What is Purchase Order Software?

By now, you know the important role that purchase orders play in your purchasing and procurement processes. Not only do they allow you to clearly set out the products or services you want to purchase, but they also serve as a legal document that protects both you and the seller when a dispute arises. Apart from this, purchase orders can also help you control your expenses which, in turn, makes budgeting and planning easier.

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However, purchase orders are not devoid of their limitations and challenges, which is where efficient purchasing software comes into play. Using a good purchasing software is a game-changer that will transform the way you think about procurement. In this post, we’ll delve into some of these drawbacks in greater depth and illustrate how purchase order software could serve as a potential solution.

What is Purchase Order Software?

Despite the important role that purchase orders play and the benefits they offer, you’ll encounter some of the following issues when using them in your purchasing and procurement processes:

• Inefficiency.
• Errors.
• Lack of visibility.
• Security risks.
• Lack of control.

‍Purchase order software aims to eliminate these problems by automating the purchase order process. It does this by eliminating manual data entry and streamlining the process of generating and approving purchase requisitions and purchase orders.  This gives you more control over your purchasing and procurement processes and allows your team to manage incoming orders, invoices, and payments easier.

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Benefits of Using Purchase Order Software

Now that we've seen what purchase order software is and given a broad overview of how it works, let's consider the benefits you’ll enjoy when you use purchase order software for your business.

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Efficiency

One of the major benefits of purchase order software is that you experience a dramatic increase in efficiency. This is simply because the software, as mentioned, allows you to automate a significant part of the process. As a result, you’ll eliminate manual and repetitive tasks, and your processing times will decrease.

And when you increase efficiency, you also save time. When you do, you free up your team's time to focus on more productive and higher value activities.

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Reduction in Errors

Apart from making your purchasing and procurement process more efficient, purchase order software also allows you to reduce errors. It does this in two ways. Firstly, it allows you to ensure that your process is followed in accordance with your procurement plan and the rules and controls you set in place. 

For example, it can automatically match the purchase orders, packing slips and invoices in three-way matching based on the rules you provide. This gives you complete control and ensures that all purchase orders are approved and executed in terms of your plan.

Moreover, no matter how skilled or experienced your team is, humans make mistakes. While some of these mistakes have little to no consequences, some can be devastating. So, because you’ll automate large parts of the process with purchase order software, you’ll eliminate manual, human tasks. As a result, you’ll reduce errors in your process and avoid the consequences of these errors.

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Greater Visibility

Purchase order software gives you greater visibility into your purchasing and procurement processes. In other words, you’ll always know where a specific purchase order is in the process, who needs to approve it, when it needs to be approved, and if it has been sent to the seller.

Simply put, with the greater visibility that purchase order software offers, you’ll know the status of each purchase order and payment. In turn, this makes it easier for you and your team to plan and manage your business’s expenses.

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Flexibility

Most companies process purchase orders in the same way. As such, the process starts with the issuing and approval of a purchase requisition, generating a purchase order, sending it to the seller, awaiting delivery, and paying the vendor invoice. However, there are no hard and fast rules of how your process should work, and you should create a process that fits your business’s unique needs and requirements.

Purchase order software allows you to do this and gives you the flexibility to customize the process based on your needs. As such, you can determine who should issue and approve purchase requisitions, purchase orders, and payments. In addition, it helps you enforce these rules which gives you, as mentioned earlier, greater control and consistency compared to manual purchase order processing.

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Cost Savings

Last, but certainly not least, is that purchase order software can bring about significant cost savings. It’s able to accomplish this for a few reasons. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, when you use purchase order software, you’ll make your processes more efficient, which will free up your team's time to focus on more productive tasks. As such, they won't need to process orders manually, search for missing documents, or chase approvals.

Also, when using purchase order software, you'll eliminate paperwork. As a result, you'll also eliminate the costs of paper and ink which, in the long run, makes a substantial difference to your bottom line.

To learn more about purchase order software and how our solution can help you, visit our website for more details.