Every basis point of realised savings, traceable to an invoice.
The SaaS for CFOs of PE-backed portcos. Each Initiative carries its baseline, Forecast Savings, Negotiated Savings and Realised Savings, reconciled monthly on the actual invoice via SavingCheck. Annual Savings Programme dashboard, audit trail end to end. No ERP integration, no contract repository to rebuild.
Or try the 2-min audit first →
- Annual Savings Programme live, monthly SavingCheck
- Six Initiative types, RFP to Implementation
- Board pack and IC pack ready, exit-grade
30+ years
field practice
Mid-market first
no ERP needed
EU-hosted
GDPR compliant
UK · IE · FR · ES
served
Working with
Where the EBITDA leak happens
The problem is not negotiating. It is verifying what reaches the invoice.
Procurement should be the first lever of EBITDA in a portfolio company. Savings stay stuck between three worlds: the supplier negotiation, the actual invoice, and the board reporting.
Announced
Savings live in slides and IC packs, but rarely reach the actual invoice the next quarter.
Negotiated
Supplier terms are signed. Yet pricing rarely flows through cleanly to the line items.
Realised
Without a monthly reconciliation against the invoice, the gap stays invisible until the next board review.
Pattern observed across mid-market cost reduction engagements over 30 years of DFBL field practice.
What DFBL Procure does
One Project, one Initiative, monthly SavingCheck on the invoice.
Each spend family is a Project. Inside, six Initiative types cover the full cycle: RFP, Benchmark, Negotiation, Implementation, CIP, Savings Initiative. Every Initiative carries Forecast, Negotiated and Realised Savings, each line traceable to a baseline source and a supplier submission. The Annual Savings Programme dashboard consolidates target, pipeline, negotiated and realised across the portfolio.
From a stack of invoices to a baseline.
Twelve months of supplier invoices and a short RFI go in. Unit prices, volumes, SLAs, renewal dates, risk flags come out, normalised and reviewable. No ERP plug-in, no contract repository to rebuild.
BAFO rounds, fully diff-able.
Round 0 initial bid, then Round 1..N BAFO. Submissions parsed, normalised and scored on a common grid. Quality score and price-vs-best computed automatically.
Walk into the final meeting with the answer.
Once the shortlist is set, DFBL drafts a per-supplier negotiation brief. Remaining levers, arguments grounded in the rounds data, anticipated concessions, ready-to-print slide deck.
Forecast vs Negotiated vs Realised, monthly.
Each Initiative carries three saving figures. After award, every Savings Check compares the expected monthly amount to the actual invoice line. Verified, gap, or pending. This is what reaches the EBITDA bridge.
What sponsor-grade actually means
Open any Realised saving. See the chain back to the bid.
When the IC asks where a basis point came from, the answer is one click. Every Realised saving links to a Savings Check, which links to a supplier invoice and the Negotiated price, which links to the winning round submission, which links to the Pre-RFP baseline.
Every baseline line carries its source.
Every baseline line (unit price, volume, SLA, renewal date) keeps a reference to the originating invoice, RFI answer or contract excerpt. Reviewed and locked at Pre-RFP close.
- £4.18Unit priceInvoiceINV-2024-Q3.pdf · p.4
- 220,000 uAnnual volumeRFIRFI answer Q.7
- 99.5%SLAContractMSA 2022 §3.2
- 30 Sep 2026RenewalContractMSA 2022 §11.1
Every price is a frozen submission.
Each supplier round submission is timestamped, the Excel response normalised against the common pricing grid. Lot by lot, item by item, supplier by supplier — locked once the round closes.
Every basis point reaches the invoice.
Each Savings Check ties an expected monthly amount to the actual invoice paid. Verified, gap or pending, with reason. Aggregated per Initiative, per Project, per portco, per portfolio.
- Mar 26VerifiedINV-2026-0341expected £14,200£14,180
- Apr 26Gapvol +12%, price heldexpected £14,200£15,820
- May 26VerifiedINV-2026-0507expected £14,200£14,205
From kick-off to first realised saving
A standard wave runs in four weeks.
