Procurement management is a study in balance. Professionals and teams tasked with getting supplies in the door must navigate a complex set of priorities, including cost, availability, resilience, and total value.
To effectively perform in procurement, you must have the soft and hard skills necessary for achieving results in circumstances that can be complicated. But which skills should you focus on to move up in your organization? And are there tools that make the process easier and the results better?
Read on to learn how the right practices combined with helpful tech solutions ensure procurement managers can serve their teams and build their brand within a company.
Download the free ebook: The Procurement Strategy Playbook
What are procurement management skills?
Procurement professionals manage the process of obtaining goods or services for an organization. The procurement team, led by a procurement manager, uses a combination of strategic planning and tactical execution to acquire the best goods for a project with quality service and competitive pricing.
Procurement managers generally work on a core set of day-to-day tasks, including:
- Sourcing new products
- Vetting and contracting with suppliers
- Negotiating procurement contracts
- Enabling contract management
- Authorizing purchasing and payments
- Tracking delivery, stock levels, costs, and vendor performance
- Reducing excess procurement costs
- Performing category management and analysis
- Developing strategies for sustainable procurement
A successful procurement manager must possess many competencies to perform their role effectively. The best procurement managers are skilled in communication, contract negotiation, problem-solving, decision-making, research, and analysis.
Why are procurement management skills essential to career growth?
Effective procurement is both a science and an art. To create opportunities for advancement, it’s ideal to have a strong skill set paired with curiosity, creativity, and a team-focused approach.
With a foundation built on knowledge, procurement managers balance cost management and priorities more efficiently, negotiate better deals with suppliers, and create more value for departments and stakeholders. This leads to streamlined processes and new procurement strategies for cost-effective purchasing, which further helps procurement professionals stand out in the marketplace.
5 Essential skills of an effective procurement manager
In addition to building a strong procurement skill set, many procurement professionals turn to software to enhance their practices and reduce manual labor. Software is especially helpful in keeping productivity high in the face of rising demand. While the increase in procurement staff is expected to top 3 percent in 2023, the anticipated increase in workload is 10.6 percent. Software helps procurement teams close the gap with better efficiency and reduced busywork.
The following five skills are integral to success and advancement in procurement. Software can further enhance each to create even greater results.
Sourcing
Every positive procurement outcome begins with the right supplier partnerships, so successful sourcing is a top priority for procurement managers.
Procurement managers must be able to identify and contract with reliable, cost-effective suppliers to meet organizational demand. This level of strategic sourcing exercise often goes beyond finding rock-bottom pricing.
Procurement managers factor different priorities into what they're sourcing. Is there a specific timeframe? Or a certain type of vendor they want to look into? The most important piece is finding the best price, most efficiently.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
Download the ebook to learn how to modernize your procurement strategy and realize the benefits of tech-enabled procurement.
Using a procurement management tool like Order.co centralizes this search and cuts down on the redundant work of finding potential partners. With the platform, procurement managers don't have to worry about going from supplier to supplier, getting different quotes, and negotiating.
Contracting with suitable suppliers also reduces second-order issues such as waste caused by fulfillment issues, quality gaps, logistics concerns, and returns. Top-tier suppliers commit to fulfilling orders with accuracy and resolving issues when they arise.
Additionally, sourcing is critical to ensure the organization abides by ethical procurement standards. Due diligence in the early stages of sourcing identifies potential reputational and supply chain management concerns before they impact the organization.
Budget management
Every procurement manager must understand budget management and how to control and allocate resources to achieve organizational objectives. Strong budgetary knowledge dovetails with research skills to help improve risk management, find opportunities, accurately estimate costs, manage departmental spend wisely, and stay on top of changes that could influence the budget.
Budget management also requires experience tracking expenses and analyzing spend efficiency to ensure optimal resource use and eliminate redundancy, including monitoring performance against departmental or individual management goals. With proactive budget management practices, organizations reduce waste and increase efficiency.
Proactive procurement managers know that managing cash flow through fluctuations in the buy-sell cycle greatly improves purchasing outcomes, timeline management, and project completion. To help smooth the path, many procurement teams look for financing and extended net terms options that get products in the door while creating repayment flexibility.
Order.co Financial Offerings provide this flexibility, with preferred advances up to $500,000 and extended net terms that give you more options. You can tap into our financing opportunities and financial products and get an additional 60 days to pay any vendor. You don't have to negotiate terms with individual vendors to have that advantage.
Time and supply chain management
Uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges procurement managers face in 2023. Although reported domestic supply chain delays dropped from over 36 percent in 2022 to 14.5 percent in 2023, the world continues to deal with disruption in various market sectors. This means procurement teams must build redundancy into their planning to maintain timely fulfillment.
Through its dynamic sourcing and curation tools, Order.co provides stability and automatic redundancy features to combat shortages and delays. Buyers have access to a curated catalog of products from preferred vendors, and if a product is backordered or a vendor can’t meet demand, they can automatically source exact or similar products from a network of over 15,000+ high-quality vendors. In the case of supply chain disruption, companies have other options. Order.co buyers always have control of what they order and how they want to handle supply chain issues.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
Download the ebook to learn how to modernize your procurement strategy and realize the benefits of tech-enabled procurement.
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Team leadership and support
Procurement managers’ core responsibility ties back to creating productivity and visibility in user and supplier relationships. A spend management system takes the manual effort out of this mandate.
A large part of the procurement manager's role is ensuring employees have the right tools for success. When it comes to our custom catalog, you can curate what a specific user sees so it's only relevant to them. They're staying on task; they're staying focused.
Dynamic procurement software helps teams get what they need quickly and confidently, allowing the rest of the procurement process to happen in the background while maintaining full visibility, approval integrity, and transaction recording.
Business reporting
When it comes to career advancement, you need to show your work. Procurement professionals eager to advance in their careers must establish and meet procurement key performance indicators (KPIs), increase cost efficiency, demonstrate cost savings, and build team productivity — and demonstrate everything to their boss in a way that makes sense. While it’s hard to show the intangible benefits of strong procurement skills, the numbers don’t lie.
Order.co creates total visibility into your procurement function’s activities and outcomes, showing management, the executive team, and the finance department more than how much you spend. Transparency shows the efficiency of the spend, the relationships and benefits procurement supports, and the value the team brings to the table.
