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Software Makes Managing Purchase Orders Easier for Growing Businesses
When you started your new small business, you probably didn’t invest in Procure to Pay software or automation for purchase orders. After all, how hard is it to just call your supplier or place an order online when you need new paper clips?
Placing orders without formal purchase orders (POs) and saving receipts can work when your company is small. If you don’t have large numbers of orders to manage, the paperwork and accounting aren’t too hard to keep track of. But as your business grows and you hire more employees, things become more complicated.
What if you run out of paper clips and everyone in the office orders new ones? Or what if no one places an order because they all think someone else did it? You might also start running into problems that involve miscommunication with suppliers, and you could end up with 100 boxes of paper clips instead of 10. Implementing a purchase order system helps your growing business manage purchasing more effectively.
Why Purchase Orders, and Why PO Software?
When purchasing becomes more complicated, purchase orders (POs) provide important records detailing what your company intends to purchase. They are an agreement between your company and suppliers. POs also provide an important part of a paperwork trail that’s useful for audits as well as your own record-keeping.
You can generate purchase orders without implementing software specifically designed for purchasing. But why would you? Purchasing software makes the whole process very simple. It’s also effective and affordable. When you go with the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model for business process automation (BPA), the software is very easy to implement and use. It’s also an affordable option for small businesses and growing businesses.
Place More Precise Orders
Using purchase orders immediately brings order and clarity to your procurement process. They form a legal contract between your company and the suppliers that specifies exactly how much of each item you need and what price you agree to purchase it for.
If you use software like NextProcess’s Purchase Order Module, the software generates purchase orders automatically. It also automatically records all your purchases, so it’s easy to look back on your ordering history and match incoming shipments to purchase orders. Our system simplifies PO creation and makes it easy for you to double-check that what you ordered is exactly what arrives at your business.
Simplify Purchasing Management
Purchase Order software makes it easy to streamline the ordering process and control which employees can make purchases. The software has a lot of customization options. You could set up NextProcess software to allow purchases only by a specific employee whom you’ve designated as the purchasing manager. You could also have one employee managing approved suppliers and items, then give other employees more limited purchasing permission so they can place orders as needed for pre-approved items. You can also get email notifications for approvals, receipts, and other important details.
Having all the purchasing records in one place eliminates problems with redundant orders. The software updates in real-time, so even if some people are working in the office and some from home or while traveling, it’s easy to check if an order has already been placed. fluctuations, and other data. Having a purchase order to match with the goods received and with an invoice also makes it easier to check that purchases happened the correct way.
Make Record-keeping Easy
NextProcess’s Purchase Order Module is designed for ease of use, both when generating purchase orders and when dealing with your financial records. Extensive automation minimizes effort when creating your purchase orders. The software also features a flexible configuration that lets you personalize it to see information that’s most relevant to your company first.
The purchase order module updates in real-time and stores records automatically. This makes balancing your books at the end of the month, quarter, or year much easier. All the information you need about purchases is right there at your fingertips in an easy-to-search format that’s accessible from a computer, tablet, or smartphone. If your company faces an audit, the system ensures that important financial records are already organized and available.
Plan For the Future
The longer your company uses purchase order software, the more data you collect about purchasing history. These records let you look back at older POs to keep track of how often you’re restocking your inventory, price fluctuations, and other data.
You can leverage this data to plan for your company’s future. It’s easy to use the procurement software to generate reports on purchasing, which lets you examine trends in supply and demand. You’ll also have access to data on your suppliers. You can track which suppliers are most reliable, and which have a history of unexpected price changes, delayed shipments, or other issues.
Scale As You Grow
Scalability—being able to change as needed when the situation changes—is important for any business. It’s especially important for growing companies. You might not know in advance how much growth there will be next month. You might find yourself making many extra purchases to keep up, or making fewer purchases than expected as growth slows for a month before picking back up.
With SaaS software like NextProcess software, you pay based on the number of transactions each month. It’s a pricing model that scales with your company’s needs. Because the software is cloud-based, your company doesn’t need to worry about upgrading anything to make sure the software can handle an increased workload. We take care of all that for you. To learn more about our purchasing software, contact us today to set up a free demo.
