The fluency of your approval process plays a very important role in determining whether other related processes get delayed as well. Approvals for purchases are a very important part of any business.
To enhance the productivity of your team you need to increase the efficiency of your processes.
“More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.” – Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Why are there so many jokes about Purchase Order Managers? They even brought out a ‘best of’ book about it(The Best Ever Book of Purchasing Managers Jokes). Your purchasing is one of the fundamentals of a company. It’s a very important role, as it deals with the company’s capital.
There might be different reasons why people make these jokes. Purchasing Managers tend to keep to the budget and have strict rules that need to be adhered to. Maybe it has to do with the human factor, or maybe they are just underrated.
Purchase orders serve a valuable purpose in any company they have extensive company benefits and can be one of your biggest assets. They help you keep track of who is purchasing what from where. Keeping track or even completing just a 100 purchase orders a day can get very challenging even for a very organized purchase manager, let alone doing thousands. It’s a lot of info that has to be noted on one form. Continue Reading
Bottlenecks are a thorn in your side. Why do you think your purchasing processes aren’t effective? Making errors are part of the human learning process. It’s a natural process that makes a human being stronger over time. However, in business this is not such an effective quality to have. To bridge the gap between you, more efficient and effective processes, and natural human error, you need implement better working methods.
According to a study done in the 1980s and 1990s on human error in business, a lot less mistakes were made in the businesses that put working processes in place and enforced these working processes as a routine than those that did not.
Your business is your vision. Every day you work to overcome different challenges to get to your goals. Your cashflow is the substance that your business thrives on. Tracking expenses should be second nature to your everyday business function.
The simple fact is, you need cash in your hand to run your business. If you only care about more money coming into your business than going out, you will lose sight of the objectives that you set in the first place.
All aspects of your business should point to bringing in revenue in order to make your ship sail smoothly.
Your outdated system is stunting your growth. You might not realize it or might avoid the ugly truth, that your paper-based purchase order system is keeping your business back from a healthy bottom line!
Let’s look at the process of a paper-based system
Statistically, 90% of excel spreadsheets are sensitive to human errors. Is your company part of this statistic? Even though Excel can handle a lot of data, it is susceptible to human error. Working on an excel spreadsheet has a lot of shortcomings especially if a whole team of people try to work on it at the same time. Thirty years of scientific research on spreadsheets has shown that people make mistakes consistently, especially when pressed for time.
You decide to start your own business. You realize that breaking away from the everyday hustle and bustle of big business life is a big step. At this point you have done enough research on how to spend your money and what your target market is looking for. You are confident that you are making the right decision. Have you thought about how to track your expenses?