How Order.co helps you ace procurement
Order.co builds on the natural talents of motivated procurement professionals, making the purchasing process easier with centralized ordering, easy payment, seamless redundancy plans, and total visibility.
Want to see the power of Order.co in action? Schedule a demo today.
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Entrepreneurs from every industry need cash flow to drive business growth. Cannabis business owners are no different, but the obstacles they face in securing business funding vary significantly from typical businesses. Higher perceived risk, regulatory restrictions, and federal laws against cannabis make it difficult for cannabusinesses to secure funds.
Today we’ll cover the basic financing issues for cannabis companies leading the way in medical and recreational use of cannabis.
- What is cannabis financing?
- Who needs cannabis financing?
- What obstacles do companies face regarding cannabis financing?
- What are the requirements for receiving cannabis financing?
- Uses for cannabis financing
- Alternatives to traditional cannabis financing
Download the free ebook: Grow Your Cannabis Business–Overcome These Three Finance Challenges
What is cannabis financing?
Cannabis financing is the process of obtaining business capital through various financial resources to cover the costs associated with running a cannabis-related enterprise. When hearing about a cannabis business, cannabis dispensaries often come to mind. But cannabis cultivators, medical marijuana clinics, and other related cannabis businesses also require funding to drive operations.
While traditional financial institutions and lenders can provide cannabis business loans, financing is often obtained from private investors or venture capitalists due to the stigma attached to cannabis products. The various options typically available to a startup looking for cannabis financing can include:
- Personal loans
- Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs)
- Business loans or lines of credit
- Supplier cash advances
- Credit union loans
- Equipment financing and leases
- Investments from accredited investors
- Angel investment
- Crowdfunding
- Backing from friends and family
Regardless of which form of financing they choose, cannabis businesses must carefully examine legal considerations, interests, and risks to ensure they receive sufficient working capital while protecting their assets.
Grow Your Cannabis Business: Overcome These Three Finance Challenges
The cannabis industry is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime boom. Don't let poor cash flow keep you from cashing in.
What types of businesses need cannabis financing?
There are two types of businesses within the cannabis industry: direct and indirect. Direct cannabis businesses are those that “touch the plant,” such as cultivators, dispensaries, distributors, and laboratories. Indirect businesses offer services that support the direct industry, such as packaging companies, technology providers, and equipment manufacturers.
Cultivators: Cannabis cultivators produce cannabis plants and components like CBD for both medicinal and recreational purposes. They grow and process plants to create standardized products sold at dispensaries. Cultivators use techniques like adjusting nutrient levels and controlling temperature and humidity to create new strains with desirable characteristics. They must adhere to government regulations and product standards when creating strains and cultivating plants.
Laboratories: Cannabis quality control labs analyze product samples for potency, terpenes, and contaminants. They provide reliable analytical results to the industry, ensuring all products meet regulatory requirements and industry standards. Labs also offer services such as genetic profiling to trace the plant's origin and authenticate the product. They play a critical role in consumer trust and cultivators' informed decision-making.
Distributors: Cannabis distributors help ensure a safe and secure supply chain for the cannabis industry by handling all steps in the distribution process. They are the link between cultivators and retailers, ensuring that cannabis goods reach the right place at the right time while meeting all government regulations related to compliance and taxation. They also often provide additional services such as inventory management, security, and product tracking.
Packaging: Cannabis packaging companies provide solutions for both recreational and medicinal products. They offer printing services, including logos, branding, and warning labels that use innovative and custom designs to help differentiate products from competitors. Essential for protecting integrity, they provide an extra layer of security to guarantee quality products by ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations, like child-resistant or tamper-proof packaging.
Equipment: Cannabis equipment providers are responsible for the production and maintenance of specialized and general equipment used in the industry. This includes a wide range of items, from grow tents and trimming machines to commercial plant driers, extractors, and decarboxylators. They also provide the technology necessary to ensure that cannabis production is safe and efficient, like HVAC systems or water chillers. Cannabis equipment providers help with installation, maintenance, and repair services so that growers have access to reliable tools when they need them. They enable cannabis producers to meet safety standards and ensure quality control throughout the entire process.
Technology: Cannabis-related tech and SaaS software companies design software solutions for the cannabis industry, including inventory management and compliance tracking, plus mobile applications for real-time operations. A suite of analytical tools is also available, optimizing production by gathering data on cultivation and greenhouse environments. These technologies help growers maximize efficiency and profitability while remaining compliant with local regulations.
What are the obstacles to cannabis financing?
Cannabis businesses, particularly those operating in the US, face several obstacles when trying to obtain financing. Cannabis and its derivatives are a schedule I controlled substance in the United States. This means that, despite the recent move by individual states to relax their rules on medicinal or recreational cannabis use, THC remains illegal at the federal level.
The federal prohibition of cannabis makes it difficult for banks and other lenders to provide funding. Specifically, federal prohibition means that cannabis businesses are ineligible for favorable loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Two sets of restrictions dissuade banks from financing cannabis-related businesses (CRBs): the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AML) and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
- The AML requires banks to report suspicious transactions related to money laundering and other activities that could be considered illegal or unethical.
- The BSA requires banks to report all transactions over $10,000 and provides guidelines for proper recordkeeping. Because cannabis is a schedule I substance, any transaction involving this drug must be reported.
The requirements for both these regulations make it difficult for lenders to confidently offer financing to cannabis-related industries. Lenders that do offer options to cannabis-related businesses often limit their services to ancillary businesses such as general suppliers, labeling and packaging designers, and technology companies like cannabis-specific point-of-sale providers. These businesses, while they support direct cannabis sales, offer a more favorable risk profile to banks since they fall under less stringent legal requirements.
Though traditional investors may be wary of investing in the cannabis industry due to its uncertain legal standing and liability concerns, options for obtaining funding for a cannabis-related business are improving, providing owners meet the prerequisites for securing credit, loans, or grants.
Grow Your Cannabis Business: Overcome These Three Finance Challenges
The cannabis industry is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime boom. Don't let poor cash flow keep you from cashing in.
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What are the requirements for obtaining cannabis financing?
