Apptivo Best Practices for Purchase Order Management
It’s critical for every business to get their purchase orders properly to avoid overspending, keep track of and manage all procurement-related costs. Purchase orders are critical in ensuring that you have the items and services you need to run and expand your business. And you’ve probably already got a system in place to complete, send, and get them signed. Using a manual purchase order system may work for most businesses at first, but as the business grows, it becomes more time-consuming and stressful for everyone involved.
Using an Online Purchase Order System for handling orders is a great way to empower your employees in the tedious process, but it won’t be of any greater benefit if you’re not using it in the right way. This blog brings to you Apptivo’s best practices to use the Purchase Orders application and other similar order management tools to yield the best results for your organization.
Organizations have a different approach to how they use the procurement software but can benefit from the use of established strategies and best practices to make purchase orders more efficient. A simplified ordering process keeps things flowing. It offers an audit path that may be used to track costs and solve disputes if necessary. Depending on your needs, the exact process for your firm will look different. So let’s get into it.
1. Establish written guidelines for procurement
Clear rules and guidelines guarantee the same methodology for everybody participating in the procurement process. It is vital to prevent any misunderstandings with suppliers because your staff would all be following the same policies everywhere. So, you shouldn’t leave your employees on their own to manage orders according to themselves. To minimize misconceptions, it is good to define explicit norms and standards for purchasing orders. Develop a printed manual or e-book detailing the full ordering process. The approval route should be outlined, and the precise steps should be defined.
2. Review your orders properly
If a seller receives and authorizes a buying order, it becomes legally binding. This protects the buyer and the vendor if problems arise over the order. It gives you the benefits of addressing any error or mistake when orders are delivered. But, reviewing orders is a necessary step as most of the time, basic information and data are overlooked and it disrupts the procurement process. So, revisiting the essentials of your purchase orders is a good way to ensure all things are good.
3. Automating the purchase process
Manual ordering processes are most of the time inefficient and cost more. Using tables & spreadsheets for order management is problematic because it is prone to errors. Automated ordering assures that there are no missing stages. It also saves significant time for your staff to concentrate on more productive jobs. So, opting for an automated purchasing system combined with secure cloud integration eliminates a lot of busy work and room for mistakes.
4. Creating conditional rules
In most organizations, people at higher authority levels are required to approve purchase orders before placing them. And having VPs & CFOs approve high-value orders is normal. When they have to go through each order individually, they get to know its value is more of a wastage of time for them. So, you should create conditions such as a minimum order value so that higher authorities are only needed to approve them when required.
5. Use a centralized vendor database
Maintaining a centralized supplier database with past purchase records and information can make it easier for you to streamline the whole ordering process. It results in the records becoming more clear and accessible for the whole organization. On the other hand, creating new purchase orders can help in the easy and fast retrieval of data.
6. Integrate your order management with document management
Integration of a document management system into a purchase order system is a part of automation as it helps in the centralization of document storage and creates an audit trail. Further, in the procurement process, it makes the location of important documents of the purchase easier.
Apptivo Purchase Orders helps you in easier management, tracking, and saving of purchase orders and related documents. It provides you with a complete view of suppliers and their related information. You can also generate instant receipts from the purchase orders and update the inventory at the same time. Apptivo’s automation capabilities allow you to create repeated orders, store them effectively, and integrate other apps seamlessly into the software itself.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a seasoned supply chain professional or a small start-up, there’s always space for development and optimization. From better understanding the purchase order approval process to efficient ordering and management, you can make order management better. When you automate your purchase order software processes, you can streamline each stage and eliminate bottlenecks that slow down your team. Apptivo’s Purchase Orders App lets you automate the different steps in the process and get the most out of your business.
