Procurement Software
Get the best procurement software for your business. Compare product reviews, pricing below. Read our buyer’s guide for more help.
Procurement Software Buyer’s Guide
Do you have a coordinated software approach to purchasing? Is it as efficient and accurate as you’d like? If not, you may be missing an opportunity to ensure faster delivery times, economies of scale, better efficiency, and lower overall costs. Purchase order software can help you make sure you are making the most profitable choices in your procurement processes. Read on to find out more about your purchase order software options.
What Is Purchase Order Software?
Purchase order software allows you to issue orders for services and products. A purchasing program tracks all key order info including: the vendor, purchase quantities, item or service purchased, delivery timeframes, payment terms, and costs. With purchase order software, you can ensure that each order is legitimate, authorized, and trackable. By linking your purchase order to inventory control, you can access exact stock quantities, movement history, seasonal trends, and supplier lead times.
Critical business benefits enabled by purchase order software include:
- Improved cost control via authorizations and approvals to ensure the necessity and accuracy of individual purchases
- Reduced supply costs through improved capabilities to compare vendor options
- Increased customer satisfaction based on ensuring the timeliness of material provisioning
- Reduction in the administrative labor costs associated with purchasing activities through the use of software automation
Key Features of Purchase Order Software to Consider
| Feature | Definition |
|---|---|
| PO document creation | Purchase order software allows for the creation of purchasing documentation for both internal tracking purposes and communication with suppliers |
| Vendor database | Vendor database functionalities allow for the tracking of supplier information such as payment and service terms and vendor order histories |
| PO/invoice matching | Automated tools that assist in the matching of vendor issued invoices to the corresponding purchase order provide an important cost control safeguard |
| PO status tracking | Reporting data on purchase order status helps with a variety of business tasks including allowing production/service/job teams to plan future activities and sales to communicate to customers expected fulfillment timeframes |
| Requisitions and approvals management | Requisition systems improve cost control efforts by formalizing a purchase review process |
| Receiving management | Receiving management functionality provides tools for verifying that goods have been properly resolved and puts in place workflows that allow for the timely resolution of instances where items are not received on time, in proper condition, or at all |
| Blanket purchase order | A blanket purchase order is a document provided to a supplier that provides authorization for ongoing purchases up to a certain dollar amount or until other business conditions have been fulfilled and can be used to create purchasing efficiencies where repeated, ongoing purchases will need to be made |
| Automatic or recurring purchase orders | Support for recurring purchases enables the creation of purchase orders in the future when particular conditions have been met and provides a means of significantly decreasing the labor associated with authorizing purchasing events |
| Supplier lead time management | Capturing both purchase order initiation dates and dates of order reception provides a source for discovering average lead time by vendor, which may be used to determine vendor selection when supplies/goods are needed to meet expedited order/production/delivery deadliens |
Purchase Order Software: Providing Critical Documentation
Most people wouldn’t enter into a legal agreement without a contract to protect their interests. But making business purchases without issuing and tracking purchase orders means doing just that. Utilizing purchase order software allows you to identify instances where your order hasn’t been properly fulfilled. In addition to promoting organization and efficiency, purchase order modules provide recourse if your expectations as a buyer are not met.
Automating Purchasing Processes With Purchase Order Software
Purchase order software allows you to effectively and consistently manage your purchasing processes. Each order you create is automatically databased for future reference. Automation also allows you to streamline the task of creating orders. It’s easy to overlook how much time this can save you. Setting up required fields lets you know that each order contains trackable information on the vendor, items purchased, quantities, delivery instructions, terms, originating buyer, and costs.
Accountability in Purchasing
Purchase order software adds security and accountability to your ordering processes. Rules can be created authorizing who can make purchases. Centralized purchasing records let you track any purchase your company has made. You can ensure that each order is legitimate, accurate, and authorized. Comparing vendor invoices to your own documentation enables you to eliminate vendor payment errors before cutting the check.
Meeting Customer Demands With Purchase Order Software
Automating your purchase order creation is also an effective way to manage your stock to meet customer demands. Integrating a purchase order module with inventory control allows you to do away with the inexact and error-prone practice of “eyeballing the shelves.” By linking your purchase order application to your inventory control application, you will have instant access to your exact stock quantities, movement history, seasonal trends, and supplier lead times.