Although requirements vary by state, most cannabis-related entrepreneurs must meet the following requirements:
Strong personal credit rating: A strong credit rating is vital for securing financing for your business. Sufficiently high credit ratings from the “big three” credit bureaus make it easier to convince lenders to take on the risk. A high credit score gives potential investors confidence regarding timely loan payments. For the major three credit bureaus, a score of 670 or above is in the “good” category.
Adequate credit history: A long history of good credit is essential when applying for financing, so lenders look for those with experience borrowing money and paying it back on time. As part of this, they review the borrower’s credit history, checking for recent activity and missed payments. A strong credit score coupled with a long history of timely payments makes lenders more likely to take on the risk of providing capital and financing for your business.
Bankruptcy-free credit history: Lenders are often risk-averse, especially when handling a higher-risk loan like cannabis funding. Any indication that debt might not be repaid based on past performance is a major roadblock. Bankruptcy stays on a credit report for up to 10 years and might be used as a factor in approving your application.
Business account: A separate business bank account is required for cannabis lending, as it meets the increased reporting and regulatory requirements of applying for financing. Establish a separate business account under your business taxpayer identification number (TIN) along with any state filing requirements or permits.
US citizenship or resident status: US citizenship or residency is a requirement for borrowing funds to run a cannabis business. Regulations concerning lending and business permits for cannabis businesses may vary. Consult an attorney knowledgeable in this area for specific requirements.
Business plan: When seeking financing of any kind, a documented business plan with projected revenues, a mission statement, a SWOT analysis, and marketing plans form an important part of your financing application.
Uses for cannabis financing
Like many other retail or medical businesses, brick-and-mortar cannabis businesses like marijuana dispensaries and cultivators must source real estate, supplies, inventory, technology, and services to keep the business running.
Financing for the business often goes toward establishing locations and buying supplies and equipment for production and sales, including:
- Purchase or leasing of office or manufacturing spaces for sales, cultivation, and testing
- Equipment to produce, test, or refine cannabis products
- Overhead expenses such as payroll costs, taxes, and other operational expenses
- Research and development funding for new products and processes
However, risk and cash flow issues particular to the cannabis industry make it difficult or impossible for these businesses to get equipment and get off the ground.
Alternatives to cannabis financing
For companies seeking flexible, cost-effective ways to procure supplies for running a cannibals business, there are some alternatives. However, access to these avenues of financing isn’t universal. Businesses that have cash on hand most often source goods and equipment through group buying or online ecommerce resources:
- Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are third-party organizations that sell supplies to their members at discounted prices. GPOs can help cannabis businesses get the supplies they need without seeking traditional financing.
- Some procurement platforms offer services and vendor networks that support cannabis-focused businesses. These platforms provide many benefits for growing businesses, such as price comparisons, reporting functions, and spend management features. With these services, companies save time and money when sourcing products from suppliers, which helps them stay competitive in the market.
How Order.co approaches cannabis financing
Order.co takes a new approach to cannabis financing, providing risk reduction and reliable access to capital in a way that works for both buyers and vendors. This removes many of the obstacles that keep cannabis companies from reaching their full potential. With vendor and working capital access through Order.co, cannabis businesses can get up and running, source equipment, expand into new locations, and explore wider markets. This is how it works:
- Cannabis businesses sign up with Order.co to buy supplies and equipment from their favorite vendors.
- Order.co provides flexible, extended net terms with an easy-to-complete verification process. This allows Order.co to act as the buyer of record, eliminating the restrictions that block many companies from conducting business as normal.
- For large purchases, Order Capital provides up to $500,000 in working capital to fund equipment purchases.
- The extended terms and capital access allow businesses to get up and running quickly and start generating revenue before repayment begins. With revenue coming in, the cash conversion cycle (CCC) is greatly reduced, allowing the company to leverage its financing to spur growth and stabilize cash flow.
Order.co gives cannabis startups the capital and vendor access they need to perform in new markets, providing a competitive advantage as cannabis access expands into new states and territories.
Ready to “grow”? Get Order.co
In addition to leading-edge advantages for cannabis businesses, Order.co provides an easy-to-use interface that simplifies the process of researching prospective suppliers, finding the best pricing and terms, and using data-informed insights to grow a thriving business:
- Add your favorite vendors and create curated buying catalogs to ensure spend compliance and high-quality ordering.
- Use Order Capital for access to competitive pricing and extended net terms for purchases of all kinds.
- Rely on comprehensive spend reporting to maintain compliance with financial regulations and demonstrate spend efficiency to investors.
To see how Order.co helps businesses of all types grow their operations effectively, request a demo.
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Good documentation is a major player in preventing chaos in the accounting department. This is especially true when it comes to accounting’s involvement in purchasing, as even small businesses generate dozens or hundreds of purchase orders each month. A strong purchase order system is essential for keeping the details associated with purchasing, invoicing, and inventory management on track.
Relying on a great purchase order form template is a real life-saver for busy stakeholders trying to source the things their business needs. Today, we’ll cover many of the top questions about the purchase order process, including:
- What is a purchase order form?
- Why is a purchase order important?
- What is the difference between an invoice and a purchase order?
- Is a purchase order the same as an order form?
- What are the steps to creating a purchase order?
- How do you complete a purchase order template?
- How do you send a purchase order to a supplier?
Download the free tool: Purchase Order Template
What is a purchase order?
A purchase order (PO) is a formal document issued by a buyer to a seller that outlines the products, services, pricing, and terms of a purchase. It serves as an agreement between both parties when placing orders and acts as a legal contract for the transaction.
Purchase orders contain item descriptions, quantities, payment terms, and delivery dates. They also include other important information, such as taxes or shipping fees that may need to be paid by either party. A purchase order is typically generated using software and is usually signed off on by both parties before any goods or services are delivered or invoiced.
Most purchase orders use a template to ensure all order information is complete and accurate. Many businesses use Google Sheets, a Microsoft Excel template, or a proprietary system to create a form for general use.
Is a purchase order the same as an order form?
A purchase order is not the same as an order form because a purchase order is legally binding and serves as a contract between two parties. An order form, on the other hand, is simply an itemized list of goods or services requested. It does not have any legal power or contractual obligations attached to it. Additionally, a purchase order typically includes payment terms and delivery details not usually found in an order form.
