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you probably know how many purchase orders your company generates monthly but have you ever thought about what an important role purchase order management plays when it comes to the efficiency of your workplace to put it simply quite a vital one without it the entire company would cease to function just imagine how your business would run without a timely supply of relevant products and services employees would struggle to perform their duties without for instance an internet connection technical devices or other job-specific tools such as messaging apps for business communication task trackers and CRM companies use purchase order management to supply these essential business needs in doing so they try to use as few resources as possible in terms of both personnel and financial costs let's figure out how purchase order management works and how to get the maximum benefit from it purchase order management is a set of established principles and practices that help companies meet their procurement goals and maintain the budget wisely by doing so companies ensure the availability of goods and services necessary to operate as well as complete and up-to-date information on specific or multiple purchase orders purchase order management involves defining specific actions and privileges for all participants of the supply chain ensuring accurate information in purchase orders tracking POS and communicating about all orders and following a specific set of rules using designated tools and means of communication to make your purchase order process as efficient as possible you should follow a strict step-by-step procedure usually each organization has its own unique PO process and management practices in place let's go over the most common steps of Po management no matter what the rest of your company's PO process is it most certainly begins with issuing a PL without a PO you can't get any further with procurement first a dedicated Department issues a purchase order either created from scratch or from a purchase requisition it should contain the following information PO number company details order description including the number of needed items and their prices dates of purchase and delivery and payment terms and conditions once the PO is checked it goes through the approval workflow established by the company the number of stages in the approval workflow will depend on company policy the purchase order can also be sent to an earlier stage for review in case that's not approved immediately after approval the PO is sent to the vendor via a predefined communication Channel suitable for both parties such as email or a supplier relationship management tool once the vendor receives your PO it's time to negotiate the details the vendor goes through the PO to confirm whether it's possible to meet all the requirements such as item prices amounts delivery terms and so on if the supplier agrees with the terms of the PO it moves to the next step acceptance by both parties as soon as the vendor confirms the PO it becomes a legally binding contract which means that both parties should carry out the required actions described in the terms next you can expect the delivery of the ordered products or services after the PO is confirmed by the vendor your order is processed and shipped ing to the agreement later the vendor issues an invoice outlining the goods or services purchased by your company and at what cost typically included in the invoice are a pay by date and instructions on how to pay before making a payment to the vendor three-way matching is conducted to ensure purchased goods or services were legitimately rendered this involves checking if the purchase order goods received note an invoice contained matching details and whether the goods billed on the invoice were actually received once a procurement team confirms that the invoice is valid they notify the accounting department the latter proceeds by paying the invoice to ensure the supplier receives their money ing to the terms outlined in the contract at the final stage of Po management the purchase order goods received note and invoice are archived in compliance with legal requirements and internal company guidelines at a glance po management looks quite straightforward however without the proper fine tuning your PO management process could result in Lost documents order delays problems with suppliers document discrepancies or even fraud the majority of such issues stem from too much Reliance on manual activities at the same time even if your procurement seems great there are always steps you can take to make it more efficient let's go over some best practices to make Po management more efficient and optimize the purchasing process workflows are sets of reputable sequential tasks that ensure company processes are done predictably and correctly every time workflows differ based on company size and Industry so no two companies will have the exact same procurement pipeline it's important to evaluate current processes and analyze systematic issues in order to find and Remedy bottlenecks or other problems in your workflow by frequently reviewing your PO workflow and Consulting with competent decision makers you can design a system that meets the specific needs of your procurement Department with exact guidelines and a clear picture of Po management procedures you'll always be sure that the right steps are being taken to protect the company from possible sudden risks here are some ways to be more precise when it comes to assigning tasks create a hard copy handbook or virtual knowledge base make your guidelines easily accessible for everyone across the supply chain specify an inventory threshold that calls for a purchase request and assign relevant roles for colleagues such as po requester approver Etc supplier performance insights are like pressures for the procurement team with them you can identify bottlenecks in communication find the best deals and prevent order delays while collaborating with vendors be sure to gather trustworthy insights on supplier performance select the best vendor for each transaction and keep supplier performance metrics in one system the world doesn't stand still and neither should you that's why it's key to continuously digitalize automate processes and integrate solutions to make sure your PO management is cutting edge by choosing to implement automated software you'll cut out numerous hassles associated with paper-based procurement models meanwhile po processing will go much faster let's go through some of the other Main benefits associated with digital Solutions shave off some of the extra time consuming steps right at the beginning of the procurement process starting with po Creation with pre-coro you can create review and submit POS in a few clicks eliminate busy work duplicate previous POS and set up customized po templates additionally if your procurement process involves recurring purchases over an extended period of Time pre-coros blanket purchase order feature will save you a lot of hassle a blanket PO is a custom agreement between the vendor and buyer for the purchase of specific products at a consistent cost over a predefined period of time by implementing this process directly within your procurement software you eliminate repetitive po processing tasks and meanwhile allow for accurate budget planning earlier we mentioned the importance of having a customized regularly updated workflow pre-cora lets organizations build and flexibly adjust their workflows as needed by doing the following defining a cost threshold or span that needs approval assigning approvers based on locations projects or departments and setting subsequent approval steps to automate the whole process ideally everyone involved in the procurement process should have access to PO details at any given stage during the process without needing to disturb their colleagues with a digital solution you can always find up-to-date information on your dashboard and track POS at every stage the system automatically updates data on the dashboard once the PO status is changed and notifies you immediately another important feature to look out for is integration with other procurement adjacent platforms a PO management tool that directly integrates with for instance your current accounting software or Erp systems is a boon to your purchasing process integrated software Solutions allow you to eliminate time-consuming manual entry sync purchasing and accounting departments streamline po processing gain better control over the spending pipeline substantially reduce the workload of teams and decrease operational costs plus with a digital procurement solution that features A supplier management system you can create and maintain a centralized database of verified supplier information after all collaboration with suppliers is an indispensable part of Po management precoro includes a tool called the supplier portal which your vendors can access to receive your purchase orders instantly communicate directly with you from within the system create invoices on the spot and more for both sides this ensures fewer emails calls or miscommunications finally cloud-based Solutions like pre-crow save all your sensitive information in one place so you have constant access to Archive data that is available for audit at any given moment you'll have to go through countless spreadsheets or physical folders to find the information you're looking for now that you know that PO management best practices and how to implement them with an automated solution take the next step learn how to eliminate tedious manual work and optimize procurement with pre-chorus free 14-day trial or book a demo on our website