Purchase Control Is A Nightmare To Solve – Here’s Why

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Purchase control is relevant. Purchasing is a delicate process in a company, simply because it has to do with the money you spend. Businesses tend to neglect their purchasing processes to focus on bigger issues, without realizing that purchase control is one of the legs a business stands on.

You need to acquire materials of the right quality, at the right quantity, at the right time and from the right suppliers for a well-negotiated price. Think of it as a skill that should be mastered.

Purchasers are baffled by the amount of information that they have to review before a purchase takes place. Nowadays we don’t just consider the price of an item, we have to think of the quality of the product (what it is made of and where it is produced) and how much the shipment will cost. Furthermore, we also have to consider how it impacts the environment and the people around it. And of course, we have to consider brand loyalty as there may be agreements and discounts involved with a specific supplier.

How many of your employees work on the purchase order process? How many documents get lost in the process? Have you calculated the time wasted when this occurs? You need to carefully answer these questions and put a well-oiled process in place that makes your business successful.

Tweet This: Statistically, 1 out of 10 purchases contains some kind of mistake. Therefore, it is important to know what is happening in and around the project at all times.

Purchase Control should be easy

Purchasing should be easy, but instead, we are faced with double purchases, wrong purchases or weak product purchases, and requisitions get misplaced or lost. Most of the time a manager does not have the time to follow up on every purchase made and figure out where things may have gone south. They have busy schedules that occupy their time with other matters.

With such a rigorous planning schedule to complete coupled with the day-to-day stresses that have to be dealt with once the project commences, there is hardly any time or energy left to keep track of all the expenses and all the people that have to make purchases.

How do you know if your organization needs Purchase Control?

Some key performance indicators questions that can help you determine if you need Purchase Control are:

  • Are more than 20% of your suppliers redundant or inactive?
  • Is actual/budgeted variance on indirect expenditure greater than 10%?
  • Do more than 5% of suppliers’ invoices require troubleshooting or clarification?
  • Are more than 5% of purchases made without proper management approval?
  • Do you struggle to analyze spend by a vendor, cost centre, commodity, etc.?

One sure way to control purchases and help your company achieve sustainable growth through efficient spend management is by introducing Procurementexpress.com Purchase Control Software to your projects. It controls the spending while you focus on other aspects of your project like unforeseen pitfalls and personnel management. How does the software achieve this? Well, these are a few ways:

  • You never have to wonder what has been spent on what and by whom.
  • Reports are updated in real time and can be downloaded at any time.
  • You can implement vendor management – so your team can’t use suppliers you don’t like.
  • You can view the budget remaining per project before purchases are approved.
  • You can setup custom fields to report on what’s important to your company.
  • It is basic and fast, but with a load of functionality under the hood
  • It is adaptable with tailored reports and customizable pdfs
  • It is straightforward and easy to use, and any one of your staff members can master it in a few minutes so all your departments can spend responsibly

Don’t take our word for it

The easiest way to control spend in any sized organization, and even easier for all staff and employees to learn and understand!” – Luke Moon, Chief Financial Officer, RB Sellars

Great simple tool for budgeting purposes. It works well for the reasons we put it in place, which was overspend. So at least now we can hold people accountable for their spend behavior.” – Monica Mathis, General Manager, Harmoney Limited

I have been using Procurementexpress.com for some time now and find it so simple and easy to use. It is practical, quick, effective, and you can keep an eye on all your information at the touch of your keyboard, Ipad or whatever you’re using. It’s clear and precise. I enjoy the experience of using Procurementexpress.com for my work.” – Barry Olsen, Geiger Group

Approval Processes on the go!

Executives are always on the run from one meeting to the next. They hardly have time to enjoy a quick cup of coffee let alone approve all the POs needed in a day. Unfortunately, you can’t purchase anything if you do not have the relevant manager’s signature for approval. Managers also can’t keep track of what each employee is up to when they are not around.

Getting approvals for anything in a company can be very frustrating. In order to get a signature on a purchase order form you literally have to stalk the related manager, and sometimes it still has to go through more than one department before the purchase can finally be made.