A purchase order includes several specific elements for tracking the order, such as a PO number, payment info, terms and conditions, order details, shipping method, shipping terms, and other information vital to processing the transaction.
Purchase Order Template Download
A purchase order template creates a repeatable, reliable process for processing and tracking your orders. Take advantage of our easy PO template here.
What is the difference between an invoice and a purchase order?
An invoice is a document a seller issues to a buyer that serves as a bill for goods or services. It typically lists each item's price, applicable taxes, and the grand total of all items purchased. The purchase order, once completed, prompts the processing of the invoice for payment.
Benefits of a strong purchase order process
Purchase orders are an important source of information and documentation for your procurement process. They outline vital information for every purchase, create a paper trail for order research, and ensure that the items you purchase are the same as those you receive.
Legality: Purchase orders serve as a legally binding agreement between two parties and provide protection in the case of a dispute about the goods. They establish the parameters of a sale and outline the responsibilities of each party in the transaction.
Accuracy: The body of a purchase order provides an itemized list of goods or services requested. This ensures orders are fulfilled correctly, the goods match those agreed upon, and the pricing of those goods is consistent with the items you receive. Accurate purchase orders also eliminate costly cash leaks from your procurement process.
Payment: Purchase orders outline the payment terms and conditions of the supplier. They list the repayment terms for orders with net terms and itemize any fees, delivery charges, or late charges that may apply to the purchase.
Documentation: Purchase orders ensure accuracy and efficiency in the procurement process by providing detailed information for each transaction. This enables matching between the purchase requisition, purchase order, bill of lading or packing slip, and invoice.
Visibility: The information on the purchase order informs many other finance and accounting processes, including order tracking, payments, spend analysis, price benchmarking, and vendor performance management.
What are the important components of a purchase order?
Although the template for purchase orders may vary between companies, every purchase order should feature several key components for completeness and order tracking.
Internal stakeholder information: Purchase orders should have the company's name and the person or department submitting the purchase order (in case of any questions or communication needs during processing). It should also have contact information for the AP department.
Vendor information: Each purchase order should include the vendor’s name, business address, phone number, fax number, and sales representative or AR contact’s information.
Order details: Include the order date, purchase order number, and an itemized list of products and services on each PO to prevent discrepancies between orders and receipts, unauthorized payments, and vendor fraud. POs offer clear records of all items and costs for effective budgeting.
Payment details: Including vendor payment information is part of arranging proper payments. It’s also integral to document payment terms and methods to ensure timely payment, which can cut down on the over 20 percent of invoice exceptions businesses face when processing payments. Acceptable forms of payment or preference for electronic payment should be noted, as should any early payment discounts negotiated during the sale.
Terms and conditions: The general terms and conditions of the purchase should appear on the PO for reference. In the event of issues or discrepancies, the PO serves as the final legal word on the terms agreed upon by the parties.
Purchase Order Template Download
A purchase order template creates a repeatable, reliable process for processing and tracking your orders. Take advantage of our easy PO template here.
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What are the steps to create a purchase order process?
Creating a purchase order should be a documented, repeatable process. This ensures the PO is accurate and complete each time.
Use these steps to ensure strong purchase order management for your organization. By relying on a template, you highlight all necessary information to guarantee it’s included in every transaction:
1. Terms negotiation
Vendor management includes negotiating terms and conditions for purchases, such as payment details and delivery dates. The cost of goods or services should also be documented in detail, along with any agreed-upon discounts.
2. Submit the purchase requisition or intake form
Once all information is settled, the buyer generates a purchase requisition or purchase order document that includes all negotiated details. They then submit the document for approval from internal departments, including their direct manager and any legal, IT, security, or finance team reviewers. Once approved, the accounting team creates the purchase order.
3. Issue purchase order to the vendor
Once internal approval is complete, the accounting team produces and submits the purchase order to the vendor. The vendor then reviews and accepts the purchase order before preparing to fulfill the order. The vendor’s review process also ensures that they understand what is in the order and verifies that the correct items and quantities are available.
4. Fulfillment and review
The vendor fulfills the order according to the details in the PO and delivers the order to the buyer. The buyer verifies the shipped goods against the data in the PO and invoice. This review process allows the buyer’s receiving team time to check for incorrect, damaged, or poor-quality products, all of which cost companies big, with an average of 8 percent of inventory getting wasted annually. Once approved, accounting pays the invoice and completes the transaction according to the terms outlined in the agreement.
5. Documentation
Once the transaction is complete, a strong procurement process also includes centralizing the purchase data into a platform for future use. This allows teams to review historical purchase data, compare prices year-over-year, and evaluate vendor performance. Purchase order software tools and procurement platforms make this process significantly easier and more accurate.
Make purchase orders easier with a procurement platform
A procurement platform like Order.co enables automation throughout the purchasing process. With a few clicks, users can generate a single purchase request across multiple vendors, get the necessary approvals, and submit their POs to the vendors electronically. Received goods are easily tied back to the PO and invoice data, saving hours of manual reconciliation. A platform also makes it easier for accounting teams to review transactions, research issues, and account for every purchase at month-end.
Order.co offers robust features to automate and streamline purchasing while maintaining optimal spend controls:
- Automatic GL coding and three-way for easy recording and reconciliation
- Advanced budgeting and audit trail features to ensure accurate, well-maintained reporting
- Rules-based approvals and dynamic spend guidelines to ensure purchase policy compliance in every transaction
- Automatic PO generation and order tracking for accuracy and visibility throughout the purchasing process
To see the power of purchase order automation, request a demo of Order.co.
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Managing processes in an organization is a complex and ever-evolving task that takes time and effort to complete and document correctly. Without proper oversight, managing processes like tracking financials and reviewing employee requests can quickly become overwhelming. Even so, fewer than half of organizations formalize their business process management to streamline and administer these tasks.
The unspoken truth behind that fact? Automating processes is a competitive advantage for companies that commit to it. It creates happier workers, lowers costs, and even allows smaller companies to compete with the leaders in their industry.
One of the easiest and most beneficial processes to formalize? Your approvals process.
