Feeding an entire campus is a big job, and it’s not just students who need to be fed. Colleges and universities provide food to a wide campus population, including faculty and alumni too.

College procurement professionals work hard to create a mix of dining options that cover all the bases. Yet, despite their best-laid plans, employees sometimes step outside the lines of approved food vendors. This untracked or “rogue” spending can quickly spiral, disrupting budgets and creating headaches for finance teams.

So, what drives campus workers to make these unapproved food purchases? And more importantly, how can institutions regain control?

Let’s take a look at the primary reasons behind rogue spend and how partnering with a service like ezCater can help you keep things in check and improve your spend management.

What sparks rogue food spend?

Rogue food spend often comes down to the need for more variety and flexibility in dining options. While food contracts cover many on-campus needs, there are still times when they fall short. For instance, approved vendors may not be available for after-hours activities, off-campus alumni events, or when traveling outside the local area. When this happens, it’s easy to make a case for using outside vendors, even if it’s not part of the approved plan.

One of the key problems with rogue food spend — it can be really tough to control spending you can’t see. Rogue food spend often goes unnoticed until it appears on a credit card statement. The good news? You don’t have to overhaul your current food solutions to increase spending visibility. 

Food needs (and wants) extend beyond what’s typically available on campus

There are times when students and staff crave more diverse food options or want fun alternative formats, like food trucks or other types of campus food delivery. In these cases, decision-makers may place rogue orders, choosing to ask forgiveness if necessary, rather than seek permission. 

More commonly though, rough food spend occurs on the road — where approved dining options are few and far between. Alumni events are the perfect example. Alumni professionals plan events that frequently take place off campus and outside of traditional mealtimes, making the ordering process far from routine. Food is critical to the success of these events, as it’s used to not only increase attendance, but keep graduates engaged, connected, and eager to donate. Similarly, employees in the athletic department are responsible for providing meals for anywhere from 20 to 200 students and staff members, often in unfamiliar cities with no approved-vendor lists. 

These situations are common, making it more important than ever to address rogue food spend head-on with a solution that provides insight into all food orders.

College finance and procurement teams crave more visibility — and variety

When campus dining options fall short of meeting student and staff needs, rogue ordering can quickly become the go-to solution. Visibility is the key to controlling this type of unauthorized food spend.

Instead of fighting against off-the-books purchases, it’s much more practical to acknowledge the gaps in your current campus food system and find a solution to seamlessly fill them.

Luckily, this doesn’t mean you have to overhaul what you already have in place. Instead, you just need to find the right complement. A flexible catering partner like ezCater can add more variety to your current offering and increase food spend visibility. Here’s how. 

How ezCater helps address rogue food spend

1. Billing codes for each department

To keep a close eye on spending across different departments or activities, ezCater allows you to create unique billing codes tailored to specific needs. For example, if you’re managing an athletic department, you can assign codes to track spending by sport — like “FB” for football and “BB” for basketball. This level of detail makes it easy to monitor budget allocations and make sure spending stays on track.

2. Simplified payment process

You can add payment options to user accounts and easily pay any restaurant or caterer within the ezCater network. Digital receipts and seamless integration with common expense systems allow for accurate expense capturing and consolidation into a single invoice.

3. Budget-friendly tools

Set hard or soft budget limits to ensure spending stays within your financial plan. Ordering managers can maintain control with filters like delivery fee maximums, while a price-per-head calculator provides real-time tracking as orders are placed.

4. Custom reporting

With ezCater’s custom reporting features, you can add specific fields to user profiles and the checkout process, allowing you to track spending by occasion, team, or department. The corporate dashboard also gives you detailed insights into spending patterns, helping you identify areas of overspending and make necessary adjustments.

5. Seamless tax-exempt ordering

Handling tax-exempt orders across different departments can be challenging, but ezCater makes it simple. Just upload your tax-exempt status, and it’s automatically applied to all team members on the account, ensuring the correct tax exemptions are used for each order, based on its location.

Better solutions to fuel students, staff and events on the road

When students and staff are on the road, finding approved dining options can be a real challenge — especially in unfamiliar cities far from your usual partners. With access to a vast network of caterers across the country, ezCater makes it simple to arrange meals for any off-campus event or meeting, no matter where you are.

Forget worrying about maintaining a separate list of approved caterers for every location — ezCater handles this for you. The platform also offers a variety of options to meet dietary needs, with the ability to filter by individually packaged items and dietary preferences.

Best of all, with ezCater’s 24/7 award-winning customer service, you can count on reliable support whenever and wherever you need it.

Close campus food gaps to stop rogue spend

Your existing food service contracts and approved vendor lists likely work well for most situations, but when it comes to managing rogue spend, you need a solution that offers greater flexibility and control. ezCater fills the gaps in campus food plans, so you can make sure all food orders are accounted for and within budget — whether they’re placed on-campus or off.

Ready to tackle rogue spend at your institution? Learn how an ezCater corporate account can help.