Purchase Requests to Purchase Orders: Taking Control of Company Spend

In many growing companies, purchasing runs on email and phone calls. Someone needs materials, asks a manager, the manager forwards to procurement, procurement calls three suppliers, and the invoice arrives weeks later with no clear link back to the original request. Nobody can say exactly what was committed this month.

The cost of informal purchasing

• Approvals are inconsistent — some requests skip the right approver entirely.
• Quotes are not compared properly, so the company overpays.
• Budgets are discovered after the fact, when invoices land.
• Audits are painful, because the trail is scattered across inboxes.

A clear workflow, step by step

1. Purchase request. Staff raise a request against a budget, project or department.
2. Approval. Rules route it to the right approvers based on amount, category or department, with reminders so nothing stalls.
3. Request for quotation. Procurement sends RFQs and compares supplier responses side by side.
4. Purchase order. The approved quote becomes a purchase order automatically.
5. Receipt. Goods are received — ideally by barcode — and stock updates immediately.
6. Bill. The supplier bill is matched to the order and receipt before payment.

Enter data once

When every step lives in one system, information is entered once and everyone sees the same thing. Notifications keep people aware of their responsibilities and deadlines, which prevents overruns.

Traceability from request to warehouse

With barcode-enabled receipts, you can follow any item from the original request to its warehouse location and, eventually, to the sale or project where it was used.

Reports that change behaviour

Spend by supplier, department and project — available in real time — helps leaders negotiate better and spot unusual purchasing early.

iProcure, our procurement application, brings requests, approvals, RFQs, purchase orders and receipts into one workflow. Explore iProcure or talk to us.