With Procurementexpress.com Purchase Control Software, all purchases are run through a set approval routing process, whereby managers who make the decisions can approve all purchases with the click of a button.

The mobile functionality is great when the manager is on the go, and he/she is no longer tied to a home computer. You can see everything instantly and can approve any purchase with a click of a button. It also has the following amazing features:

  • Allows you to review all purchases before they happen
  • Approval rules can also be set per budget and project
  • Remembers everything so you don’t have to
  • Instantly sends you progress reports
  • Crew members or managers  can load POs from site
  • The app is available on Android and iOS applications

Don’t take our word for it

We got Procurementexpress.com to handle the approval process for a 150-employee sized company. We were looking for ease of use and fast implementation. Since the adoption of Procurementexpress.com we have been able to increase the control over purchase approvals (we have not overrun budget since then), we have eliminated bureaucratic forms that required physical signatures (and most times would be incomplete) and we have streamlined the approval process” – Miguel Fernandez CFO, Dinda

As a customer of Procurementexpress.com, I believe it is an invaluable part of my day to day business and is used by all employees to purchase items for my office and for jobs. It truly makes my job easier and keeps things organized and easy to follow up and track down when needed for my day to day operations. I run a small HVAC company and it simply works great for us. Definitely, recommend this for all companies who need to keep track of their outgoing expenses and make purchases a process that is not hard to use. And being able to use it as a desktop or mobile version makes life easy for my Techs out in the field. And as a business owner being able to check and restrict purchase amount keeps my guys from overspending without prior approval which keeps my expenses down and on track for my P&L. In short great program and easy to use. Keep up the good work guys.” – Robert Langton, co-owner Air Authority LLC.

I love an app that records discussions and saves time

With every project budget, there are a lot of purchases that have to be made, and mistakes like buying the wrong sizes are not uncommon. Statistically, 1 out of 10 purchases contains some kind of mistake. Therefore, it is important to know what is happening in and around the project at all times.

If you are like me, you work even after leaving work. Lists of things to do the next day run through your head and sometimes in the shower you remember that one email you forgot to send. You even dream of doing it first thing in the morning, but as soon as you get to the office,  ‘life’ happens –  you are bombarded with unforeseen pitfalls on a project or last minute meetings and your list just keeps growing. Having so many things to do can make it hard for you to manage your time efficiently.

Procurementexpress.com knows what you have to face every day and have developed software that does all the work so you can quickly get the purchase done with the following features:

  • Each time a purchase is made a step by step command is recorded on the PO with a time and date
  • Comments can be made and steps can be corrected right away if needed
  • Same day company-wide implementation
  • Intuitive, no training required

Don’t take our word for it

Good value for the money. We use it for purchasing control and approval. It does do budget tracking and provides good tools for proposing a big ticket expense, gathering information, organizing discussions about options, and then recording what was bought, when it was paid for, when it was delivered, etc.” – Roland Alden, Project Manager, ioet Inc.

Using Procurementexpress.com as a purchase ordering tool has been very easy from the get go. It is simple and uncomplicated and user-friendly. It doesn’t take very long to create a purchase order so it saves me time. Overall a good experience.” Dwight Uyeno, SPUD

Why customer service is important

Customer service is the support you offer your customers — both before and after they buy your product — that helps them have an easy and enjoyable experience with you. It’s more than just providing answers; it’s an important part of the promise your brand makes to its customers. And it’s critical to the success of your business.

It’s often said that it’s cheaper to keep existing customers than to find new ones. And it’s true – bad customer service is a key driver of customer churn. The quality of customer service provided can make or break your reputation.

Procurementexpress.com Customer Service Ninjas are available 24 hours a day and offer concierge and bespoke development services when needed.

Don’t take our word for it

Procurementexpress.com is a user-friendly Purchase Order platform. It helps us track our expenses and maintain a chain of approval. Additionally, their staff is extremely responsive and helpful.” – Emily Stone, Operations Coordinator, DC Scholars Community Schools

Being in control of your purchases is not just having the power in your hands, it also helps you turn a profit at the end of the day.

Stay on top of every aspect of the project. Try Procurementexpress.com for free today!

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