- Week 11
Pre-RFP
Mini-questionnaire by category and size. Upload invoices, RFI answers, any Excel or contract you have. Claude extracts the baseline (price, volume, SLA, dates, risks). Lots and price annexes drafted.
- Week 22
RFP
Quality questionnaire (technical, security, implementation, governance, commercial), weighted by theme and question. Supplier list (incumbents + challengers). Send and track invitations and deadlines.
- Week 33
Analysis + shortlist
Supplier Excel responses parsed and normalised. Quality scoring 1–5 with justifications. Score /100 per supplier and per theme. Multi-supplier comparator. Shortlist with recommendation.
- Week 44
BAFO + final negotiation
Round 0 initial bid then Round 1..N BAFO with per-supplier requirements. Round-on-round delta and rank. Final consolidated report. Per-supplier negotiation guide and face-to-face deck. Award. Implementation Initiative spawned. Savings Checks scheduled.
Live during the wave
Action board, not a project plan in PowerPoint.
Every blocker, every sign-off, every supplier follow-up lives in one board. Status, priority, owner, due date. Six items open today — three overdue. The operating partner knows by 9 AM.
- BlockedUrgent22 AprReview IBM Cloud exit terms with LegalWaiting for Legal — Sarah Williams
- DoneHigh10 AprComplete quality scoring for all responded suppliers
- In ProgressHigh18 AprSchedule shortlisted supplier presentations (AWS & Azure)Arrange 1-hour sessions, focus on data residency
- To DoMedium2 MayNegotiate BAFO terms with AWS and AzureOnce presentations are completed, issue BAFO invitations
Engagement
Plans per portco, with portfolio rollup option.
Start on a Pilot Initiative, expand across the portco, consolidate across the portfolio. EU-hosted, GDPR. Tailored to your scope, discussed during the demo.
Pilot Initiative
One priority Category, fixed 90-day scope. First Realised SavingCheck within the pilot window.
Portco Plan
Unlimited Initiatives across one portco. Full RFx, BAFO, Negotiation, Implementation, CIP, Savings Initiative. Annual Savings Programme dashboard.
Portfolio Rollup
Cross-portfolio view for the Operating Partner. Same baseline methodology, same SavingCheck cadence, same IC pack format across every portco in scope.
Tailored pricing, discussed on the call.
FAQ
What CFOs ask on the first call.
How long until the first Realised Saving lands on the invoice?+
First Initiative live in 14 days from kick-off when source data is available. Negotiated Savings typically recorded between Day 45 and Day 60. The first SavingCheck reconciled against the actual supplier invoice runs at Day 60 to 90, depending on billing cycle.
How does this work across multiple portcos in our portfolio?+
Each portco has its own workspace, Initiatives, accesses and board pack. The fund activates a portfolio view to consolidate savings and compare results across portcos with the same definitions, the same SavingCheck cadence, the same IC pack format.
What does the Annual Savings Programme actually do?+
The CFO sets the annual target at the start of the fiscal year. The dashboard tracks pipeline, negotiated and realised savings live, with quarterly checkpoints. Each Initiative feeds the programme automatically. No separate reporting layer to build.
We do not have clean contract data across the portfolio. Is that a problem?+
No. The baseline is built from invoices, accounting exports and a short RFI. Contracts are useful when they exist, never required. Initiatives can start Standalone without a Project formality, then be grouped into a Project later. Friction zero.
How is this defendable through exit diligence?+
Inside the Initiative. Each Realised Saving links to its SavingCheck, which links to the supplier invoice. The Negotiated price links to the winning round submission. The baseline links to the source invoice or RFI answer. The chain Forecast → Negotiated → Realised is reconstructible per supplier, per Category, per period, built to survive a buy-side Quality of Earnings.
Thirty minutes to see DFBL Procure track savings to the invoice.
A live demo on one Category, one baseline, one supplier file. You see the Initiative created, savings tracked, SavingCheck reconciled to the invoice, and the board pack generated. No slides, no generic pitch.
Direct call with David. 30 years of mid-market procurement practice, no SDR, no funnel.