost of the commodity item as specified in a requisition or a purchase order, the invoice being generated in response to the requisition or the purchase order; receiving, from a computer associated with a buyer entity, a request to generate a requisition or a purchase order for one or more commodity items; identifying, from the request, a supplier identification (ID) associated with a particular supplier entity of the plurality of supplier entities or a commodity ID associated with a particular commodity of the plurality of commodities, for a particular commodity item of the one or more commodity items; calculating a projected total cost for the particular commodity item from the metric data using the supplier ID or the commodity ID, the projected total cost indicating a probable cost for the particular commodity item based on previous transactions that included the particular commodity item and particular supplier entity; in response to determining that the projected total cost for the particular commodity item is less than a threshold value, transmitting an approval of ordering the particular commodity item.