Today we’ll share the essential information and steps in creating better approval processes:
- What an approval process is
- The elements that drive every approval process
- The basic steps for an apportioned process
- The types of approvals every business can improve
- The steps to building a new or better approval process
- The steps and importance of invoice approval
- How software puts invoice approval on autopilot
Download the free ebook: The Procurement Strategy Playbook
Top elements of any approval process
In general, every approval process — whether for a petty cash purchase or an annual budget — requires some common approval elements.
Documentation: Documentation of your purchase or request provides a detailed history of the approval process, from initiation to completion. It also serves as evidence of due diligence and a record of compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
Documents may include purchase orders, invoices, contracts, payment authorizations, records of communication between stakeholders, and more. By properly documenting each step in the approval process, organizations gain greater control over their accounting processes and maintain the accuracy of their data.
Approvers: Approvers are essential to the approval process because they provide a necessary review and validation of every aspect of the purchase or budget request. Common approvers include the person’s direct manager, department head, finance personnel, legal personnel, and security personnel. For high-ticket or sensitive purchases, it may be necessary to involve executives from the C-suite who provide additional oversight and review.
Involving multiple approvers ensures that all aspects of a purchase have been properly vetted before being approved. Multi-step approval also reduces wasted spending and instances of fraud, as each request receives scrutiny from multiple layers of the organization.
Permissions policy: The criteria for an effective approval process must also include a permissions policy that outlines roles and responsibilities. This ensures that only authorized personnel can approve invoices and helps reduce the risk of fraud or misuse. The permissions policy should determine who has access to the accounts payable system, as well as define the type of information each user can access and edit.
A permissions policy also allows for proper authentication when approving requests, ensuring that all requests have been adequately reviewed before payment. By having clear permission levels in place, companies protect their financial data while still maintaining an efficient approval process.
Performance dates: Having due dates in an approval process keeps everyone on track and prevents delays in completion. Deadlines also help maintain efficient workflows, as each step of the approval process is anchored to a timeline. This ensures approval requests are processed promptly and reduces the risk of bottlenecks that slow down the entire process.
Performance dates are especially important when approvals are tied to larger project management milestones, RFP (request for proposal) deadlines, or other impactful circumstances. Setting deadlines helps prioritize internal tasks and imposes accountability for meeting them to further encourage efficiency.
Approval reporting: Approval reporting means tracking and recording all approvals during an approval process. Approvers provide visible feedback and insight into why certain decisions were made. This provides valuable transparency that stakeholders need for quality control purposes and, if necessary, to ensure compliance with regulations. Approval reporting during the process helps the original requestor keep track of their request and sets expectations about completion times.
Additionally, approval reports reveal trends in decision-making processes over time, giving organizations a better idea of how to streamline their approval processes in the future.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
Download the ebook to learn how to modernize your procurement strategy and realize the benefits of tech-enabled procurement.
Basic steps necessary for any approval process
Every approval process follows the same basic order: request, review, and approve. Depending on the type of approval process, the specifics of the workflow may vary. For instance, a purchase approval may need to go through multiple steps or approvals before completion, while a small-dollar invoice approval could be a single-step process.
In some organizations, approvals are broken down further, with different approvers at each spend or request level signing off on the request before it moves to the next level.
Some organizations set up automated workflows for approvals to include additional checks and balances, such as budget limits or time-based constraints. Regardless of the type of approval process, careful planning and clear communication are necessary to ensure that all stakeholders fully understand how their requests will be handled.
What is approval automation?
Approval automation is a digital process that streamlines the workflow associated with invoices and other requests. By automating the steps of the approval process, businesses reduce paperwork, simplify communication, and keep track of progress in real time. Automation also reduces potential errors by ensuring all necessary steps are followed in order, thus ensuring an invoice is accurate before it's approved for payment. This automated system allows businesses to complete their invoice processes more quickly and efficiently, freeing up time for more important tasks.
Types of approval processes
Although approval often brings spending to mind, it’s not the only place where process and automation benefit an organization. Many processes within a company may be systematized and automated for better results.
Creative: For marketing managers and creative teams, the multi-step content approval process can be complex, requiring careful planning to ensure all stakeholders are on board with the proposed strategy and budget. Such steps are especially important for creative campaigns because they usually involve larger amounts of money and have a lasting impact on customer perception.
A typical workflow for this type of approval process involves creating a detailed proposal outlining the objectives, potential risks, timeline, budget, and other relevant information. This is reviewed by the appropriate stakeholders, who decide if it should move forward. Marketing managers and strategists then lay out briefs and milestones for creative teams (content writers, video teams, graphic designers, and others) to execute the work.
Employee leave: Employee leave requests impact more than just the employee — they touch every aspect of the business, from production to finance. An approval process for employee leaves ensures that time off is properly documented. This helps to reduce disruption to workflow and helps managers establish contingency plans. A clear leave approval process also helps Finance plan budgets and compensation expenses.
Purchases: Purchase approval processes are important to ensure that every expenditure falls within the budget and is necessary for the organization. They start with a request (usually generated by an end user) and proceed through a series of spending and interdepartmental approvals. The purchase approval process is vital to ensuring spending stays within budget and within policy. Purchasing approvals help curb maverick spend and keep the indirect spend category (usually the most expensive for a business) under control.
Budgets: Annual budgeting is a company-wide planning and approval effort, requiring clear communication and expectations for all stakeholders. This process allocates budget pools and establishes budget limits and other constraints. The overall budget approval process is the first step in the purchasing approval process, as it sets up the parameters for spending and the policies under which funds may be expended.
Invoicing: Invoice approval ensures the company’s spending is tracked and all invoices are properly authorized. This usually involves comparing the invoice to the original purchase request or purchase order (PO). Invoice approval helps to prevent fraudulent purchases or unapproved changes to previously approved requests. Finalized approvals for invoices typically trigger the back-end payment and AP processes.
What is an invoice approval process?
An invoice approval process is a set of steps to authorize an invoice for payment. This process can involve multiple stakeholders, such as department heads, accounts payable leaders, the procurement team, and the CFO. They all work together to ensure that invoices are accurate and valid before they are paid.
The invoice approval process typically kicks off when the invoice arrives by mail or email, but the groundwork for successful approval starts as soon as a need is identified. Building an end-to-end process for invoice approval that captures data at initiation is vital to a streamlined and time-efficient accounting and procurement process.
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How to create an approval process
Planning out the details of your approval steps before implementing it is important. Planning ensures all stakeholders have a clear understanding of how the process works and what their responsibilities are. Consider integrating automation technologies to facilitate workflow management, save time, reduce workforce costs, and eliminate errors.
Use the following steps for building your first or next approval process:
Develop a written approval policy
If you don’t document a policy, you can’t enforce it. The most successful companies carefully document all policies, including their approval processes. For purchase approvals, policies detail who can approve orders, what information needs to be provided, and what happens if there is a discrepancy between the order and receipt. This ensures that all invoices are verified quickly, without errors or delays.
Consider your approval hierarchy
Dynamic approvals bring just the right amount of control to the procurement process. When outlining your approval workflow, consider the following:
- What users have access to purchasing privileges?
- What spending thresholds should trigger extra review or sign-off?
- How do geographic locations play into the approval process and spending limits?
- Should certain product categories require more oversight, security review, etc.?
- Do department-specific guidelines make sense for the approval process?
- Should there be extra review for new vendors or product categories?
By asking these questions, it’s possible to get a clearer picture of your process and how it will serve procurement within the company.
Establish a list of approvers
Having designated approvers ensures each request is reviewed by the right people in the right order. These defined approval actions help prevent any unnecessary delays or bottlenecks in the workflow. They also provide visibility into who has completed departmental approvals, which allows you to quickly track down stoppages when they occur.
For every approval process, determine which approvers should be involved in decisions, such as:
- Direct managers
- Department leaders
- Security
- Legal
- Finance
- Executives
The approval list and process may look different depending on the dollar value of the purchase or contract. For instance, a high-value contract may involve executive sign-off and potential security review. Small, routine purchases could be served through department-level approval to keep the process efficient and prevent higher-level approvers from becoming bogged down in every purchase.
Build an approval workflow
If requestors are asked to follow a policy, you need a path that leads them to success. Start by defining initial submission actions for each request. Build an intake form or use a purchasing platform that allows users to document their needs, outline possible solutions, and direct their requests through the proper channels.
A purchasing platform helps automate these workflows by allowing users to select what they need from within a predesigned, curated list of vendors or items. It can establish and enforce spending limits, approval routing, and permissions rules to reduce time-consuming manual approval processes common in request management.
Create a document retention system
Your approval process should include a document retention system that allows easy retrieval and review of current and past invoices. Centralizing invoicing and the associated contracts enables many benefits, such as easier contract research, negotiation, vendor selection and onboarding, and procurement management.
Steps in an effective purchase approval process
Invoice approvals are especially important for organizations since they impact the company's operational health and financial position. To maintain high confidence in your invoice approval process, you need proofs that verify the accuracy of the bill and goods received.
The purchase and invoicing process typically proceeds as follows:
- Purchase requisition: A purchase requisition is more than an order form, and it’s not the same as a purchase order. It’s the first piece of documentation in the invoice verification process. A complete purchase order should include:
- The vendor’s name and legal address
- A description of the goods or services purchased
- An itemized list of costs and items
- The total price with fees and shipping
This information will be used to draft the rest of the documentation, including the purchase order, vendor documentation, invoice, and payment.
- Approvals: After submittal, the request passes through internal approvals before it’s routed to the accounting department. This process helps ensure all appropriate checks have been completed and no fraudulent activities occur. Each purchase order follows the approval workflow and relevant reviewers assess any risks associated with the purchase before signing off.
- Purchase order: Accounting uses the initial request and subsequent departmental approvals as the basis for the purchase order (PO). Once complete, accounting transmits the PO to the vendor, who reviews it before signing off and confirming the purchase for fulfillment. For net terms purchases, the vendor provides an invoice outlining the repayment period. Otherwise, the total amount due is payable on receipt.
- Fulfillment and receipt: The vendor then fulfills the order receipt manifest or other fulfillment documentation. Upon delivery, the receiving department confirms that the goods have been delivered to your organization and that they match the purchase requisition, PO, and invoice. This process is called three-way matching.
- Payment: Once fulfillment and matching are complete, the invoice heads through final approval and gets scheduled for payment through the accounting department.
Software can automate every aspect of the invoice process, as well as create documentation for later reporting, tracking, and performance management.
Effectively manage approval workflows with Order.co
Process improvement isn’t just a nice concept — it’s a competitive advantage for growing companies. Order.co offers robust features that empower buyers with choice and managers with visibility and control combined with a dynamic automated approval process. With an intuitive interface, it allows users to find vendors and items that suit their needs without worrying about spending limits, vendor selection, or chasing after requests.
- Automated approvals by GL code, user, vendor, location, order subtotal, or cost center
- Improved purchasing turnaround with one-click approvals and automatic purchase initiation after approval
- Edit purchase requests at the line level to avoid back-and-forth communication and purchasing delays
- Centralized requests with notifications and alerts to avoid logjams
To put the power of easier buying and effortless approvals into your procurement workflows, get to know Order.co in a free demo.
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Initially, inefficiencies in procurement are merely a nuisance. But gradually, these simple manual processes compound to consume time, productivity, and money. Faster than most organizations realize, the pace of growth outstrips the ability of the accounting and procurement teams to keep up.
Automation is the best source of relief from these common business problems. Automation removes mundane tasks and leaves more time for accounts payable (AP) to tackle the problems that truly make an impact.
This article covers many aspects of procurement automation:
- What is procurement automation?
- The benefits of automating the procurement process
- The top five areas vital for procurement automation
- How Order.co helps companies achieve procurement automation
What is procurement automation?
Procurement automation uses technology to streamline traditional procurement processes such as approvals, accounting tasks, and payments. It helps procurement teams take control of their supply chain by optimizing every step of the procurement process, from requisitioning to ordering, fulfillment, and invoice processing.
The process works by digitizing data during invoice intake and using that information to create a centralized transaction history and processing database. The system performs checks, routes approvals, and streamlines payment, all within a single platform.
Streamlining purchasing through automation benefits businesses with complex procurement needs because it avoids bottlenecks caused by manual processes. It provides a reliable platform that reduces risks and costs while improving supplier management and eliminating repetitive tasks.
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Why should you automate your procurement process?
Automating your company’s procurement process saves time and money. From invoice processing to spend management and sourcing, automation improves cost savings and reduces the overall amount of time it takes to manage the entire process. The time and money saved by automating can fuel growth and give team members the bandwidth to tackle more important tasks.
Here are the top benefits of procurement automation:
Increased accuracy
Process automation streamlines invoice processing and avoids costly errors. Human error or miscommunications lead to delays in payment, incorrect data entry, duplicate payments, or misplaced paper invoices. Automated processes reduce the risk of these issues by eliminating manual data entry and creating standardized workflows for every purchase.
Reduced risk
Automation increases the transparency of the procurement process. This can ensure that all suppliers are evaluated consistently. It enables strategic sourcing and the use of known vendors that present a lower risk of fraud. Additionally, procurement automation software tracks performance over time to help mitigate risks.
Faster processing
Using procurement automation, stakeholders can:
- Quickly and accurately compare prices from different vendors for the best value
- Track approvals across multiple departments
- Automate the backend processes of ordering, reconciliation, payment, and spend management reporting
This streamlines the entire process to save time and reduce cycle times and burden on accounts payable.
Optimized costs
Procurement automation software improves cost efficiency by reducing manual labor and associated employee wages. Rather than expanding the department to handle increased procurement volume, the system scales to handle more procurement activity as the company grows and expands. Automation also improves communication between buyers and suppliers, leading to more efficient buying.
Choose the Right Procurement Technology With This Decision Matrix
There are A LOT of procurement softwares out there. Make sure you're choosing the right one for your business.
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Top 5 procurement processes every company must automate
End-to-end procurement automation is the gold standard for delivering more value within the procurement process while using fewer resources and less time.
These top five business processes to automate are a great place to begin:
1. Purchase requisition and approval
Manual purchase requisitions and approvals result in inefficient purchasing workflows and a weak security review process. But when you introduce an automated system for intake, stakeholders route requests through the appropriate form or a curated supply catalog. They no longer need procurement or finance help.
The automated request proceeds through the appropriate departmental reviews:
- Department head
- Legal
- Security
- Finance
Each departmental approver sees and responds to the request within the system, moving to the next stakeholder on the list without cumbersome emailed requests, time-consuming back-and-forth, or requests caught in limbo somewhere within the process.
Automating the approval process cuts days or weeks off time-to-close, allowing teams to request and receive the supplies and products they need more efficiently.
2. Sourcing
If organizations don’t create a streamlined sourcing process, stakeholders will select suppliers themselves. Automating the sourcing process for the organization enables buyers to get what they need while staying within the procurement policy.
Software helps this process by centralizing the list of preferred vendors for every type of purchase. It also creates necessary guardrails for self-service buying, including spending limits based on role, user, department, spend category, and more. It allows budgetary controls while reducing instances of maverick spending.
3. Invoice management
Invoices are one of the most common logjams in procurement. Manual processing creeps along at a rate of only a few dozen per day since each error and issue takes time to research and amend.
Automating invoice processing allows organizations to handle hundreds or even thousands of invoices per day. The automation process digitizes paper invoices, centralizes data for every vendor and purchase, automatically checks and reconciles invoices against the database, and codes them accurately to ensure your accounting system is a single source of truth.
With invoice management, there are no missed payments, redundant invoices, miscoded purchases, or mysteries lurking within your accounting system. The system automatically processes, reconciles, and codes documents to set them up for successful payment.
4. Payments
Processing manual payments, as with invoices, creates logjams and data entry errors. It also increases the potential for vendor fraud.
Automating the payment process enables accounts payable to quickly and accurately process payments, record the transactions, and store the data for later reporting activity, such as month-end close and financial reporting. A software solution gives AP real-time visibility into payments to reduce issues and reap benefits like early payment discounts.
5. Contract management
Contract execution for purchases is only the beginning of the journey. Once a contract is signed, the work of monitoring and upholding the contract begins.
Effective contract management ensures pricing and terms remain competitive. It bolsters supplier relationships and ensures consistent quality in procured supplies.
Manual contract management is expensive and low-visibility. Manual or poorly organized storage of contracts prevents companies from examining contract compliance.
Automating the contract management process through a central repository for documents is the most effective way to achieve effective contract management. Doing so enables notifications and updates, allowing stakeholders to know when contracts renew and creating suitable lead time to evaluate and negotiate for new contract terms.
The best software tools for procurement automation
The procurement system you choose significantly impacts your results. Look for a software tool with the flexibility to meet your individual business needs but structured enough to create a highly effective workflow that reduces costs while increasing productivity.
Select for these features when choosing a procurement software solution:
- Flexible setup to create ideal workflows and customization for your business
- Automatic general ledger (GL) coding for accuracy in accounting
- Access to thousands of vendors within the system, with features like favorite orders and order history
- Dynamic permissions for a variety of user tiers, roles, and needs
- Centralized contract information for vendor management and reporting
Order.co is equipped with all the features that provide end-to-end procurement automation for businesses of all sizes. To free your team from repetitive tasks and unnecessary rounds of account research, start by scheduling a demo of Order.co.
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Stakeholders need to move quickly to keep up with business demands. But how fast is too fast? When it comes to procurement, tactical sourcing offers speed—but it may leave more on the table than you realize.
Today we examine the tactical approach to sourcing and explore whether the speed advantages of this transactional approach outweigh the long-term benefits of strategic sourcing.
- What tactical sourcing is
- How tactical sourcing differs from strategic sourcing
- The pros and cons of tactical sourcing practices
- The benefits of adopting a strategic sourcing approach
- How technology helps businesses (even small businesses) source goods strategically
What is tactical sourcing?
Tactical sourcing is the practice of purchasing supplies or services quickly, with a minimal process focused on speed rather than on guidance from an organizational sourcing strategy or process.
In many organizations, tactical sourcing is the standard, relying on short-term fulfillment for most orders. While tactical sourcing has its place within an organization and is sometimes appropriate, exclusively leaning on transactional activity leaves money and leverage on the table when more strategic opportunities exist.
Differences between tactical vs. strategic sourcing
In tactical sourcing, purchasing decisions are based on the immediate need of the stakeholder or team. These individuals drive the procurement process by researching a supplier and arranging for a purchase order and delivery.
This type of sourcing occurs more frequently in startups or small organizations, as they don’t have a procurement team charged with conducting the necessary market research and spending analysis that lead to an established order process.
Strategic sourcing, on the other hand, takes the broader needs of the organization into account. It has a more detailed research and review process, usually involving an RFP and competitive analysis of several potential vendors. Strategic sourcing considers the development of strong supplier relationships and long-term contracts with volume pricing to achieve better results. It also typically involves departmental due diligence and approvals for Finance, Legal, and Security needs.
Instead of merely getting goods delivered quickly, strategic sourcing takes the time to meet both stakeholder and organizational needs more thoroughly and effectively.
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Pros and cons of tactical sourcing
Tactical sourcing can be a valuable tool for certain situations. However, using it as the sole procurement method leaves much to be desired for the company's long-term financial health. Often, too much tactical spend emerges out of a reactive approach to supply chain demands, so being aware of the larger implications of spot buys and transactional buying is crucial to long-term success.
Here are a few factors to consider when deciding on an approach for making a new purchase. They may also be helpful for determining procurement policies.
Pros of tactical sourcing:
- Fast: Transactional purchasing has a shorter due diligence timeline than strategic sourcing. Buyers find a supplier who offers the goods they need, research the product and pricing, arrive at an arrangement that works for both parties, and submit a purchase order. These purchases may not go through a Legal or Security review, which reduces closing time.
- Targeted: The buyer gets the specific product they want from their selected vendor. This form of purchasing may or may not include research on similar solutions. Often, stakeholders conduct research themselves and submit the chosen solution to a manager for sign-off.
- Agile: Transactional buying has fewer constraints than a strategic approach. Therefore it may be seen as more flexible than sourced procurement. While transactional buying offers no vendor guarantees about availability, many stakeholders simply move on to other known or new vendors if the original vendor can’t meet demand.
Cons of tactical sourcing:
- Higher cost: The transactional nature of tactical sourcing leaves out opportunities to negotiate for the best price. Because purchasing is a single event versus a long-term negotiated relationship, stakeholders often pay the list price for supplies, even when use patterns offer opportunities to negotiate on volume.
- Less stable: Transactional buying opens the possibility that goods will not be available when you need them. This forces stakeholders to look elsewhere to get supply needs met. While this may not be an issue depending on the type of supplies you’re purchasing, tactical sourcing for mission-critical or difficult-to-source supplies may introduce friction into your supply chain.
- Increased risks: The tactical sourcing approach often means stakeholders engage with unknown senders. The speed preference in tactical sourcing also means legal and security review and may take a backseat to transactional speed. These conditions make third-party risk more likely. Working with known and established vendors reduces this risk.
Questions to ask before conducting a tactical purchase
Understanding the urgency and motivation behind a transactional purchase can help stakeholders decide if a self-service, tactical procurement approach is best for a given scenario.
- What is the urgency of this purchase?
- Are there policies in place for tail spend or a spot-sourcing process?
- Is Procurement/Finance aware of the purchase? Has the spending been approved?
- Is this a direct (project-related) or indirect (overhead) spending request?
- Is there a larger total cost of ownership to consider in this purchase?
- How specialized is the needed supply or service?
- Why is the purchase coming up now? Is there a mitigating circumstance, such as a supplier shortfall with your regular supplier?
- What are the normal lead times for these supplies?
- How confident are you in contract negotiation for these items?
Taking time to contextualize the purchase in this way avoids taking a tactical approach when a more thorough, long-term strategy may yield better overall results.
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5 Reasons to choose strategic sourcing over tactical sourcing
There are instances where tactical sourcing is a useful tool. It may help stakeholders respond to an unanticipated need or supply chain issue. However, on the whole, the strategic approach to sourcing offers organizations more benefits that make the longer timeframe worth the effort.
- Strong supplier relationships
Building mutually beneficial relationships with vendors offers many advantages over a transactional approach. Committing to a supplier with a one-year or multi-year contract guarantees a certain level of service for buyers and an expected level of revenue for the vendor. Quality vendors who contract with an organization often go above and beyond to maintain the account by ensuring high-quality products and services.
- More buying leverage
The strategic sourcing approach requires stakeholders to give up a bit of agility. In return for consolidating purchases with a single vendor, stakeholders take advantage of better-negotiated pricing based on contract length, purchasing volume, logo recognition, and other factors. Strategic sourcing, therefore, offers better cash performance than transactional procurement approaches.
- Streamlined process
The transactional approach to buying requires you to start over for every purchase. With a strategic sourcing approach, stakeholders find many opportunities to streamline the purchasing process. This may look like a more in-depth Legal and Security review that only has to occur once or an integrated payment process to automate accounts payable activities.
- Lower third-party risk
Strategic sourcing creates strong relationships with known vendors. This reduces procurement risks such as item quality issues, delivery delays, security concerns, or procurement fraud. Strategic procurement offers organizations the chance to conduct supply chain management that secures the supply base and enables supplier performance analysis.
- Inventory guarantees
Building a strategic supplier relationship management approach avoids some pitfalls of supply procurement. It reduces lead times for critical supplies and ensures the items you need are there when you need them. Contracting with a preferred supplier for procurement gives your vendors visibility into demand, allowing them to balance inventory with anticipated needs and ensure quick availability.
How Order.co enables strategic sourcing
Even if your organization doesn’t currently have a procurement department or a supply chain management process, procurement software creates opportunities for more strategic partnerships and purchasing automation.
Procurement software like Order.co allows stakeholders flexibility in sourcing and purchasing supplies while providing better visibility and pre-negotiated pricing from a list of approved vendors. Using Order.co, organizations begin their journey to better procurement without starting from scratch. Order.co offers:
- Centralized buying features that allow stakeholders across the organization to get the supplies they need from a preferred list of vendors
- Purchase automation and workflows that enable fast approval and processing for requisitions
- Back office capabilities to take the burden off accounts payable and automate many activities in the purchase-to-pay process
- Real-time spend data to help contextualize tail spent and optimize cash efficiency
These features are delivered within a central platform that benefits organizations of every size and stage.
If your organization is ready to leave behind the drawbacks of tactical sourcing and reap the benefits of the strategic sourcing approach, schedule a demo of the Order.co platform to learn more.
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